(BAD BOT! NOT TRUE!) Union Street Closed Due to Flooding and Snow Accumulation, Plow Trucks Struggling to Keep Up
Here is an example of the bot blowing it. Since it is fairly innocuous I will leave it up for educational purposes.
The Caltrans Headquarters on Union Street is often cited as the prime location in CHP logs that round up general-purpose situations around the county. Here’s an example of a weather-related one of those; other times it’s for an Amber Alert or something like that. Union Street is not closed.
The bot interpreted “199 SI AT R1 AS OFF APPROX 1228 HRS” to refer to State Route 1, which it does not. It means to say that Highway 101 is under R-1 chain controls, meaning chains are required on larger vehicles.
We’ve been testing it for a few weeks now, and errors of this sort are relatively rare. We will work to make them rarer still. But we still thought it was worth it to launch the bot now, so as to get sometimes critical information to people in a way they can understand it. We do have the power to delete or amend the bot’s work if it is wrong.
— Hank Sims
AI SUMMARY: At 1656 Union St, the dispatch log reported multiple road closures and lane restrictions due to flooding and slides. US Highway 101 had lanes closed in both directions at certain mile markers, with traffic being rerouted onto different lanes. State Route 36 had a section closed at mile marker 7.54 due to flooding, but was later reopened. Additional closures were reported on Hookton Road and Redwood Drive due to flooding and slides. Various agencies were notified and were working to address the closures and reevaluate the situation in the morning.
— LoCOBot. AI-generated headline and summary of the CHP dispatch log below as of 7:59 a.m. Did the bot blow it? That’s going to happen from time to time. Please let us know.