Waymo is having a weird week. A woman just gave birth in one of their robot taxis. The company also suffered a major software recall after a few cars blew through school bus stops. And now, in the midst of all that, there was a three-car pileup in San Francisco… and all three cars were Waymos. Yikes.
The scene, captured via TikTok video, looks like a Sergio Leone-style Mexican standoff, but with three driverless cars cycling through their programming to figure out what to do and coming up short on answers. Two Waymos were navigating a dead-end on Kearny and Vallejo, attempting multipoint turns at the same time, eventually turning straight into each other.
Not the Waymo Standoff in San Francisco #waymo#ai #sanfrancisco #selfdrivingcar #rideshare
Waymo’s Robotaxis Jam Themselves Into Another San Francisco Mess
It wasn’t a major crash or anything. Just some gently tapped bumpers, but enough to make two robot cars freeze, not knowing how to handle the situation. Two robot cars gently crashing into each other was funny enough of a sight. Then a third one crept down the hill and got stuck behind the first two, creating a T-shaped gridlock of robots that had no idea how to untangle the knot Silicon Valley had entangled society in.
One Waymo sat there sideways, unmoving, having completely given up in the face of an emergency. Another one had its nose pressed against it like a cat that falls asleep facing a wall. And the third one was bashfully lingering around, seemingly afraid to tell its siblings to move it or lose it, pal.
Eventually, a Waymo employee arrived, climbed into one of the cars, and manually un-f—ked the situation.
Waymo insists the fender bender was just a “minor contact” and that both robotaxis were unoccupied. However, the number of reported Waymo incidents has ramped up recently, likely due to the company’s expansion across several cities. There have also been two pet fatalities, one involving a dog and another involving a beloved neighborhood cat.
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