’32 cameras on each car and they still managed to hit each other’: Waymo’s bizarre three-car pileup in SF ends with a worker trying to fix a robot

Waymo just took a pretty big reputational hit after footage surfaced showing three of its self-driving vehicles completely stuck in a bizarre “standoff” on a San Francisco street. It looks like two of the robotaxis actually hit each other, which instantly activated their emergency mode. That collision caused a third approaching Waymo to stop several feet away, resulting in a ridiculous traffic jam.

The whole incident was captured on video by TikToker @chii_rinna, and the footage has already racked up over 3.8 million views. This is awful for Waymo’s image, especially as the company tries to expand its services. All three cars were emitting some kind of alarm sound, and the two that were touching bumpers had their emergency lights flashing. The third car just had its spinning indicators signaling that it had detected a major problem nearby.

The TikToker noted that the “cars is stuck” and they were causing a massive traffic jam. She added that the situation was “so funny,” but if you were one of the drivers trapped, you probably wouldn’t be laughing. What really drives me crazy about this is the technology involved. People online were quick to point out the absurdity of the situation.

How can these cars, supposedly safer than human drivers, crash into each other and then freeze up?

One TikTok commenter asked, “all those cameras and sensors and they still found a way to hit each other?” Another user wondered the same thing, asking, “32 cameras on each car and they still managed to hit each other.” This is the core issue: Waymo claims these cars are safer, but they seem completely incapable of handling novel or unexpected situations without getting into a deadlock.

In this San Francisco case, a follow-up video showed a Waymo worker in an emergency vest having to physically tinker with the interior of one of the cars. Eventually, one of the vehicles started moving down the street again. It is still unclear exactly how long it took the worker to clear the entire mess and resolve the traffic jam.

This incident isn’t happening in a vacuum. These “autonomous” vehicles continue to struggle with complex or novel situations. Just last week, another video spread online showing a Waymo taxi, full of passengers, driving right into an active police standoff area.

These kinds of high-profile incidents fuel widespread public distrust. Many commenters are now calling for regulation or even for the robotaxis to be outlawed completely. One user wrote that “This is why Waymo’s need to be outlawed, if there was an emergency vehicle that needed to get through, people could lose their lives over these self driving cars being in the way.”

Another commenter suggested that “Waymo needs to rack up fines for doing this just like a human powered car would.” Officials speaking with the San Francisco Chronicle tried to characterize the bizarre three-car pileup as a “teachable moment” for their self-driving taxis. Honestly, you’d think they’d have learned this lesson about basic collision avoidance by now.