Waymo self-driving car glitches
A man has sworn off using self-driving taxis after becoming trapped in a vehicle that was meant to take him to the airport.
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An American man has sworn not to use self-driving taxis after a nightmare scenario in California.
US tech expert Mike Johns ordered a self-driving taxi through Google’s Waymo app in December. Rather than taking him to his destination, the car repeatedly drove in circles in an office car park.
MORE: Waymo self-driving taxi tested
Johns posted video of the incident on LinkedIn, asking whether the autonomous vehicle was hacked.
“It felt like a scene in a sci-fi thriller,” he said. “My Waymo experience sucked.”
Video of the incident shows Mr Johns sat in the back of the Waymo car while it drives in tight circles around a carpark. Johns recorded himself on a call to Waymo’s customer assistance line asking “why is this thing going in a circle? I’m getting dizzy”.
It’s circling around a parking lot. I got my seat belt on. I can’t get out of the car. Has this been hacked? What’s going on? I feel like I’m in the movies. Is somebody playing a joke on me?”
Worse still, Johns had a plane to catch later that day.
People commented on the post saying his experience was “extremely scary”, that early adopter pain is real, and that “the only reason autonomous taxis exist is greed”.
MORE: Robotaxis driving closer to reality
The unhappy passenger told CBS News Los Angeles that the self-driving car was “a half-baked product and nobody meeting the customer, the consumers, in the middle”.
We tested Waymo’s service last year and came away impressed – aside from a brief traffic jam caused by Waymo cars that got too close to other vehicles.
Having established the world’s first paid autonomous taxi service in San Francisco, Waymo has expanded its autonomous taxis to other areas including Los Angeles and Arizona.
The driverless ride-sharing service is set to shift from modified Jaguar I-Pace electric cars to a new generation of vehicles made by Geely’s Zeekr electric car brand.
Originally published as Waymo self-driving car glitches
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