A Waymo passenger hopped out of one of the self-driving cars as it stopped on a set of light rail tracks with a train looming behind.
The terrifying moment took place in south Phoenix last Wednesday morning (Jan. 7) when the vehicle suddenly came to a halt on newly-built light rail tracks, according to NBC-affiliate 12 News.
After a moment, the passenger quickly flees the car after a light rail train veers behind. The autonomous car attempts to move forward along the tracks and later appears to reverse a bit.
The video, which was recorded by a bystander, has since gone viral on social media and racked up more than 5.5 million views on TikTok.
Phoenix police said they received a call about the situation but the Waymo had left before officers could arrive. They also reported that there was no disruption to light rail service.
Andrew Maynard, an Arizona State University professor who teaches advanced technology, told 12 News that situations like this are rare but can happen.
"Humans are really good at seeing a brand new situation and trying to work out how to get around it. Waymos don't have that capability,” he said. “They are smarter than humans when they know the road, and they get confused when something completely blindsides them."
He noted the area is surrounded by construction and that the light rail station was built within the past year, which may have contributed to the incident.
"The cars very intentionally follow mapped-out roads. They're good if there's, say, road works there, but not so good if there's been a structural change to the road setup," Maynard explained.
He also said, "Waymo will react very fast if they see an issue like this. They will look at the software, work out where the bugs are, where they need to update it, and they will push an update out very fast indeed.”
The incident happened on a relatively new stretch of track that is part of Valley Metro’s south Phoenix light rail extension, which opened last summer after years of construction.