Waymo passenger nearly misses his flight after car drives in circles
(CNN) — A Los Angeles tech entrepreneur found himself trapped in a self-driving taxi last month on his way to the airport, with the car repeatedly circling around a parking lot.
Mike Johns posted a video on LinkedIn in which he was headed to Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix. Johns was still able to catch his flight but was left dizzy and frustrated by the experience with the taxi from Waymo, the self-driving car arm of Google’s parent company Alphabet. Waymo said the incident caused a five-minute delay.
Johns told CNN on Monday that this wasn’t his first driverless taxi and wanted to give the service another shot for his ride to the airport.
“It went into its first loop, second loop. What’s going on? I feel like I’m being pranked,” he said. By the fourth loop, he was starting to feel dizzy because it was a small, concentrated area.
He wrote on LinkedIn that the car drove in eight circles.
Johns said he didn’t contact customer support on his own. He said Waymo recognized the issue and contacted him through the car’s system. In the video, a Waymo employee is heard saying they called because of a notification that the car “might be experiencing some routing issue.”
The Waymo representative can be heard telling Johns they couldn’t control the car themselves and needed him to use the app to resolve the issue. The representative then said they were trying to pull the car over and two screens in the car said it was “temporarily pausing” the ride and “finding a spot” to pull over.
Robotaxis can make mistakes, too
A Waymo taxi driving in circles isn’t the first time the technology has exhibited confusing behaviors or frustrated passengers and bystanders.
In June 2024, Waymo recalled 672 cars to make them less likely to drive into poles after a car struck a pole in May. In 2021, the robotaxi was confused by puddles and riders said the cars were suddenly braking due to nearby birds. Waymo has also experienced multiple recalls, including in February 2024 when two vehicles hit the same truck minutes apart and Waymo, along with robotaxi company Zoox, became part of a federal investigation for erratic driving.
Johns said he had heard about different incidents involving Waymo cars before. He didn’t necessarily think it would happen to him — until it did.
Johns, an artificial intelligence consultant, said working in the technology industry was part of the reason he chose Waymo instead of rideshares Lyft and Uber.
“It’s the future of where things are going so I’m definitely a part of that,” he said.
Waymo completed a regularly scheduled software update after the looping event.
Johns said he hasn’t been in contact with Waymo but may consider using the service again after talking to the company. Waymo told CNN in an email that it attempted to contact Johns and left a voicemail for follow-up.
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