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BY MAX MILLER DEC. 10, 2025 7:15 AM EST
Los Angeles police were in the middle of a high-stakes standoff with a potentially dangerous criminal early one morning when they received an unexpected visitor: a Waymo vehicle. The Alphabet-owned Waymo company, which operates driverless rideshare cabs across multiple states, has drawn safety concerns from critics, some of which were buoyed by a viral video of a white vehicle outfitted with the company’s array of sensors passing through the scene of a felony arrest in progress.
In the video, which was shared on Instagram by local influencer Alex Choi and subsequently aired by various news outlets, a man can be seen lying facedown on the pavement in an intersection as a line of police vehicles sits behind him. That’s when the Waymo vehicle enters the scene, driving within mere feet of the suspected felon as it turns left to leave the intersection. The suspect can be seen reacting to the presence of the driverless car, though he does not attempt to get off the ground. Over comments from the person recording the smartphone clip, police can be heard fruitlessly instructing the Waymo to turn left. The driverless car, needless to say, does not hear them, though it does find its way out of the intersection after several moments. At that point, officers rush in to apprehend the suspect.
Waymo downplays concerns after its driverless car interrupts a felony arrest
The viral video of a driverless Waymo vehicle driving into a tense police standoff with a suspected felon made waves across the Internet, but Waymo downplayed fears the video raised. In a statement shared with multiple media outlets, the company said, “Safety is our highest priority at Waymo, both for people who choose to ride with us and with whom we share the streets. When we encounter unusual events like this one, we learn from them as we continue improving road safety and operating in dynamic cities.”
Waymo also told members of the press that the driverless car was only in the middle of the highly volatile traffic arrest for “no more than 15 seconds.” According to the LAPD, the incident did not disrupt their work. It appears the only real harm done was giving the occupant of the vehicle a bit of an early-morning excitement. Still, the incident is only the latest viral video to feature a Waymo exhibiting concerning behavior, and it comes amid increased scrutiny around Waymo’s operations. On December 8, Waymo announced a voluntary software recall for its vehicles after multiple reported instances in which they passed by stopped school buses, an illegal maneuver. Those instances are under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Waymo’s rubbernecking highlights issues with current driverless tech
The latest viral Waymo going off the rails in California incident highlights growing concerns as driverless vehicles are integrated into a traffic system built for human drivers. Autonomous vehicles have been a major focus for tech companies, particularly Alphabet, for over a decade. Although companies including Waymo and Tesla now operate driverless rideshare services on city streets across the United States, none of them are truly autonomous. Tesla keeps a person present in the driver’s seat to take over should anything go wrong. Waymo vehicles carry only their passenger, with no driver present. Even so, a remote operator can intervene in some situations.
Although early research shows promise in regard to autonomous driving system safety, they still present concerning limitations. For instance, one study published in Nature showed that “autonomous driven vehicles” have a lower chance of accidents in most scenarios, but that the trend reverses at dusk and dawn, when they become 5.25 times more likely to get in an accident. Autonomous vehicles rely on computer vision and LIDAR sensors, which may explain these findings. Unlike humans, who can recognize a school bus regardless of the time, a computer system trained primarily on daytime images might fail to identify the bus in nighttime conditions. When encountering a police standoff, the novelty of the situation may have confused a driverless Waymo.
Original:
https://www.slashgear.com/2048114/waymo-driverless-car-active-crime-scene-los-angeles
