Waymo is helping the US Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) train first responders in interacting safely with autonomous vehicles.

Law enforcement officers, firefighters, emergency medical services and tow-truck operators will be given the knowledge and tools to interact safely with emerging technologies such as autonomous vehicles.

The GHSA and Waymo have created an online safety training course (www.ghsa.org/resource-hub/waymo-first-responder-av-training) for first responders interacting with Waymo vehicles.

First responders need to have the knowledge and tools to interact safely with autonomous vehicles (AVs), especially when there is no driver.

To ensure first responders feel confident approaching and interacting with autonomous vehicles on the roadways, with or without passengers, Waymo’s first-responder outreach team leads hands-on vehicle trainings with local fire, police and EMS organisations in advance of opening their service to public riders. This complimentary online instruction supplements the in-person training and safety resources available in cities where Waymo vehicles are deployed.

“Waymo and other AVs can unlock tremendous safety and mobility benefits for everyone,” said GHSA CEO Jonathan Adkins. “We owe it to our first responders – the first line of defence when there’s a problem on the road – to make sure they are prepared to safely interact with these vehicles.”

Rob Patrick, emergency response manager at Waymo (waymo.com) and a retired California Highway patrol commander, added: “Waymo understands the important role of first responders in keeping our roadways safe and we value our relationship with those teams in the cities in which we operate. We are committed to ensuring that first responders feel prepared and confident when working around our vehicles.”

The free online training is divided into three modules:

• Introduce Waymo’s fully autonomous vehicles, show where they currently operate and explain how the vehicles respond to police and emergency operations.
• Provide detailed instructions on how to approach and interact with a Waymo autonomous vehicle.
• Explain critical safety procedures for first responders who need to extricate passengers or disconnect a vehicle’s battery.  

After completing the self-paced online training, participants will have the opportunity to take an online quiz and download a certificate of completion after passing the quiz.

In addition to the online Waymo training, the GHSA has developed a first responder autonomous vehicle resource page (www.ghsa.org/autonomous-vehicle-av-first-responder-resources) that provides information about where AVs are being deployed and includes links to first responder resources available from other developers such as Aurora and Zoox.

Waymo’s emergency response guide and law enforcement interaction protocols can be found at waymo.com/firstresponders.