Waymo Robotaxi Malfunction Traps Passenger in Dizzying Loop, Raising Concerns About AI-Driven Transportation

We talked to the guy who was stuck in a Waymo robotaxi on a dizzying loop | TechCrunch

A month ago, a video circulated around social media of a Waymo robotaxi stuck in a roundabout loop - an isolated incident with no passengers in the vehicle, according to Waymo. Apparently, it wasn't a one-time thing. Around the same time, in another Waymo robotaxi headed for the Phoenix airport, Mike Johns, founder and CEO of AI consultancy Digital Mind State, also found himself circling a parking lot, unable to stop the car or get out. The videos were posted within a couple of days of each other. Waymo has not confirmed whether the incidents happened at the same time or if there were other similar loopy incidents, but says it issued software updates to fix the issue. Johns was stuck in the Waymo going through a loop for "under seven minutes," but he says it "felt like forever," particularly as he feared he would miss his flight and questioned whether the car had been hacked. It was his second time in a Waymo robotaxi. A Waymo spokesperson confirmed the incident. "This event occurred in early December and has since been addressed by a regularly scheduled software update. The vehicle completed the rider's trip and they were not charged for the ride." A Waymo customer support specialist called into the car without Johns's prompting, he told TechCrunch. The agent said she had received a notification that his car "might be experiencing some routing issue," according to a video of the incident Johns shared. To solve the issue, the specialist asked Johns to open his Waymo app and "tap 'My Trip' in the lower left corner of [the] app," to which Johns responded, "Can't you just do it? You should be able to handle it, take over the car, you don't need my phone." A fair question to ask, given that such a takeover is ostensibly what a remote assistant is for. "I don't have an option to control the car," she confessed. Waymo tells TechCrunch that its rider support agents are different from its fleet response team, which is what the autonomous driving software (known as the "Waymo Driver") taps for help if it encounters an unfamiliar situation on the road. Rider support agents, like the one Johns spoke with, can respond to outreach from riders -- riders can get in touch through the Waymo app and a call button in the vehicle. They can also "initiate contact if the Waymo vehicle's diagnostics indicate such a need." But they don't interact directly with the vehicle's driving software. In the end, Johns says, following the support agent's directions in the app got the robotaxi back on course. Johns said Waymo compensated him for the ride and directed him to its website to file a complaint. The company did not reach out to him immediately after the incident, but did so this week after his video got picked up by major news outlets. "My biggest thing is in this digital age that we're in, we're so disconnected from the human factor," Johns told TechCrunch. "I'm all for AI. I'm at that forefront between AI, automation, robotics, but there still is a human factor." Missy Cummings, a professor of autonomy and robotics at George Mason University and former senior safety advisor to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, says that this incident, though small, demonstrates a larger issue that AV companies should solve for. "In any robotic system, there's a big red button somewhere that, if pressed, that thing will disengage," Cummings told TechCrunch, noting that the button could be hidden somewhere in the car that's difficult to get to. "And I'll tell you that's a really important security measure going forward because what happens if the car...has been hacked by someone and there's a passenger inside the vehicle? You definitely need the ability to remotely stop everything in the car so they can get out." Waymo told TechCrunch that, in fact, "Waymo vehicles have a pull over button available to riders at all times," located in the app and on the passenger screen, but Johns said the support agent didn't tell him about this, and he didn't see it. Cummings also noted that asking the rider to be an active participant in the fix by using their app is "error-prone" due to potential connectivity issues and non-user friendly apps. "I was just blown away that she was trying to get him to go into his phone to bring some resolution to this when this is clearly an urgent situation that needs to be attended to right away," Cummings said. "She should have said, 'Look, pull up the left corner of the mat on the floor and you'll see a red button. Hit that button.'"

