Driverless taxi services are a mouth-watering prospect for any business. There’s a 24/7 torrent of revenue without the need to pay wages for drives. The lack of a potential threat behind the wheel is also a welcome aspect. Unfortunately there’s a flip side to autonomous vehicles; the absence of a driver has emboldened harassment and threats towards passengers traveling alone in Waymo’s vehicles.
Waymo is going to painstaking lengths to ensure that its autonomous vehicles can navigate streets and highways without violating the law. While there’s nothing wrong with the development direction, the road is an unpredictable place and humans often break the law to get themselves out of dangerous situations. For example, you might briefly drive into the oncoming lane on a two-lane road to get around a stopped car or pedestrian. A driverless car would likely wait until the obstacle moves.
The Washington Post interviewed four Waymo passengers, three women, about the dangerous situations that the driverless taxis put them in. One woman recounted how a man was able to disable the Waymo vehicle by stepping in front of it:
In September, Amina V. was on her way to a hair appointment when a man stepped in front of her robotaxi and the car stalled in the middle of the street. She already had been recording herself in the Waymo, so she turned the camera to capture the man hitting on her while her car stood frozen in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood.
She later posted the video on Instagram and X, where Waymo acknowledged the incident.
Amina said in an interview this month that she felt “annoyed” and “powerless” because the car wouldn’t move while pedestrians — first one, then two — were blocking the robotaxi’s path. She called Waymo’s support line, and the operator said they had seen the situation through their cameras.
Jalopnik reached out to Waymo over these recent incidents. A company spokesperson emphasized what courses of action passengers could take through its app in similar situations:
We take these events very seriously and understand how upsetting they can be.
If a rider feels their personal security is threatened while riding, they can reach out to 911 via the Waymo One App, which will also send an urgent notification to Rider Support. Additionally, riders can speak with Rider Support at any time using the in-car screen button, and request 911 be called. Waymo has a close working relationship with emergency responders where we operate, and our team has trained more than 15,000 first responders around the U.S.
Riders can also change their destination or add stops at any time in the app, which would alter the Driver’s course. A ‘pull over’ option is also available to riders at any point during their trip.
Nearly all the tools at the passengers’ disposal are indirect. They can easily feel helpless. Waymo can’t give command control to passengers to possibly direct their vehicle, because they could give an order to do something illegal. Also, emergency dispatchers can’t send police to a moving vehicle. With Tesla aiming to launch its own service and Waymo testing for expansion into cold-weather markets, this could be a nationwide problem soon.
