Waymo Self-Driving Taxi Gets ‘Stuck’ Driving In A Loop In A Parking Lot, Nearly Making Passenger Sick And Late For His Flight

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Self-driving taxies are becoming more and more popular in the cities where they are being tested.
While these taxies are great most of the time, it is clear that they are still in the testing phases and that some issues need to be worked out. A video shared by Mike Johns, a tech entrepreneur, on his LinkedIn page has gone viral because it shows his Waymo self-driving taxi going around a loop in a parking lot repeatedly.
The taxi can’t seem to figure out what it is just doing the same loop over and over again, and that it needs to actually turn out of the parking lot to bring the passenger to its final destination.
After a couple of loops, Johns got nervous that the vehicle may have been hacked or having other types of issues. Fortunately, Waymo taxi’s have the option for passengers to reach out to customer support in real time, which is exactly what he did. In his post, he outlines what he said:
“I have a flight to catch, why is this thing going in a circle? I’m going dizzy. I’ve got my seatbelt on, I can’t get out of the car. Has this been hacked? What’s going on?”
In a report from the LA Times, Johns did manage to get to the airport on time once the Waymo customer support team was able to manually override the loop that the vehicle was stuck in. He was also given a full refund for the trip.

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In the caption of his video, however, he expressed his dissatisfaction with the experience:
“My Waymo experience sucked. Mind you I was on my way to the airport and nearly missed my flight. I’ll keep it old fashion and just Lyft or Uber.”
What a world we live in where Lyft and Uber are ‘old fashioned’ but I digress.
While this video does highlight the fact that self-driving vehicles (at least those run by Google subsidiary, Waymo) aren’t quite to perfection yet, it wasn’t all bad news. While inconvenient, the car did get him to the airport and it also kept him safe throughout his trip.
You can see the video that was posted here:
Maybe the vehicle was just trying to have some fun?
Thought that was fascinating? Here’s another story you might like: Why You’ll Never See A Great White Shark In An Aquarium

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