Way mo’ than they bargained for.
Passengers using a preferred driverless taxi app were trapped contained in the fully autonomous vehicle because it parked in the midst of traffic on “one in every of the scariest streets in Austin,” in keeping with a report.
Waymo ride-hailers within the Texas city drove right right into a “Black Mirror” episode when their self-driving automotive stopped in a merging lane underneath the MoPac Expressway and locked them inside for several minutes as vehicles whizzed by, in keeping with Chron.
“We kept saying ‘We’re on a highway, please move the automotive,’” passenger Becky Navarro said in a video that’s garnered over 500k views on TikTok.
“Cars kept honking at us, and it might not move. It will not allow us to out,” Navarro said while walking along with her fellow passenger on the side of the road with the dysfunctional automotive within the background.
In a caption to the video, Navarro — who was let loose of the automotive after about five minutes — claimed that the Waymo vehicle drove past their desired destination and towards Austin’s downtown area.
Later within the video, the automotive apparently wakes up from its slumber and speeds right past its two former passengers, walking on the side of the road.
“For individuals who don’t know — that is one in every of the scariest roads in Austin. Being parked on Mopac is a death trap. That is my fear,” one animated TikTok commenter wrote, Chron reported.
Navarro claimed that the automotive only unlocked its doors when the self-professed “TikTok queen” threatened customer support with going survive the social media app — but Waymo, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc., claimed the entire issue was a user error.
“During their ride, the passengers within the video pressed the ‘pull over’ button and the vehicle pulled to the side of a 30 mph road with a sidewalk,” a rep for Waymo said in comment to The Post.
“The riders could have safely exited at any time and at no point did our Rider Support team remotely unlock the door for them,” Waymo added.
The corporate further said that passengers can pause their ride and exit the vehicle at any time.
Waymo, nevertheless, has had prior issues with allegedly locking passengers inside its driverless cars — which operate in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin.
Tech entrepreneur Mike Johns took a Waymo driverless taxi to the Scottsdale Airport in Arizona earlier this yr when his escort glitched out and drove in circles as an alternative of towards his destination.
“I got a flight to catch. Why is that this thing getting into a circle? I’m getting dizzy,” Johns said to a Waymo customer support representative in a video posted to LinkedIn.
An organization staffer was eventually in a position to get control of the vehicle remotely, allowing the LA native to catch his flight home.
The distant operation of Waymo vehicles has come in useful on other occasions — with LA cops shutting down a getaway driverless automotive that a thief hailed after robbing a food market.
Way mo’ than they bargained for.
Passengers using a preferred driverless taxi app were trapped contained in the fully autonomous vehicle because it parked in the midst of traffic on “one in every of the scariest streets in Austin,” in keeping with a report.
Waymo ride-hailers within the Texas city drove right right into a “Black Mirror” episode when their self-driving automotive stopped in a merging lane underneath the MoPac Expressway and locked them inside for several minutes as vehicles whizzed by, in keeping with Chron.
“We kept saying ‘We’re on a highway, please move the automotive,’” passenger Becky Navarro said in a video that’s garnered over 500k views on TikTok.
“Cars kept honking at us, and it might not move. It will not allow us to out,” Navarro said while walking along with her fellow passenger on the side of the road with the dysfunctional automotive within the background.
In a caption to the video, Navarro — who was let loose of the automotive after about five minutes — claimed that the Waymo vehicle drove past their desired destination and towards Austin’s downtown area.
Later within the video, the automotive apparently wakes up from its slumber and speeds right past its two former passengers, walking on the side of the road.
“For individuals who don’t know — that is one in every of the scariest roads in Austin. Being parked on Mopac is a death trap. That is my fear,” one animated TikTok commenter wrote, Chron reported.
Navarro claimed that the automotive only unlocked its doors when the self-professed “TikTok queen” threatened customer support with going survive the social media app — but Waymo, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc., claimed the entire issue was a user error.
“During their ride, the passengers within the video pressed the ‘pull over’ button and the vehicle pulled to the side of a 30 mph road with a sidewalk,” a rep for Waymo said in comment to The Post.
“The riders could have safely exited at any time and at no point did our Rider Support team remotely unlock the door for them,” Waymo added.
The corporate further said that passengers can pause their ride and exit the vehicle at any time.
Waymo, nevertheless, has had prior issues with allegedly locking passengers inside its driverless cars — which operate in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin.
Tech entrepreneur Mike Johns took a Waymo driverless taxi to the Scottsdale Airport in Arizona earlier this yr when his escort glitched out and drove in circles as an alternative of towards his destination.
“I got a flight to catch. Why is that this thing getting into a circle? I’m getting dizzy,” Johns said to a Waymo customer support representative in a video posted to LinkedIn.
An organization staffer was eventually in a position to get control of the vehicle remotely, allowing the LA native to catch his flight home.
The distant operation of Waymo vehicles has come in useful on other occasions — with LA cops shutting down a getaway driverless automotive that a thief hailed after robbing a food market.
