If you needed another reminder that self-driving cars are still very much sharing the road with human error, Atlanta delivered one this weekend. A Waymo robotaxi ended up engulfed in flames Sunday evening after another vehicle slammed into the back of it, and the whole scene played out on a stretch of road that plenty of locals drive every day.
The crash happened on Cheshire Bridge Road at Manchester Street in northeast Atlanta, reported by WSB-TV Atlanta 2. According to a Waymo spokesperson, the autonomous vehicle was simply sitting there, waiting to make a left-hand turn, when another car came in hot from behind and struck it.
Here’s where things escalated fast. The vehicle that caused the crash caught fire on impact, and the fire spread to the Waymo itself. In the company’s own words, the other car “ignited” their vehicle. So this wasn’t a case of the self-driving car doing anything unusual or malfunctioning. It was stationary, minding its own business in a turn lane, when it got caught up in someone else’s bad night.
Atlanta Fire Rescue crews responded and checked on the two people who were in the vehicle that started the chain reaction. The good news is that both were evaluated on scene, and neither wanted to be transported to the hospital, which suggests injuries were minor despite how dramatic the scene must have looked with two cars burning at an intersection. As for the Waymo, there was no one inside since it was operating without a passenger at the time.
What We Know So Far
Details are still limited here. We don’t yet know what caused the striking vehicle to catch fire in the first place, whether it was a mechanical issue, the force of the impact itself, or something else entirely.
Waymo hasn’t released information on the extent of damage to its vehicle beyond confirming that it caught fire, and it’s unclear whether local authorities are investigating the incident further.
Self-Driving Cars Keep Ending Up in the News
Waymo vehicles have become a fairly common sight in several major cities, and with more of them on the road, it was probably only a matter of time before one got tangled up in an incident like this. To be fair, based on what’s been shared, the Waymo did exactly what a car in that situation should do: it stopped and waited for its turn like any careful driver would.
It just happened to be at the wrong place when someone else lost control.
Our Take
Honestly, this feels like one of those situations where the robot did nothing wrong. A car that’s parked in line waiting to turn can’t exactly dodge out of the way when someone comes barreling into its rear bumper.
If anything, this is a good reminder that most of the “self-driving car drama” out there still traces back to good old-fashioned human driving. The machines are just trying to survive us.