Thomas Unise
A Waymo self-driving taxi created a dangerous situation last Wednesday when it drove onto light rail tracks in Phoenix, Arizona, prompting its passenger to abandon the vehicle as a train approached. The incident, captured in viral footage, highlights ongoing safety concerns with autonomous vehicle technology.
The Incident Details
The viral TikTok video shows the Waymo vehicle driving along light rail tracks in Phoenix as if they were a regular road. As the situation became precarious, the passenger exited the vehicle during one of its stops. The robotaxi continued making questionable decisions, including stopping as a railcar approached on opposing tracks and then attempting to reverse while still on the tracks.
Valley Metro, the local transit authority, confirmed the incident occurred around 9 a.m. near Southern Avenue and Central Avenue. Transit staff responded to the scene and contacted Waymo. To minimize service disruptions, trains had to exchange passengers and reverse direction.
Pattern of Autonomous Vehicle Issues
This incident adds to a growing list of concerning behaviors exhibited by Waymo’s autonomous vehicles:
- Driving on the wrong side of roads
- Getting stuck in roundabouts
- Driving through police standoffs
- Ignoring stopped school buses
- Running over and killing a cat in San Francisco
Public scrutiny of robotaxis has intensified following a major disruption in San Francisco last month, when a power outage caused Waymo vehicles to malfunction collectively, blocking intersections and creating traffic chaos.
Expert Perspective
Andrew Maynard, a professor of emerging technologies at Arizona State University, characterized the rail track incident as an “edge case” where the autonomous system encountered an unexpected situation it couldn’t properly handle. “It obviously made a bad decision and got itself in a difficult place,” Maynard told local news station KTVK.
At the time of reporting, Waymo had not issued a statement regarding the incident.
The Broader Context
This incident occurs amid growing deployment of autonomous vehicles across the United States, with companies like Waymo expanding operations despite occasional high-profile failures. The technology promises safer roads through elimination of human error, but critics point to these incidents as evidence that the technology isn’t yet ready for widespread adoption.
The Phoenix incident raises important questions about how autonomous vehicles handle unusual scenarios and the potential risks when they encounter situations beyond their programming parameters.
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