It lost its Way-mo.
A San Francisco passenger found themselves in an accidental car chase after their Waymo veered way off course, attracting the attention of police cars.
San Francisco resident Elliot Slade and his fiancé had been taking one of the robotaxis along Highway 101 when they came upon a construction zone, ABC News reported.
The driverless cab, which is part of the automated transport arm of the tech firm Alphabet, attempted to change lanes but to no avail. Despite the abundance of signs, lights and cones, the Waymo went straight into the off-limits lane before taking off, per the passenger.
“It went through the cones and then sped up straight away,” lamented Slade, who said their mishap caught the eye of a patrol car, which began chasing the rogue robo-car to see what was amiss.
All the while, Slade said he was shouting, “Stop Waymo,” and wondering, “What the heck is going on?”
The automated car chase finally ended after the car departed the construction zone and took a freeway exit into a residential neighborhood.
Slade thanks his lucky stars there wasn’t a collision.
“In that moment it’s like, ‘Oh this technology is not ready,’” said the relieved rider, who Ubered home that evening. “If something else had gone wrong, someone in that road might have got hit. We might have crashed in the car.”
While he has taken a Waymo since the fiasco, he said he doesn’t want to use it again.
“There was a moment where even getting into it again was kind of freaky. A bit of PTSD- yeah,” said Slade.
Coincidentally, this is one of over a dozen similar incidents in which these self-driving taxis accidentally entered construction zones after failing to recognize the literal warning signs.
To curb these disasters, the automated car giant recalled over 3,800 of the robotaxis, per a report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The car company also restricted them from driving on the freeway while it outfitted the tech with better situational awareness and a directive to avoid entering construction zones.
“We identified an area of improvement regarding performance around freeway construction zones,” Waymo told The Post in a statement.
“We voluntarily restricted freeway operations last month while making improvements, proactively notified state and federal regulators, and decided to file a voluntary software recall with NHTSA.”
The post Waymo takes scared passenger on joyride through construction zone — with cops in pursuit: ‘Don’t want to use it again’ appeared first on New York Post.
