Tech worker says his self-driving Waymo kept going round in circles

PHOENIX: A passenger in a Waymo robot car was left feeling dizzy after his self-driving rideshare drove in multiple circles on its way to Phoenix airport in the US state of Arizona, Road & Track magazine reports.

Tech worker Mike Johns was due to fly to Los Angeles, California, but the autonomous Jaguar I-Pace he was riding drove around in circles at least eight times in a parking lot instead of staying on the proper route to the airport, according to his account to the US publication.

With his seatbelt on, Johns captured the incident on a video which he then posted on his LinkedIn account. Johns said on LinkedIn that he missed his flight to Los Angeles because of the Waymo delay.

The clip shows him in the back of the Waymo vehicle, calling customer support through the car's communication system. When Waymo responds, Johns said he was on his way to a flight and had got stuck in his autonomous Jag.


"I have a flight to catch; why is this thing going in a circle?" Johns asked. "I'm getting dizzy. Look at what it's doing."

In an interview with KCAL News, CBS's Los Angeles affiliate, Johns also said he was unsure if he was talking to a human or an AI-generated bot, and felt unsupported in his bizarre situation.

In a response to Road & Track's request for further information, Waymo said that its rider support team is staffed by trained human operators, not an AI bot.

Johns was stuck in the loop for over five minutes, but once the operator was able to fix the problem, the vehicle drove the rider to his destination.

Waymo says the rider was not charged for his trip due to the inconvenience of the error, and a regularly scheduled software update has reportedly addressed the issue that led to the problem.

Waymo has used self-driving Jaguar I-Pace cars for a number of years in order to supply what it terms as an upscale experience for customers.