Waymo passenger jumps out of self-driving car after it stops on rail tracks near oncoming train

PHOENIX (KPHO/Gray News) — A Waymo self-driving car was seen driving down Phoenix light rail tracks this week, forcing a passenger to flee the vehicle before it continued along the tracks near an oncoming train.

Video taken by a bystander Wednesday shows the moment the self-driving car stops on the tracks just before an oncoming light rail approaches. The passenger runs out of the vehicle before the car continues to drive down the tracks near another train.

“I actually felt a little sorry for the car. It obviously made a bad decision and got itself in a difficult place,” said Andrew Maynard, an emerging and transformative technology professor at Arizona State University.

Maynard said, while these situations are rare, they do happen.

“This is exactly one of those edge cases, what we call them. Something unexpected where the machine drove like a machine rather than a person,” Maynard said.

Waymo vehicles are equipped with 29 cameras and have their routes and systems updated weekly. However, in the area where the incident happened, there was construction. The light rail was added to this spot within the last year, which Maynard said could have contributed to the rail track detour.

“I think Waymo has a challenge because no matter what they do with their system, there are always going to be unexpected circumstances where they have to learn from them,” Maynard said.

While incidents like this may draw skepticism about how safe these cars are, Maynard said he believes they are likely safer than typical human drivers.

“These cars, in many circumstances, are safer than human drivers because they don’t have distractions, like a human driver does,” Maynard said.

A Valley Metro spokesperson said an employee who noticed the Waymo vehicle immediately notified the operations control center.

“Light rail operations staff responded to the scene, and Waymo was contacted. To minimize service impacts, northbound and southbound trains exchanged passengers before reversing direction to continue service,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

Valley Metro said the incident caused no significant delays and the scene was clear within 15 minutes.