Man trapped inside driverless car as it spins in circles
Man trapped inside driverless car as it spins in circles
Mike Johns was on his way to the airport when the Waymo robotaxi began circling a parking lot non-stop
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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"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.
To be fair, he couldn't have used the app since he was recording the incident for social media clout. So much more important.
I was wondering where to sign up when I thought the car was doing donuts
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.
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.
Did he try opening the door? I haven't watched it, but whenever I open the door in a waymo, it immediately stops
I don't know, I doubt it.
I didn't watch the video, but was he really not capable of opening the doors? I've taken a waymo quite a few times and it used to try dropping me off in front my neighbors house instead of where I live, so I would just open the door and it would immediately stop
There's a button inside to signal the car to pull over. He's only "trapped" in the sense that he might miss his flight if he has to wait for a different car to come pick him up.
Gotcha, that does make sense. I was under the impression the parking lot he was going in circles in was at the airport. If that isn't the case, than I understand his position more. He's still a Karen though
Wouldn't be as good a video tho
We're in the mirror verse. Satire writers wrote this entire universe. Next thing he's going to be auto driven into a shipping container and sent to a private island of a billionaire because the car was called home
Has it been hacked? Jesus, no! That would’ve been way worse. It’s a parking lot so probably the car can’t find its exit.
What bothers me is that the woman in the other end doesn’t have the option to control the car herself. That would’ve been the very first thing to do.
you spin me right round baby right round...
Whipping shitties with the basilisk
Yeah, that's the time I start jumping over the seat to pull a brake or something. Needs to be a hardware kill switch in the passenger reach here, no calling in or hoping some app works.
That's just the astronaut training feature, not sure why he's complaining.
Shouldn't have gotten in that car in the first place, Mike. What a Karen.
He's a Karen, but it has nothing to do with the cars. Self driving cars will definitely be the norm in the future (as long as society doesn't collapse). This incident is so minor. It's only a story because the dude was an idiot and people love shitting on innovation