“Can you guys hear me?”
A man in Austin, Texas says he had a frightening experience while riding in a Waymo. It may have you rethinking whether to take the driverless taxis.
Tyler Crawford (@tylerlcrawford) filmed himself inside the autonomous vehicle as it appeared to drive toward oncoming traffic. In the video, Crawford calls Waymo support in real time, trying to flag what was happening.
“The car is going the wrong way,” he tells them.
“It’s going on the wrong side of the road,” he says to a customer support representative.
Crawford shows support staff attempting to “escalate” the situation to another team member. But when he’s transferred, the connection proves difficult.
“Can you guys hear me? No?” Crawford is heard saying. “I’m going to get out of the car. I’ll just figure it out myself.”
In the caption accompanying the clip, Crawford says he has “always loved” using Waymos but admitted the incident left him shaken about getting back in one.
“It took more than five minutes to reach someone who could actively help me get the vehicle out of that construction zone,” he writes, adding that the car had turned “into an active construction zone and then started driving into oncoming traffic.”
He ended the post by asking other riders to share their own experiences using the service, prompting a wave of responses.
As of this writing, the video has racked up more than 1.6 million views.
There have been a handful of incidents over the past couple of years where driverless Waymo vehicles ended up going the wrong way or drifting into opposing traffic. Some of those moments were caught on camera and spread quickly online, fueling concerns about how the technology handles unpredictable road conditions.
There’s been at least one more case in Austin, where a Waymo was filmed driving the wrong direction along a downtown frontage road. Other drivers had to slow down or stop as it moved through the lane. And in Arizona, a Waymo turned into opposing traffic near Arizona State University after a light change; the near miss drew attention locally.
Waymo has said that it is “committed to improving road safety” and takes these situations seriously. That said, construction zones and dense city driving can all force the vehicles to reroute in ways that may look unusual to nearby drivers. The company maintains that safety remains the top priority.
Still, each incident tends to spark the same set of questions.
Regulators, local officials, and riders often want to know how accountability works when there is no human behind the wheel. And while some observers view the maneuvers as dangerous, others argue the vehicles are reacting to obstacles in real time.
As autonomous fleets expand, that tension between innovation and public comfort is likely to keep resurfacing.
Commenters who watched Crawford’s video said they were stunned the service was still active, pointing to what they described as a growing list of rider concerns.
One viewer questioned the company’s continued presence outright. “How is Waymo still operating?” they asked.
Another wondered what was driving demand. “Are Waymo’s cheap? Cause why are we riding in these?” they added.
“Why do people support these vehicles lol,” a third commenter wrote.
“Waymo is danger,” a fourth posted.
Some reactions focused less on the vehicle itself and more on Crawford’s interaction with support staff.
“No sense of care or urgency,” one person remarked.
Another took aim at the call experience. “Got to love you’re getting customer service from halfway across the world,” they said.
“Service rep was probably AI as well,” a third viewer quipped.
For some, the clip was enough to turn them off the service entirely.
“I will never in my life take a Waymo,” one person wrote. “This is terrifying.”
“Waymo won’t get a dollar outta me,” another added. “Nope. No thanks.”
“And this is why I will never use Waymo,” a third echoed.
Motor1 has contacted Crawford via a direct message on TikTok and Waymo through email. We’ll update this if either responds.
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– The Motor1.com Team