LA Man Says He Almost Missed His Flight After Waymo Drove Him in Circles

A Los Angeles man who was trying to make his way to an Arizona airport in one of Waymo's driverless taxis last month got stuck in an incredibly frustrating loop where the car just traveled in circles. The man even says he almost missed his flight back home. And while Waymo tells Gizmodo the issue has been resolved, it's still not clear what went wrong. Mike Johns, a tech entrepreneur in L.A., wrote about his experience on LinkedIn, even including a video of the ordeal. That video spread far and wide on social media platforms. "My Monday was fine till i got into one of Waymo's 'humanless' cars. I get in, buckle up (safety first) and the saga begins," wrote Johns. "This autonomous vehicle said to heck with GPS, the car just went around in circles, eight circles at that." Johns, who didn't immediately respond to a message sent through his website, says he wondered if someone was pranking him. "Is someone pulling a prank, is this car hacked? It [felt] like a scene in a sci fi thriller. My Waymo experience sucked. Mind you I was on my way to the airport and nearly missed my flight. I'll keep it old fashion and just Lyft or Uber," Johns continued. Waymo, which is owned by Google's parent company Alphabet, told Gizmodo the rider wasn't charged for his trip and has attempted to contact Johns but they haven't connected yet. Waymo also emphasizes the circling lasted about five minutes. Johns told ABC15 Arizona that he was frustrated by the experience and "It's like people are the experiment." Johns also told CBS News Los Angeles that he didn't like the attitude of the technical support person (or robot) he was encountering and wasn't sure if he was talking to a human or AI during the circling. "Where's the empathy? Where's the human connection to this?" Johns told CBS News. "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." This isn't the first time that Waymo cars have gotten very confused and seemingly gotten stuck in loops. Back in December, auto news outlet Jalopnik reported on a Waymo vehicle that appeared to get stuck in a roundabout in Arizona, circling at least 37 times. That vehicle didn't have a passenger at the time. There have also been more disturbing incidents with driverless cars, like the time a Waymo hit a cyclist in San Francisco back in Feb. 2024. There was also the time in May 2024 when a Waymo vehicle hit a telephone poll, prompting a recall of the company's mapping tech. Johns compared his experience to a science fiction movie, which isn't uncommon when people experience strange things with new technology. And it can be difficult to tell what went wrong from the passenger's perspective. When I took a Waymo in Los Angeles a couple of months ago, the vehicle darted off just as I was about to get inside. The car decided that I should instead be picked up in a turn lane, a much more dangerous decision that a human driver probably wouldn't have made. But this is certainly the future, if only because without drivers companies like Waymo can undercut the price of services like Uber and Lyft. At least until they put human drivers fully out of business. At that point, they can just raise the price like they did after Uber decimated the taxi industry. Time marches on.

'Dizzy' driverless taxi passenger nearly misses flight after cab gets stuck driving in circles

A "dizzy" robotaxi passenger nearly missed his flight after his cab started driving around in circles. Mike Johns was attempting to catch a flight from an Arizona airport and hailed a Waymo driverless taxi last month. However, his trip was quickly derailed and he nearly missed his flight. "I get in, buckle up (safety first) and the saga begins," the tech entrepreneur wrote on LinkedIn. His car appeared to get confused and started driving in circles around a car park, completing eight loops, according to Mr Johns. He spoke to customer services in a video he recorded of the incident, but was told they couldn't remotely stop the car. "I've got a flight to catch, why is this thing going in a circle, I'm getting dizzy!" he told the customer services agent. "I'm really really sorry, Mike," the agent told him. The taxi's steering wheel can be seen spinning as the car manoeuvres around a small area of the car park over and over again. "Why has this happened to me on a Monday?" Mr Johns asked in the video. Mr Johns was asked to try and stop the car using his Waymo app, after the customer services agent said she didn't have an option to control the car remotely. Although the video doesn't make it clear how the problem was resolved, Mr Johns was ultimately driven to the airport by the taxi where he made his flight. Read more from Sky News: Soldier who exploded Cybertruck 'used AI to plan attack' Meta scraps third party fact checkers Grooming gangs scandal: What happened According to Waymo, which spoke to Sky News' partner NBC News, he wasn't charged for his trip. The issue that prompted his vehicle to drive in loops has been addressed by a regularly scheduled software update, Waymo said. Waymo taxis are a fleet of driverless cabs spreading across the US, having started off in a Google laboratory. They're now in Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco and Austin. The company says the taxis are designed to increase road safety and have had 78% fewer crashes that caused an injury compared to human-driven cars. The taxis have now driven more than 33 million miles without drivers, and have made headlines in the process. In August, the taxis went viral after frustrated residents set up a livestream to monitor their constant honking in a car park. "It's very distracting during the work day, but most importantly it wakes you up at four in the morning," said one resident who lived next to the car park. At the time, Waymo confirmed to Sky News the honking problem was resolved after weeks of complaints from the sleepless residents. "We've updated the software, so our electric vehicles should keep the noise down for our neighbours moving forward," they said.

