Being stuck in a car that spends the day going round a roundabout has become comedy gold thanks to the National Lampoon’s European Vacation festive filck, while being trapped inside an out-of-control vehicle with no driver is something out of a horror movie.
Fact or fiction
Unfortunately, what became reality wasn’t the farcical scene in which American tourist Clark Griswold – played by Chevy Chase – tries to take his family to London’s famous landmarks and spends the day endlessly circling Lambeth Bridge because he cannot navigate a roundabout. “Hey kids, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament …”
Unfortunately, real-life American traveller Mike Johns faced something closer to a horror movie as the Waymo robotaxi he booked to take him to Arizona airport became confused and left him trapped inside as it tried to negotiate its way out of a car park. In the end, it drove him round in circles, making him dizzy.
Recording the incident on his mobile phone, he is heard talking to Waymo customer services.
He said: “I’ve got my seatbelt 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 robotaxi is seen circling the car park about eight times before apparently coming to a stop. Almost missing his flight, Sky News reports that he contacted Waymo customer services who advised him to try and stop the taxi using the app as they are unable to control the robotaxis remotely.
Trapped
As the drama unfolded, the tech entrepreneur began posting on his LinkedIn account. He said: “I get in, buckle up (safety first) and the saga begins.”
Mr Johns is heard telling Waymo’s support team: “I’ve got a flight to catch, why is this thing going in a circle? I’m getting dizzy!” The agent is heard saying: “I’m really, really sorry, Mike.”
“Why has this happened to me on a Monday?” Mr Johns asked in the video.
The Waymo agent reassures him that she is trying to stop the car. At some point the taxi stops its loops and takes Mr Johns to the airport as originally planned. He was in time to catch his flight to Los Angeles.
Sky News reports that Waymo didn’t charge him for the trip, adding that “the issue that prompted his vehicle to drive in loops has been addressed by a regularly scheduled software update”.
Safety
While Mr Johns can look back and smile at the incident, it could have been much more serious if it had been travelling on a busy road such as a highway. The most concerning thing about it was that neither he nor the Waymo customer services agent seemed able to stop the car.
Waymo taxis have travelled more than 33 million driverless miles since launching in Phoenix in 2018 and has since expanded to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Austin, Texas.
As with this incident, they have made headlines for light-hearted reasons, such as waking neighbours in the early hours by honking their horns at each other as they manoeuvre in and out of the San Francisco depot. A software update quickly fixed the issue and Waymo’s apology and gestures of goodwill soon saw many neighbours become fans of the technology.
Despite glitches such as these, Sky News reports that the company said: “the taxis are designed to increase road safety and have had 78% fewer crashes that caused an injury compared to human-driven cars”.
