Dramatic video shows a Waymo passenger jumping out of a self-driving car at the last minute as it stopped on rail tracks in the path of an oncoming train.
The passenger was forced to get out and run to safety after the Waymo became stuck on the light rail tracks in Phoenix on Wednesday, KPHO reported.
Video filmed by a bystander shows the car continuing to drive down the tracks next to another train after the passenger had gotten out.
“Oh s–t, the Waymo’s on the track, what an idiot. Here comes the train,” the person filming the incident said in the original TikTok video.
Waymo — which started in Phoenix and now operates commercial robotaxi services in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin and Atlanta — updates its routes and systems weekly, and equips each vehicle with 29 separate cameras.
However, there was construction in the area where the incident happened, and the light rail had only been added within the last year, both factors which could have confused the vehicle’s operating system, according to experts.
“I actually felt a little sorry for the car. It obviously made a bad decision and got itself in a difficult place,” Andrew Maynard, an emerging and transformative technology professor at ASU, told KPHO.
“I think Waymo has a challenge because no matter what they do with their system, there are always going to be unexpected circumstances where they have to learn from them,” Maynard said, while adding that be still believes driverless cars are safer than having human drivers.
“These cars, in many circumstances, are safer than human drivers because they don’t have distractions, like a human driver does,” Maynard said.
Valley Metro, which operates regional transit in the Phoenix area, confirmed Wednesday’s incident during the morning rush hour.
“At approximately 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning, a Valley Metro employee observed an autonomous Waymo vehicle on the northbound light rail tracks near Southern Avenue and Central Avenue in Phoenix,” the company said in a statement.
“Our Operations Control Center was immediately notified, light rail operations staff responded to the scene, and Waymo was contacted. To minimize service impacts, northbound and southbound trains exchanged passengers before reversing direction to continue service,” the statement continued.
“The incident caused no significant delays and the scene was clear by 9:15 a.m. For any further information on Waymo, its vehicle or operation, please reach out to Waymo,” Valley Metro’s statement concluded.
