“Not the Waymo standoff”: Three robotaxis stop traffic, blocking a San Francisco street
“Waymo needs to rack up fines for doing this.”
Waymo’s reputation took another hit after a TikToker posted footage of three self-driving vehicles stuck in a kind of “standoff” situation. It appeared that two of the cars had hit each other on a San Francisco street and activated emergency mode, then a third approaching the scene stopped several feet away.
The incident resulted in a local traffic jam, with human drivers unable to leave their homes.
On Sunday, TikToker @chii_rinna posted her footage of the accident scene, gaining over 3.8 million views by Wednesday. All three cars were emitting some kind of alarm, with the two touching bumpers flashing their emergency lights. A third vehicle faced the other two with spinning indicators signaling that it had detected a problem.
@chii_rinnaNot the Waymo Standoff in San Francisco#waymo#ai#sanfrancisco#selfdrivingcar#rideshare♬ original sound – chii_rinna
“They’re causing a traffic jam,” said the TikToker.
“Cars is stuck,” she added as she panned the camera around her. “This is so funny.”
In a follow-up video posted the same day, a Waymo worker in an emergency vest tinkered in one car’s interior. Eventually, one of them started to move down the street again, but it’s unclear how long it took to clear up the traffic jam.
@chii_rinnaReplying to @Fedorblt♬ original sound – chii_rinna
According to Google, which owns Waymo, the robotaxis can detect a collision and alert a Support team when they do. The alarm and spinning lights signal that the vehicle knows something is amiss.
“The Waymo vehicle may continue driving to reach a safe spot to stop, but look for our dome light signal, which indicates that the Waymo Driver is aware an event has occurred,” the support page reads.
While Waymo claims its self-driving cars are safer than human-operated ones, high-profile incidents of annoying and sometimes unsafe behaviors continue to plague the company. Just last week, another video spread showing one of their taxis, full of passengers, entering a police standoff area.
Still incapable of complex thought, these “autonomous” vehicles continue to struggle with novel situations. Speaking with the San Francisco Chronicle, Waymo officials “characterized the incident as a teachable moment” for their taxis.
Events like these, combined with widespread distrust of the technology, have turned much of the public against Waymo and similar companies. On TikTok, commenters widely railed against the robotaxis, with some hoping they will be illegal someday. At the very least, there should be consequences.
“This is why Waymo’s need to be outlawed,” wrote @heatherhz, “if there was an emergency vehicle that needed to get through, people could lose their lives over these self driving cars being in the way.”
“Waymo needs to rack up fines for doing this just like a human powered car would,” @kaitdashian suggested.
This video certainly isn’t fueling confidence in the tech. TikToker @saintrich_ wondered how they could have “all those cameras and sensors and they still found a way to hit each other?”
“32 cameras on each car and they still managed to hit each other. Also. Shouldn’t they immediately call for help, instead of having a deadlock?” asked @davidpatrickson.