A Waymo passenger has documented a terrifying ride on video as a robotaxi they were in quickly fled police through a construction zone.
“Just saw death flash before my eyes in a @Waymo” the passenger shared on X. “I use these a lot on the city but tonight we took the freeway and the road was closed. Waymo freaked out and sped up to highway speeds through construction trucks, police chased us. Genuinely thought we were about to die.
“The Waymo blasted through cones, swerved huge trucks and sped away from the cops. Was kinda freaking out, had my girl in the seat next to me. You can get the sirens. Genuinely the freakiest experience I’ve ever had, felt utterly helpless. These are not ready for highways.”
“Right before it started freaking out a remote operator or something came on board,” the passenger continued. “It told us to keep seatbelts on, it tried to merge – when it couldn’t it darted right through traffic cones and police and accelerated to highway speeds into a construction zone.”
Waymo halted freeway rides after construction zone incidents
According to TechCrunch, Waymo confirmed on Thursday, without citing a specific incident, that it has suspended robotaxi service on freeways in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Miami. The company said it’s in the process of integrating “recent technical learnings into our software and expect to resume these routes soon.”
The move to remove robotaxis from freeways comes after Waymo voluntarily recalled nearly 3,800 robotaxis in Atlanta, Georgia, and San Antonio, Texas, to address issues with its cars driving into flooded areas in those cities.