Waymo’s robotaxis had a rough Fourth of July. In San Francisco they ran out of charge, snarled traffic for hours, and one drove over a lit firework and caught fire.
Over the holiday weekend, driverless Waymo cars became the story instead of the technology. In San Francisco, dozens stalled in the gridlock after the Golden Gate Bridge fireworks. Several ran out of battery, and crews had to tow them away, NBC Bay Area reports. One resident said he sat in traffic for two hours. People climbed out of their cars to yell at the empty vehicles.
‘Are we on fire, dude?’
It got stranger. At least two Waymos drove over fireworks lit in the road. One caught fire on Connecticut Street, CBS News reports. A passenger, Rose Peterson, filmed her Waymo rolling over a lit firework at a four-way stop. “Are we on fire, dude?” a rider asks on the clip, shared by Mashable. Waymo told the outlet there were no injuries or damage. It has since contacted the rider.
San Francisco fire crews fielded more than 500 calls that night. The trouble reached beyond California, too. In Atlanta, drivers filmed themselves stuck behind three Waymos frozen at an intersection. It was the latest in a run of viral clips from the city.
