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244

Man trapped inside driverless car as it spins in circles (www.bbc.com)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

59 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Mike Johns boarded a driverless Waymo taxi to an airport in Scottsdale, Arizona, but it began spinning in circles in a parking lot.

He filmed the moment he was trapped in the vehicle, unable to stop the car or get help.

Johns said he almost missed his flight.

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[–] [email protected] 68 points 4 months ago (4 children)

"Spins in circles" makes it sound like the car was drifting, when it was just doing laps around the inside of a parking lot. Also, this guy starts talking about them "taking care" of his flight when this has been happening for what, 5 minutes? I get that it's annoying, but if 5 minutes circling a parking lot would have made him miss his flight, he'd also have missed it if there was even a hint of bad traffic. He also doesn't even allow the customer service person to help him.

Also, the screen in the car has a "pull over" button on it. I guess he missed that? Or, maybe he hit it and it was stuck in a loop trying to find a safe place to pull over? It seems to me that a software button on a touch screen isn't good enough though. They should have a physical big red button that a passenger can't miss and can hit if something is going wrong. But, that's just me.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

How did he not allow them to help? They should be able to remotely take over the car. He's correct that they don't need his phone to correct an issue like this.

He also didn't know how long this could take. Good to have it on a recording in case he was stuck there for an hour and did miss his flight.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 4 months ago

How did he not allow them to help?

He kept talking over the woman who was trying to help. He brought up his flight about 3x. When she asked him to bring up the Waymo app he pushed back rather than just doing what she asked.

He's right that it's dumb if he has to use his phone to do something. But, if she thought that would work, why not try it? I suspect the reason he didn't want to do that is that he was using his phone to record his social media post, and was more concerned with getting his viral post ready vs. trying to actually resolve the situation.

This doesn't make Waymo look good. Their car getting stuck looping a parking lot is ridiculous. The passenger not having an obvious button to push to get the car to immediately stop (or find a safe place to pull over and stop if it's on a highway or something) seems like a big oversight too. The person answering the phone also didn't seem to know how to handle the situation either. Like, this seems like one of the primary things someone on support should know how to do: stop the car and let the passenger get out if there's a problem. But, she seemed to be fumbling to find a solution.

Having said that, the guy seemed to be making the situation worse instead of trying to resolve it and get to the airport.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

To be fair, he couldn't have used the app since he was recording the incident for social media clout. So much more important.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

I was wondering where to sign up when I thought the car was doing donuts

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Did he try opening the door? I haven't watched it, but whenever I open the door in a waymo, it immediately stops

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

I don't know, I doubt it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I’m an Uber driver. This is what I always tells my customers: if you don’t like the way I’m driving just literally open the car door while we’re in motion and I’ll end the ride immediately.

It’s a really good system. Makes a lot of sense.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

😂 I don't understand your point. He was in a parking lot and could have safely exited at any time if he felt unsafe. Using waymo is a choice, and being a new technology, it has a few bugs that, as far as I can tell, have never been life threatening. Before I got a car, about a month ago, I was using Uber for years and Waymo (when it became available) whenever it was too hot for my dog to walk to work. I have only had ONE Uber driver who gave me the impression that they were a safer driver than Waymo. In my own anecdotal experience Waymo is SIGNIFICANTLY safer than human drivers

Edit: two commas