Vehicle stopped in heavy traffic and prevented passengers from exiting, causing tension and going viral on social media
Passengers using a Waymo autonomous taxi in Austin, Texas, experienced tense moments when the vehicle stopped in heavy traffic on one of the city’s most dangerous roads and prevented them from getting out, as reported by the Chron.
The incident, reminiscent of scenes from the series Black Mirror, occurred when the self-driving car came to a stop in a junction lane under the MoPac Expressway, leaving the occupants trapped for several minutes while traffic flowed at high speed around them.
“We kept saying, ‘We’re on a highway, please move the car,’” Becky Navarro reported in a video posted on TikTok, which has already surpassed 500,000 views.
According to Navarro, “cars were honking at us, and the car wouldn’t move. It wouldn’t let us out.” She appears in the video walking along the roadside with another passenger, while the stopped vehicle is visible in the background.
Navarro said that after about five minutes, she managed to exit the vehicle. She also mentioned that the car had passed the original destination and was heading toward downtown.
Later in the video, the car seems to resume operation and speeds off, passing the former passengers who are walking along the road.
“For those who don’t know, this is one of the scariest streets in Austin. Parking on Mopac is a deadly trap. That’s my fear,” commented one user on TikTok, as reported by the Chron.
According to Navarro, the doors were only unlocked after she threatened Waymo’s customer support with a live broadcast on TikTok. The company, on the other hand, claims the situation was caused by passenger operational error.
“During the trip, the passengers in the video pressed the ‘stop’ button, and the vehicle stopped on the shoulder of a road with a sidewalk at 48 km/h,” said a Waymo representative in a statement to The Post.
“The passengers could have exited safely at any time, and at no point did our Passenger Support team remotely unlock the door for them,” the spokesperson added.
Waymo emphasized that its users have the option to pause the ride and exit the vehicle whenever they wish.
This was not the first incident involving Waymo’s autonomous vehicles, which also operate in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin. In another case, entrepreneur Mike Johns faced difficulties trying to reach Scottsdale Airport in Arizona when the self-driving car began driving in circles instead of heading toward the destination.
“I have a flight to catch. Why is this thing spinning in circles? I’m getting dizzy,” Johns complained in a video posted on LinkedIn.
After the emergency call, Waymo’s support team was able to take remote control of the vehicle, allowing the passenger to arrive on time for his flight.
Remote assistance was also crucial on another occasion when Los Angeles police intercepted a Waymo vehicle that had been stolen during a supermarket robbery.
@beckypearlatx Zero stars for waymo. When we pulled up next to Deep Eddy Cabaret and the waymo didn’t let us out and instead kept going the wrong direction towards downtown we said “please let us out here” it wouldn’t let us out so it headed east, turned around back towards deep eddy cabaret and then STOPPED in a horrible spot to stop. We kept asking for it to move and customer service refused. #waymo #tiktok ♬ original sound – Becky Levin Navarro
Source and images: NY Post / TikTok @beckypearlatx. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