Tech entrepreneur trapped in circling self-driving car on way to...

A Los Angeles tech entrepreneur became trapped in an unhinged self-driving vehicle so long that he nearly missed his flight, according to a report. Mike Johns was heading to the airport in a self-operating "Waymo" taxi on his way home from Scottsdale, Ariz., last month when the rogue vehicle began driving in circles, causing him to make a panicked call for help, according to a CBS report. "I got a flight to catch. Why is this thing going in a circle? I'm getting dizzy," Johns said to a Waymo customer-service representative from the backseat of the spinning vehicle, according to a video the unlucky traveler posted on Linkedin. "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?" he asked the rep. The representative told Johns to open his Waymo app so she could remotely pull the car over but appeared to struggle with immediately getting it under control, according to the video. The rep was eventually able to get control of the vehicle after a few minutes, with just enough time for Johns to get on his flight home to LA, according to CBS. The vehicle made "eight circles," according to Johns' LinkedIn post. "It felt like a scene in a sci-fi thriller." Johns said Waymo has not followed up with him after the incident. "You'd think by now Waymo would email, text, or call for a follow-up. Nope, customer service is automated and ran by AI," he wrote on Linkedin. A representative for Waymo told CBS that the mishap occurred in mid-December and delayed Johns for 5 minutes before successfully driving him to his flight. Johns was not charged for the trip, according to the representative. Waymo said it has attempted to reach Johns, according to the outlet. The company produces fully autonomous self-driving vehicles that use sensors and software to navigate, according to their website. Waymo started as part of the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 2009 and operates in Metro Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles. Johns, who ironically works in AI initiatives according to his LinkedIn profile, says he hopes companies such as Waymo will succeed, but has no plans of hopping in another self-driving vehicle any time soon. "Where's the empathy? Where's the human connection to this?" Johns told CBS News. "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," he said.

LA man nearly misses flight as self-driving Waymo taxi drives around parking lot in circles

A Los Angeles man nearly missed his flight back home last week, all because he says the self-driving Waymo taxi he was using to get to the airport wouldn't stop driving around a parking lot in circles. Mike Johns was heading home from Scottsdale, Arizona last week when he hopped into a Waymo to head to a nearby airport. What happened next felt like a Disneyland ride. "Why is this thing going in a circle? I'm getting dizzy," Johns said in a video posted on social media that has since gone viral, garnering more than two million views and interactions. Johns says that he was trapped inside of the car as it spun around the parking lot. Not only was he unable to stop the car, but so was the customer service he was on the phone with as the spinning continued. "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?" Johns says in the video. The Waymo representative was finally able to get the car under control after a few minutes, allowing him to get to the airport just in time to catch his flight back to LA. He says that the lack of empathy from the representative who attempted to help him, on top of the point that he's unsure if he was talking to a human or AI, are major concerns. "Where's the empathy? Where's the human connection to this?" Johns said while speaking with 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." Johns, who ironically works in the tech industry himself, says he would love to see services like Waymo succeed, but he has no plans to hop in for a ride until he's sure that the kinks have been fixed. In the meantime, he's still waiting for someone from Waymo to contact him in regards to his concerns, which hasn't yet happened despite how much attention his video has attracted since last week. "Human-less, right? Human-less," he said. "That's the ghost in the shell, right?" Waymo has not yet responded to CBS News' request for comment on the incident. This news comes just days after Waymo recently made headlines in Los Angeles when someone tried to hijack one of their autonomous, all-electric Jaguars in the downtown area.

