Two Tampa men were riding in a Waymo when the self-driving rideshare took a startling turn—literally.
Matthew Reardon and his friends were passengers in a Waymo car, and the ride was normal for the most part.
But suddenly they realized the other cars were looking straight at them and going around their Waymo—which was facing the opposite way.
Unsurprisingly, this caused the passengers to panic. A TikTok posted by Reardon showed them cursing and jumping out of the vehicle, which parked in the middle of the road.
“Thought we were done for a second there,” Reardon captioned the video.
What Caused the Mishap
@matthewr_83Thought we were done for a second there #waymo #tampa #buccaneers #news #ai♬ original sound – Noah Pranks
While Waymo has committed its fair share of traffic violations, some comments noted that might not have been the case this time.
As one commenter replied, “Didn’t notice that but yes, both lines of traffic are going the same direction on both sides of the road.”
The incident occurred on a road near Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium, where a Buccaneers game was happening that night. Due to this, the cars may have been detouring to get to the stadium.
The stadium houses 65,000 audience members, so sports games tend to cause chaos in the nearby streets.
But one person commented, “My cousin works for [Waymo], he has had the whole family promise him that we will never get in one anytime soon.”
Waymo Accidents
Since Waymo hit the streets in 2020, they’ve gone viral for making many mishaps.
In one viral video, two Waymos blocked traffic for an alleged 50 minutes despite the light turning green.
Another Waymo in Los Angeles was filmed driving into a police standoff. This summer, Johnathan Morrison of the NHTSA wrote a letter to autonomous vehicle developers following several reports of such incidents
“The agency has documented multiple instances in which AVs drove directly into active emergency scenes, blocked the paths of ambulances and firefighters, or failed to recognize and respond to basic safety conditions like flashing lights, flares, smoke, fire, and traffic cones,” Morrison wrote.
He called this a “danger to the general public.”
Is Waymo Safe?
But despite Waymo’s pitfalls, some studies suggest that rideshares are safer than human-driven cars.
According to a report by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Waymos in San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Austin were found to have been in 68% fewer crashes.
Additionally, per safety analyses by Waymo, the rideshare sees 95% fewer crashes causing serious injury and 82% fewer injury-causing accidents in general.