A self-driving car driver in Los Angeles found himself trapped inside, almost missing his flight.
The affair, involving a Waymo car, occurred last fortnight in Scottsdale, Arizona, as Mike Johns was on his way to the airport, CBS News reported.
In a video shared on Linked In, Johns described the struggle. ” I got a flight to catch. What causes this to group around? He called a Waymo customer service representative from the back in panic and said,” I’m getting dizzy.
According to his LinkedIn post, the automobile made “eight lines” before stopping. ” It felt like a picture in a sci-fi thriller”, Johns wrote.
As Johns searched for answers, the self-driving car officially began circling a parking lot. ” I’ve got my desk belt in,” she said. I didn’t get out of the vehicle. Has this been compromised? What’s going on? I feel like I’m in the videos. Is someone making fun of me? he asked the consultant.
Johns was given the go-ahead by Waymo’s customer service team, who later took control of the vehicle from a distance, giving him the opportunity to board the plane with little delay.
Despite the firm waiving the tour’s value, Johns expressed sadness at the lack of follow-up on his Linked In. ” You’d think by now Waymo do message, text, or call for a follow-up. Nope, consumer service is automated and ran by AI”, he said.
Waymo informed CBS that the incident just caused a five-minute delay, and that they have since made an attempt to contact Johns.
Johns, a researcher in artificial intelligence, is optimistic that self-driving vehicles may become popular again. ” Where’s the emotion? Where’s the animal relation to this”? he told CBS News. Johns more wrote on LinkedIn that he is now unlikely to count on a “humanless” self-driving vehicles in the future. Otherwise, he plans to “keep it conventional” and opt for services like Lyft or Uber.
Waymo, previously part of Google’s Self-Driving Car Project, operates in Phoenix, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
