A traffic break on a San Francisco freeway gave one Waymo a problem to work out. While police held back the cars behind them, the driverless car tried to find a way around.
Instagram user @luluesque turned the scene into a scorecard. “California Highway Patrol Blockade 1, Waymo 0,” reads the caption. The post pairs it with the song “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now.”
It happened on northbound I-280 on Friday, November 6, NBC Bay Area reported. AJ told the station she filmed while riding with her friend Holly.
By NBC’s November 11 report, the video had drawn more than 3.3 million views online. NBC did not know if anyone was riding inside the Waymo at the time.
Holding the Line
Embedded media follows; please allow a moment to load.
View this post on Instagram
CHP had begun the traffic break to clear debris from the road, NBC reported. Patrol cars held traffic back as the Waymo approached.
“Since we were in the first row, we decided to pull out a camera and film to see if we would see anything interesting,” AJ told the station. As the Waymo tried to move around the patrol cars, an officer swerved to block its path.
CHP confirmed to NBC that multiple officers used their cars to stop the Waymo from passing. The car then stayed back with the rest of traffic.
Mixed Reviews
One Instagram user compared the scene to what might happen to a human driver. “Any regular driver do that shhh and they getting pulled over immediately,” one wrote beneath the post.
The Reddit repost labels its footage as sped up. One commenter asked if that edit made the car look worse.
“These are interesting corner cases,” Reddit user WeldAE wrote. “I don’t think this is a negative post at all, just something that needs more improvement.”
Waymo had not replied to NBC about the scene when its report aired. CHP also told the station it had not been in touch with the company about what happened.