LA mom orders driverless Waymo taxi for daughter, finds man hiding in trunk claiming ‘the people’ trapped him: video
A woman who ordered a self-driving Waymo ride for her daughter was horrified to find a neurotic man in the car’s trunk, and the viral video of their bizarre interaction is ushering in a wave of new criticism of the driverless taxi company and its safety standards.
In the video, shared on TikTok, the passenger’s mother berates a stupefied man who was curled up in the trunk of the Waymo in Los Angeles.
“Why the f—k are you in the trunk?!” the mom yells at the stranger.
“This s–t won’t let me out,” the man said as he smacked the back of a seat headrest.
“Why are you in it?” the woman demanded.
“They put me in here,” the man answered, as if it were obvious.
“Who put you in?” the woman pressed.
“The-The people. The people,” the frantic man tried to explain, despite the car having no human driver.
The rogue passenger was removed from the vehicle by police, according to a second TikTok video posted by the mother-daughter duo.
The woman remained on the phone with a Waymo representative, who promised to “provide a credit” for a new ride, according to the second clip.
Many viewers were shocked that the robotaxi wasn’t already equipped with a system that could detect the stowaway.
“Doesn’t Waymo have like 30 cameras inside the car?” one user noted.
“Literally saw a video where they squeezed an extra person and the Waymo said they had cameras and it wouldn’t move until they got out, and so how is this overlooked???” another questioned.
“Everybody has to stop using these Waymo cars. Way too risky for so many reasons,” another said.
“Gots to be Waymo careful. I’m glad you saw him and you are safe,” one user joked.
Waymo, which is owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, said its support team assisted the customer and ensured she was OK.
“We’re committed to keeping our riders safe and earning the trust of the communities where we operate. This experience was unacceptable, and we are actively implementing changes to address this,” a Waymo spokesperson said in a statement to The Post.
The driverless taxi company has used cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and even New York City as testing grounds for its fleet of autonomous vehicles — which have caused disasters left and right.
In late October, one Waymo mowed down a beloved bodega cat in San Francisco.
During the height of the Los Angeles anti-ICE protests in June, many agitators ordered Waymos just so they could torch the vehicles.
Since Waymo made its way to the Big Apple in July, the robotaxis have been flagged for making illegal U-turns and bizarrely zigzagging through narrow tunnels.