"I'm getting dizzy": Man films Waymo self-driving car driving around in circles

The Waymo self-driving company says it has fixed a problem that caused a car to repeatedly circle a parking lot for about five minutes while its rider was trying to get to an airport. Last month, Mike Johns posted a video on LinkedIn showing what happened after he was picked up by a Waymo self-driving car in Scottsdale, Arizona. Johns' post said the car made eight circles. After a Waymo support agent helped get the car moving in the right direction, he was driven to the airport in time to make his flight. "Why is this happening to me on a Monday? I'm in a Waymo car and this car is just going in circles... I got a flight to catch, why is this thing going in a circle? I'm getting dizzy," he said in the video. During the video, Johns spoke with a Waymo customer-support representative. "It's circling around a parking lot. I've 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?" he told the rep. He also asked the Waymo rep if the company would "take care of the flight" if he missed it. The support rep told Johns, "I don't have an option to control the car," but added, "I am trying to pull it over right now." The car appeared to come to a stop with about two seconds left in the short video, which you can watch here: While the frustrating ride occurred about a month ago, it received attention in several news articles this past weekend. A CBS News Los Angeles report said that Johns "loves the idea of driverless cars and was really excited to ride in one... but now he says he won't take one again until he knows they worked the kinks out." Johns, who is the founder and CEO of an AI consulting firm, told CBS News in an interview that Waymo lacks a "human connection" and that it's "a case of today's digital world, a half-baked product, and nobody meeting the customer, the consumers, in the middle."

'Is This Car Hacked?': Viral Video Shows a Man Trapped in a Circling Waymo Driverless Taxi

Mike Johns works as an AI consultant, so he knows technology and everything it can do to improve our lives -- or make you so dizzy you might get sick. The Los Angeles resident was trying to get back to California from Scottsdale, Arizona, last week and took a Waymo driverless taxi to the airport. However, he barely made it because the self-driving car wouldn't stop driving in circles. Related: 'Not Necessarily Super Excited About This': Klarna's CEO Says AI Can Take Over All Jobs, Including His Own "Ok, why is this happening to me on a Monday," Johns's viral video begins as the car connects with customer support in the background. "Why is this thing going in circles, I'm getting dizzy!" Johns, who is talking in the video from the backseat of the car, takes viewers on a head-spinning ride, writing, "This autonomous vehicle said to heck with GPS" and went in eight circles. "Is someone pulling a prank, is this car hacked?" he asked. A Waymo representative got the car back online and Johns made it to the airport, though he says he "nearly" missed his flight. Johns told CNN that he chose Waymo over Lyft or Uber because he works in the technology industry. "It's the future of where things are going, so I'm definitely a part of that," he told the outlet, adding that he wouldn't rule out using the service again. Waymo told CNN in an email that it attempted to contact Johns and left a voicemail. Related: 'Amazing Momentum': Here's Why Salesforce Is Hiring 1,000 New Employees In October, Waymo announced that it raised $5.6 billion, led by parent company Alphabet, with "continued participation" from Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, Perry Creek, Silver Lake, Tiger Global, and T. Rowe Price. "Customers love Waymo, said Chase Coleman, founder of Tiger Global, at the time. "The company has built the safest product in the autonomous vehicle ecosystem as well as the best."

Watch this self-driving Waymo taxi circle a parking lot instead of taking its passenger to the airport

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. WTF?! We're now as close to the year 2050 as the year 2020. Technology has come a long way, but it's far from perfect. Just ask the man who couldn't get to the airport on time because the self-driving Waymo he was in kept driving around a parking lot in circles. Mike Johns was heading back home to LA from Scottsdale, Arizona in December, traveling to the airport in one of Waymo's autonomous vehicles. As Johns described the incident on LinkedIn, he entered the driverless car, buckled up, and set off on his journey. But the taxi had other ideas: it started driving in circles around a parking lot. Johns captured the disturbing moment on video, during which he calls Waymo customer service. "I got a flight to catch. Why is this thing going in a circle? I'm getting dizzy," Johns said. "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?" The Waymo representative asks Johns to use the company's app to try to stop the car as she apparently does not have an option to control the vehicle. The video ends with the rep saying she is trying to pull the Waymo over. Johns said the Waymo circled the parking lot a dizzying eight times before the issue was resolved. He writes in the main post that he "nearly" missed his flight, though he says he missed it in the comments section. Other reports suggest that he did make the flight. There are also a few comments asking why he never used the Pull Over button on the passenger screen. Johns ends his post by stating that Waymo never followed up on the incident with an email, text, or call as its customer service is automated and run by AI. A Waymo spokesperson told The Los Angeles Times that Johns was delayed by just five minutes, he was not charged for the ride, and the software error that caused the problem has since been addressed. The company also claimed it had tried to follow up with him via voicemail. In August, Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said the company had surpassed the 100,000 paid trips per week threshold. The milestone was especially impressive considering Waymo only crossed the 50,000 paid trips a week mark in May.

