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.
Awwrrr great. Technology… solving problems… that we did not had before.
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
I think he’s trapped in that he couldn’t get out of a moving vehicle. Also, it might not let him out for “safety” issues.
Wouldn’t be as good a video tho
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
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
With nothing to keep him company but a bottle of adderall
“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
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’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.
😂 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
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.
Please stop bending over backwards for the corporations. The customer shouldn’t have to control the taxi when they’re calling for emergency support like this. Should he just crawl into the front seat and drive the thing for them as well?
He was on his way to a flight. Flights are expensive. Of course he wants reassurance that his costs will be covered if he misses it due to their failings. He has no idea for how long he’s going to be continually going in circles and we don’t know for how long he’d already been going in circles.
This is a customer in distress and you’re shitting on them because they had a stressed tone towards the mega-corp representative? Shameful.
Please stop bending over backwards for the corporations.
Who’s bending over backwards?
The customer shouldn’t have to control the taxi when they’re calling for emergency support like this
I agree. The car also shouldn’t drive in circles around a parking lot, but here we are. In that situation, you do whatever works. If the fastest or easiest way to resolve the problem is to do something with the app on their phone, then so be it. It does no good to complain about what the solution should be when you’re trying to resolve that. Save that for later once the problem has been resolved.
He was on his way to a flight. Flights are expensive.
Yes, and again, that’s something to address after you fix the problem. Stop interrupting the person who’s trying to help you to ask about compensation for a flight you haven’t yet missed (and probably won’t miss) rather than just do what they say to resolve the problem.
He has no idea for how long he’s going to be continually going in circles
But, it’s going to be a lot longer if he keeps interrupting and bringing up the cost of his flight rather than just doing as the person trying to help him asks.
This is a customer in distress
No, this is a guy trying to make a viral social media post, who obviously cares more about an exciting story than trying to fix the situation. If he cared about fixing it, when the agent asked him to bring up the waymo app on his phone he’d have done it. Instead, he needed to keep his phone in hand so he could keep recording for social media.
Waymo comes out of this looking incompetent, as they should. But, this guy didn’t do anything to make the situation better.
This take is so frustrating. It’s either black or white. Can’t give a small critique without being labeled as a corpo shill. There was equal criticism both ways. Was this the customers fault? No. But could it have been resolved easier/faster if he cooperated? Possibly. It’s a valid criticism and it doesn’t in any way mean that anyone is spreading their cheeks for corporations. Nobody was getting shat on.
That guy is a fucking Karen. Does it suck the car is doing that, sure. But you don’t have to be a complete tool to the customer service representative who has nothing to do with what’s happening right now.
Yes and no. If you’re going to have an independent system like that malfunction then the CS needs a way to save someone from potential harm. People panic and cannot follow instructions and, honestly, this sort of service should have multiple safety features built in if someone is not in control.
Again, the customer service rep didn’t do any of this. They are just following a script.
I’m fairly certain near the end of the video the CS rep says they are going to stop the car for him. So, they have the capabilities on their end, and a self driving vehicle is a bit more of a priority fix for safety of all lives and not just the passenger’s.
It’s not like this is an app malfunctioning where you can close and restart it to force a reset or a shitty uber driver who at least has some form of accountability to the company and their reputation.
Yes, but as a customer, who is probably driving in circles for a while now and needs to catch a flight, I would want this fixed right now.
I mean who am I going to ask to stop the car otherwise? How can you be so numb? Of course it’s not the CS-reps fault, but the customer is completely in the right to react like that in a stressy situation when they have no one else to help them?
I mean who am I going to ask to stop the car otherwise?
There is a button 12" from his face that says “Stop”. He could’ve pressed it.
I saw no button.
Watched the video again and man he stayed relatively calm. I have no idea wtf is wrong with y’all calling him a Karen…Yeah this whole thread reads like a character assassination
I don’t think he was a complete Karen and he brought up several good points. If Elon can remotely unlock a Tesla, then support should be about to abort the ride and stop the car. Problem is this was likely tier 1 support which is just customer issues like billing and what not. He needed like a tier 3 engineer at least. They sure as shit didn’t need him to do something on his phone.
And how do we know his first move wasn’t to try using the app to get the car to stop?
That’s a very good point.
Whipping shitties with the basilisk
Barely made it thru the video, the guy was so annoying I had to look him up:
Like, yeah it would suck, but it had probably been happening for 2 minutes and he wants them to pay for his flight already.
“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.
It will with AI.”
This dude really ought to hire a proofreader.
That site says CEO and based on his entitlement, it seems safe to say he is.
This is honestly like a parody.
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.
Might want to write some code for detecting loops then
Like 30 seconds into the phone call she flat out says they’re taking control remotely.
He just keeps talking nonsense to try and make it take longer for the video. Probably wasn’t even going to the airport lol.
Dude’s whole job is this stupid shit and convincing people he’s a big enough deal they should pay him to talk to them
you spin me right round baby right round…
So where’s the big red button called, “emergency stop”?
Literally right in front of his face. There’s a touchscreen on the seat back with a button to pull over.
It sounds like the tech support agent was trying to get him to do just that on his phone… But I haven’t used Waymo before, so I’m not certain about that.
emergency stop do just that on his phone…
Bruh
It’s also on the big screen right in front of you when your sitting in one. He also could have opened the door and it would have immediately stopped.
I’m guessing the “open the door and the car will stop” system was built by the same people who built the “get in this car and it’ll go to your destination” system.
What is your point? If he didn’t try in the video, you can’t say that wouldn’t have worked. In my own experience, it stops every time the door is open.
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.
Does it have a brake petal? If so I’d imagine that it would still function, even in FSD. You may still be stuck inside the car if the doors won’t unlock until the trip is over.
It does, you can see it go down when it’s breaking
Does it have a brake petal?
The strongest part of a flower!
Hah i’m not even editing that, too funny.
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
Turns out innovation loves shitting on people too
And these self driving cars are doing that how?
