Honest question because I have zero interest in this stuff with no kids, but how easy are parental controls to bypass these days? They used to be trivially easy for any kid to bypass.

You’re right, because kids have been shown to listen to the parents all the time and have never had problems handling adult situations when their parents aren’t around 100% of the time. Even amazing parents raise kids who do stupid shit. And once these amazing parents aren’t around their kid 100% of the time, those kids are still kids and will make bad decisions. This is especially true when it is something that literally every person around them is doing (adults, kids, friends, celebrities).

there would have been no news at all here if these cars did it as rarely as normal cars.

Bullshit. There are news stories every day of Teslas catching on fire. Do you have any idea how often normal cars catch on fire? There are news stories because it is a new technology that people either hate because they hate EVs and love gas cars, or because they hate Elon Musk. Yes, there are legitimate reasons to hate Tesla (Elon and the unopenable doors that trap people in), but EVs catch on fire statistically less often than gas cars, but you NEVER see stories about gas cars on fire and see tons of stories about Teslas.

Also, there are 6 cases they could find of this happening on Waymos. Do you have any idea how many millions of miles these Waymos have driven? 200 million miles. They are operating 24/7 in 10 major cities and have been for multiple years. Their home base in my city is right by my house, and do you know how many Waymos I’ve seen stopped on the side of the road, either broken down or stopped for being confused? None so far. Do you know how many cars I have seen stopped in the middle of the road or an intersection, either because they broke down, or had a flat tire, or the driver was on the phone, or the driver missed a turn and was trying to do a 5 point turn in heavy traffic instead of going 1 block farther and then turning around? A lot. Multiple times I’ve seen cops pulled over directing traffic away from a stalled car that people were trying to push out of the way. What is different from that cop using his time to do that versus getting in and driving it out of the way?

Firefighters have to deal with this all the time.

https://www.motorbiscuit.com/can-fire-trucks-push-cars-reach-burning-home/

https://www.firerescue1.com/video-fdny-firefighters-miss-fire-while-moving-illegally-parked-suv

https://www.kentlive.news/news/kent-news/what-firefighters-allowed-your-car-2386606

Now tell me how many times a cop or firefighter had to move a normal car out of the way in an emergency situation.

Do you think normal cars don’t occasionally break down in the middle of traffic and need to be moved out of the way by cops?