There are, apparently, three kinds of people in 2026. There are people who are not ready to ride in a self-driving car. There are people who are. Then there are the ones who will watch a robotaxi pull up, already doing something weird, and still climb in like nothing is wrong.
That last category may now include one Los Angeles woman whose Waymo pickup, according to a report from the New York Post, entered a drive-thru the wrong way before stopping for her. The video described by the outlet shows the vehicle slowly creeping through the lane in the opposite direction while her son reacts from behind the camera.
The moment is funny in the way a lot of autonomous vehicle clips are funny right up until you remember these are not prototypes on a closed course. These are real vehicles operating in real cities, picking up real passengers, and making decisions in public that people are being asked to trust.
Waymo, for its part, markets its service in Los Angeles as a fully autonomous ride available around the clock, allowing riders to “tap, ride, relax,” according to Waymo.
The Weird Part Wasn’t Just the Car
The strangest part of this story is not that the car went the wrong way through a drive-thru. Strange behavior from autonomous vehicles is no longer all that shocking. The strangest part is that, after watching it happen, the passenger still got in.
The woman’s son can be heard reacting in the video as the vehicle approaches the drive-thru the wrong way, joking as it rolls into position and telling his mother to be safe as she climbs inside. That reaction is what gives the clip its real hook. It is one thing to trust the technology in the abstract. It is another thing entirely to watch it do something obviously off-script and board anyway.
That tension showed up in the Facebook comments, too. Some people could not get past the decision to actually get in the car. One commenter wrote, “I’m more stunned you let her get in the car.” Another added, “I ain’t ever about to hop in no car without a human driving.” That is the part of the autonomous future boosters still struggle with. Public trust is not won with polished branding. It is won one uneventful ride at a time, and clips like this work in the opposite direction.
The Counterargument Is Real Too
To be fair, there is also a real counterargument here, and pretending otherwise would be lazy. One commenter pushed back that there are “many more ppl who drive badly than AI-operated vehicles.” That reflects a growing belief that even imperfect automation could eventually outperform human drivers, who make costly mistakes every day.
Waymo leans into that argument as part of its broader safety messaging. The company says its fully autonomous system is designed to handle real-world driving without a human behind the wheel, and it points to internal data suggesting fewer injury-related crashes and insurance claims compared to human drivers, according to information published by Waymo.
Still, Waymo’s problem is that edge cases are what people remember. The company has said its vehicles can successfully navigate difficult conditions like rain, fog, and other environmental challenges, but moments like this stand out because they are easy to understand and hard to explain away.
Trust Still Has To Be Earned
This drive-thru incident did not appear to result in a crash, and, based on the available reporting, it is more bizarre than dangerous. That matters, and it is important not to overstate what happened. At the same time, it offers a snapshot of where the self-driving conversation currently stands.
For supporters, it is one awkward pickup in a world where human drivers routinely make far worse decisions. For skeptics, it is another reminder that these systems can still behave in ways that feel unpredictable in everyday situations.
That is why the real story here is not just that a Waymo went the wrong way through a Los Angeles drive-thru. It is that people are being asked to normalize moments like this as part of the learning curve. Some are ready for that. Others are not. And a few are apparently willing to open the door and get in, even when the robotaxi is already doing something that does not quite make sense.