A recent incident involving a Waymo self-driving vehicle, a software glitch, and an unhappy customer has reignited debates about the safety and reliability of self-driving technology.
Mike Johns, a passenger in a Waymo driverless car, reported an unnerving experience when the vehicle he was being driven in allegedly circled a parking lot repeatedly, which he said delayed his ride to the airport.
According to Johns’ LinkedIn post last month, the incident occurred on a Monday when he hailed a Waymo vehicle for a ride. “Why is this thing going in a circle? I’m getting dizzy,” Johns said in a video, which captured national headlines this week.
In the video, which was taken inside the malfunctioning vehicle, Johns said, “It’s circling around a parking lot. I’ve got my seatbelt on, I can’t get out of the car. Has this been hacked? What’s going on?”
In the same post, he described the experience in a written portion of his post as feeling “like a scene in a sci-fi thriller” and said he was frustrated with Waymo’s customer service, which he labeled as “automated and ran by AI.” He said he received no immediate follow-up from the company after the incident.
However, according to information provided by a Waymo spokesperson to NTD, the incident occurred on Dec. 9 and has since been addressed through a regularly scheduled software update.
The company said that the rider was delayed for just over five minutes before the vehicle completed his trip. The spokesperson also said that the rider was not charged for the trip and that they had attempted to contact the rider, leaving a voicemail for follow-up.
The recent incident comes in the wake of Waymo’s first-ever recall, issued in February 2024. At the time, Waymo recalled 444 autonomous vehicles after two of its self-driving cars struck the same towed pickup truck in Phoenix in December 2023. The company said that the incidents occurred at low speeds and no injuries were reported.
Waymo, owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, has been developing self-driving technology for over 15 years. According to the company’s mission statement, its goal is to “be the world’s most trusted driver,” which they say is complex and “requires solving some of the toughest and most impactful AI and ML challenges of our time.”
Despite some setbacks, Waymo has been expanding its services. In May, the company announced its robotaxis would be available to carry passengers through most of the Phoenix area. Waymo vehicles have been offering rides to fare-paying passengers in Phoenix since late 2020.
In a separate incident reported on Thursday, a man was arrested in downtown Los Angeles for allegedly attempting to hijack a Waymo self-driving taxi around 1 a.m. near the intersection of South Hill Street and Fifth Street, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Police reportedly had to use a riot shield to approach the vehicle when the man refused to exit.