Los Angeles tech entrepreneur gets trapped in self-driving Waymo car

Mike Johns was riding autonomous vehicle on way to airport when it started circling around parking lot A tech entrepreneur based in Los Angeles became trapped in a malfunctioning self-driving car for several minutes last month, causing him to nearly miss a flight, he said. Mike Johns was riding in an autonomous Waymo vehicle on his way to the airport when the vehicle began driving around a parking lot repeatedly, circling eight times as he was on the phone seeking help from a company. "I got my seat belt on. I can't get out of the car. Has this been hacked? What's going on?" he can be heard telling a Waymo representative in a video he posted to LinkedIn three weeks ago. "I feel like I'm in the movies. Is somebody playing a joke on me? And I got a flight to catch." Johns became dizzy as the vehicle continued circling the lot in a moment that he said "felt like a scene in a sci-fi thriller". The Waymo representative advised him to open his app as she tried to stop the vehicle, but said she didn't "have an option to control the car". The issue was resolved after a few minutes, Waymo said in a statement, and Johns was delayed by a little more than five minutes. He ultimately managed to arrive on time for his flight from Scottsdale, Arizona, to southern California. But he was frustrated about the experience and said he was unable to tell if the representative he spoke with was human or AI. "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," Johns, who describes himself as a futurist who is knowledgable about artificial intelligence, told CBS Los Angeles. Waymo told the Guardian the "looping event" had been addressed by a regularly scheduled software update. Johns was not charged for the trip, the company said. The company offers autonomous ride services in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin, and provided more than 4m fully autonomous rides last year, according to Waymo. While the company's vehicles have performed millions of rides safely, high-profile incidents, including a self-driving Waymo car that killed a dog and a collision that injured a cyclist, have fueled concerns.

Los Angeles man trapped in circling Waymo on way to airport says he missed his flight home

By Hannah Wiley, Los Angeles Times The Tribune Content Agency A Los Angeles man said he recently missed his flight home after getting trapped on his way to the airport in a Waymo that wouldn't stop making circles in a parking lot. L.A. tech entrepreneur Mike Johns posted a video three weeks ago on LinkedIn of his call to a customer service representative for Waymo to report that the car kept turning in circles and that he was nervous about missing his flight. "I got a flight to catch. Why is this thing going in a circle? I'm getting dizzy," Johns said. "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?" The customer service representative told Johns to open his Waymo app and that she would try to pull the car over, but seemed to struggle with getting the vehicle to stop. Johns was returning home from Scottsdale, Ariz., according to a CBS report, which also noted that Johns "nearly" missed his flight. On his social media post, Johns, who also works on AI initiatives, according to his LinkedIn profile, said Waymo had not followed up with him after the experience. "You'd think by now Waymo would email, text or call for a follow-up," he wrote. "Nope, customer service is automated and ran by AI." Waymo did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The autonomous car company has been common on San Francisco streets for years, and recently opened its services to all riders after first rolling out a pilot program to select users. The robotaxis launched in L.A. last fall. Waymo's goal is to reduce traffic injuries and fatalities through autonomous driving technology, and riders and proponents of the service have lauded it as a safe and easy alternative to human drivers. But there have also been tech glitches and safety concerns during the company's rollout of its robotaxis in several cities. A man in downtown L.A. on Thursday allegedly attempted to hijack a Waymo and drive away. Police took the man into custody after they eventually got him out of the car.