A Los Angeles tech professional nearly missed his flight home after a Waymo self-driving taxi became trapped in an endless loop around an Arizona parking lot, raising new questions about autonomous vehicle reliability.
Unexpected ride takes a spin
Mike Johns captured his unusual experience in a viral social media video that has garnered over two million views. “Why is this thing going in a circle? I’m getting dizzy,” Johns can be heard saying in the footage as the self-driving vehicle continued its circular pattern.
“It’s circling around a parking lot. I’ve got my seatbelt on, I can’t get out of the self-driving car. Has this been hacked? What’s going on?” He reported while trapped inside the vehicle.
Customer service concerns
Beyond the technical malfunction, Johns expressed frustration with the response to his predicament. “Where’s the empathy? Where’s the human connection to this?” he told CBS News Los Angeles. “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.”
The incident raised particular concerns for Johns about whether he was even speaking to a human representative during the ordeal.
Waymo’s response
When asked for comment, Waymo provided additional details about the ride. They stated that the delay, which occurred in mid-December, lasted just over five minutes before the car continued to drive Johns to the airport. They clarified that he was not charged for the trip and that the “looping” issue was resolved through a software update.
Waymo also mentioned that they have attempted to contact Johns, leaving him a voicemail to follow up on his experience.
The incident comes at a sensitive time for Waymo’s Los Angeles operations, following a recent attempted hijacking of one of their autonomous electric Jaguars in downtown LA.
Johns, despite working in the tech industry himself, remains skeptical about returning to the service until he’s confident such issues have been resolved. “Human-less, right? Human-less,” he said. “That’s the ghost in the shell, right?”
