Mike Johns was anticipating a rather normal trip to the Los Angeles airport when he ordered a Waymo cab last month. However, what happened next was anything but normal. No sooner had he gotten into the self-driving taxi than the vehicle began looping the parking lot, inexplicably driving around in constant circles that left the poor passenger disoriented.
A worried Johns promptly contacted Waymo Customer Support to explain his predicament. His ordeal lasted for about five minutes before the Waymo team managed to gain remote control of the errant Jaguar I-Pace robotaxi. The car eventually got Johns to LAX without further issue, but he was understandably left unimpressed by the entire episode.
“Where’s the empathy? Where’s the human connection to this?” John said of the weird experience. “It’s just, again, a case of today’s digital world. A half-baked product and nobody meeting the customer, the consumers, in the middle.”
In a chat with CBS News, Waymo stated it had traced the issue to a software glitch, which it has since addressed to prevent future occurrences. To its credit, the company did not charge Mike for the airport ride.
California-based Waymo continues to lead the charge in the self-driving robotaxi race. However, Johns’ experience and a few other incidents highlighted below prove there is still room for improvement before autonomous taxis can be regarded as a viable alternative to other conventional modes of city transport.
Confused Stand-Off
There is no doubt Google’s Waymo robotaxis are pre-programmed to handle a variety of different traffic scenarios. However, it is impossible to cover every possible outcome. In October 2024, a viral TikTok video showed how a gaggle of Waymo taxis caused their own bewildering traffic jam. The incident unfolded on a narrow San Francisco street, a notorious battleground for even the most seasoned human drivers.
One Waymo, attempting a daring maneuver around an Amazon truck, found itself face-to-face with another Waymo approaching from the opposite direction. But the drama didn’t stop there. Two more Waymos joined the fray, effectively trapping the Amazon truck and creating a comical yet concerning bit of gridlock.
The drama continued for several minutes, with the robotaxis, overwhelmed by the unexpected encounter, seemingly unsure how to proceed. Eventually, one of the Waymo cabs “seized the initiative” and successfully made its way through the choke-hold, freeing up the other vehicles.
Wayward Waymo
Here’s yet another vivid example spotlighting the unpredictability that even the most advanced AI has yet to figure out how to solve. Last year in Arizona, a Waymo robotaxi came upon a construction zone. Its solution? Proceed down a lane with oncoming traffic. The illegal maneuver was spotted by a cop, who promptly turned on his cruiser’s emergency lights in an attempt to pull it over. That did not work, at least not immediately. Instead, the Waymo proceeded right through an intersection before coming to a halt.
Bodycam footage captured the officer approaching the unoccupied Jaguar. The officer’s suspicions were confirmed when the vehicle’s window lowered, revealing an empty interior. However, the officer was able to communicate with a Waymo support employee via remote assistance. Local media reports revealed no citations were issued due to the police department’s inability to legally charge a computer system.
The Waymo Honking Wars
Waymo’s self-driving Jaguars come equipped with a safety feature that has them honk when a car backs up too close to them, in case the driver doesn’t seem the robotaxi. It makes sense, but it also led to quite the commotion in a San Francisco neighbourhood summer 2023. The problem? These robotaxis return to a central parking lot at 4:00 a.m. where they’re all backing into or out of parking spots, leading to a chaotic symphony of honking as they jostle for position and free space.
Residents were understandably irate, unable to sleep due to the unexpected dawn chorus of horn-y autonomous vehicles. Waymo acknowledged the issue, apologized to the community, and implemented a fix to address the issue. The company even offered free ice cream to the aggrieved residents to soothe frayed nerves.
Robotaxi Takes Concrete Dip
Not Waymo this time. In a bit of a muddy mishap, a Cruise self-driving car took a wrong turn and promptly found itself stuck in wet concrete. The incident, which occurred in San Francisco, saw the Chevrolet Bolt EV-based vehicle stray into a construction zone and become firmly embedded in the freshly poured material.
The incident was caught on camera by several passersby and shared widely on social media, attracting some unflattering comments aimed at GM, the majority owner of the robotaxi company. Luckily, the situation didn’t escalate beyond a minor embarrassment for Cruise. The company quickly intervened, retrieving the wayward robotaxi from its gooey prison.
Wireless Connectivity Fiasco
While we’re talking Cruise robotaxis, here’s another little incident from August 2024, when a fleet of 10 autonomous vehicles suddenly ground to a halt in San Francisco’s North Beach, backing up traffic considerably. Social media posts showed multiple Cruise driverless vehicles stopped in the middle of Grant Avenue with their hazard lights blinking.
This lasted for about 20 minutes before the robotaxis suddenly resumed motion and continued on their way. In response to a social media post on X, Cruise stated “wireless connectivity issues” were to blame for the sudden immobilization of its vehicles.
Ironically, this occurred only a day after the California Public Utilities Commission greenlit 24/7 paid robotaxi services for Cruise and Waymo in San Francisco. In any case, Cruise will no longer have to worry about embarrassing snafus like this in future. In December 2024, GM announced it would no longer fund work on self-driving robotaxis. Instead, Cruise would be absorbed into a different department focusing on driver assistance technology.
Waymo Taxi Torched by Frenzied Mob
This one definitely has a dark ring to it. The 2024 Lunar New Year celebrations in San Francisco’s Chinatown took a violent turn when a raucous crowd descended upon a Waymo self-driving car passing through the district. The scene unfolded in a rather disturbing manner, with a mob surrounding the vehicle and smashing the windows.
Eventually, the robotaxi was set ablaze when a stray firework landed in the interior. Thankfully, a Waymo spokesperson confirmed “the vehicle was not transporting any riders and there were no injuries reported.” Pictures of the aftermath of the attack were shared on social media by the San Francisco Fire Department, with a statement noting the cause was being investigated.
There was no mention of any arrests made in connection with what marked the most destructive attack on driverless vehicles in the U.S. The incident also highlighted the limited ability of robotic cars to make judgment calls in the moment.
An Unforeseen Peril of Robo-rides
Wrapping up this list is an incident highlighting an unexpected danger of self-driving cars, an issue that demands urgent attention from the principal parties involved in autonomous-vehicle adoption. While initially hailed as a safer option for passengers trying to avoid creepy Uber drivers, it turns out these self-driving vehicles can create new vulnerabilities, especially for women.
In this case, a woman in a Waymo robotaxi was harassed by two men who blocked the car’s path, screaming at her and demanding her number. There is no way for passengers to override the system manually, and so she felt trapped and helpless, unable to do anything apart from capturing the incident on her mobile phone.
Thankfully, the altercation ended without further escalation as the men moved aside, and the robotaxi continued its journey. However, the scary event lays bare the potential for criminals to exploit the limitations of self-driving technology to endanger passengers. There urgently needs to be a re-evaluation of autonomous vehicle design and implementation to prioritize passenger safety in all scenarios.
We should note it’s not all bad news: in early January 2025, a suspect in a grocery store robbery in Los Angeles tried using a Waymo robotaxi as a get away car. Unlike the incident in Arizona last July, this time the Jaguar pulled over when the cops tracked it down a few miles from the scene of the crime. The suspect was taken into custody.
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