Waymo car cruise directly into an active LAPD standoff, what the company has to say about it is pure gold

A driverless Waymo car decided to turn directly into an active police standoff in downtown Los Angeles, as per TMZ. This whole unbelievable scene was caught on video, which is now spreading like wildfire across social media.

The viral video shows the autonomous ride service vehicle taking a left turn and just cruising right into the middle of what looks like a seriously intense situation involving the LAPD. If driverless cars are truly the future, we might be seeing bizarre incidents like this way more often.

This wasn’t some minor traffic disruption, either. The problem is that the Waymo robotaxi drove right past a man lying face down on the ground next to a truck. Behind the man, you’ve got multiple LAPD cars and officers lined up, shouting commands at the scene. To add to the dramatic effect, there was an LAPD helicopter circling overhead.

Seeing a robot car bumble into the eye of a storm like that is almost impossible not to laugh at

Luckily, the situation resolved quickly for the passengers inside the vehicle. A representative for Waymo told TMZ that the car “cleared the scene in a matter of seconds” and that the people inside “made it safely to their destination.”

That’s a huge relief for the riders, but it makes you wonder what the vehicle’s operating algorithm was thinking when it decided that was the optimal route. It seems like the system completely failed to register the shouts, the commands, and the general presence of a major police operation.

While this standoff incident is definitely the most dramatic, Waymo’s rollout in Los Angeles hasn’t been smooth sailing generally. They’ve hit quite a few speed bumps since launching service in the region, especially after Waymo CEO’s bizarre admission about their safety statistics.

This isn’t the first time the company has dealt with police intervention. We’ve seen Waymos getting pulled over by officers before, like the time one got stopped in Beverly Hills for making an illegal turn. That’s frustrating for local law enforcement, but the issues get much more serious than simple traffic violations.

Earlier this summer, Waymo actually had to suspend service entirely. That suspension happened because some of their cars were torched amid protests concerning immigration raids. That’s awful for the company’s bottom line, and it seriously harms public trust in driverless technology.

It’s not just LA-specific chaos, either. We’ve all seen the videos of Waymos struggling with mundane, everyday tasks. Remember the times they got completely stuck in fast food drive-thrus because they couldn’t figure out how to process the order or navigate the tight curves? Or when the cars decided to take riders on scenic tours around in circles instead of dropping them off at the airport on time? The latter isn’t isolated to robotaxis, though.

However, if we’re trusting these vehicles with safety and navigation in high-stress environments, they really need to be able to identify situations like an active police standoff. The fact that the car drove right past the man on the ground and the officers shouting commands shows a serious flaw in scene assessment.