A driverless Waymo vehicle was pulled over by police last month in Phoenix, Arizona, and the moment was caught on camera.
A Phoenix police officer pulled over a driverless Waymo car on June 19 after witnessing the vehicle going “haywire” in traffic, according to a report by FOX 10 Phoenix.
Watch Below:
“I got an unmanned vehicle that was kind of taking off from me, it’s a Waymo car,” the police officer can be heard saying.
After pulling the vehicle over, a passerby approached the officer, saying, “I couldn’t help but come over here just out of morbid curiosity. I thought maybe there was a passenger or something.”
“Yeah,” the office replied. “You know the construction here? It was going eastbound in the westbound lanes, which is real bad. So I light it up, and it takes off in the intersection.”
Resident Phil Briggs told FOX 10 Phoenix that he was nearly sideswiped by a driverless Waymo vehicle in a separate, unrelated incident.
“It was making a right onto Washington, almost hit me. I had to swerve into the fast lane,” Briggs recalled. “My son saw an accident. We’ve seen them dead in the water in the middle of the intersection. I don’t see any good from it at all.”
Waymo told FOX 10 Phoenix in a statement that its cars “are better drivers than humans and are three-and-a-half times more likely to avoid crashes.”
“So, your car here drove into oncoming lanes of traffic,” the officer can be heard saying to what appeared to be a remote individual listening in on the Waymo car was pulled over on June 19.
Waymo reportedly blamed the incident on construction in the city, saying the construction signage has been inconsistent, adding that the vehicle impeded oncoming traffic because the officer had blocked the driverless car.
The incident reportedly last one minute.
“If you or I were driving like that and we get pulled over, we get a ticket. So somebody needs to be held accountable,” Briggs said.
Police said they are allowed to cite Waymo, but noted that this is not something they see or do often.
“Waymo also makes it very easy for law enforcement to simply press the help button on the inside of the car, and get connected immediately to a 24/7 service member that will be able to talk them through moving the vehicle off the road, finding the insurance information, or whatever information the officer needs for their investigation,” Phoenix Police Sgt. Brian Bower said.
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