A Waymo vehicle lost control, went offroad and crashed into parked cars In Echo Park, surveillance video obtained by NBC Los Angeles showed.
The video captured a blue Waymo van traveling at a high speed on a residential street last Sunday. At one point, the car was on the hillside, instead of taking the roadway, and knocked down a street sign.
A security camera from a different angle then caught the vehicle slamming into several parked cars on the same street. The driver-side door to a one car was completely destroyed, while another car’s back bumper was heavily damaged.
The man whose surveillance cameras captured the ordeal said it all happened “really fast” as he believes the vehicle was traveling up to 40 miles per hour.
“When I saw a car that was coming from the corner, so I just saw that he was coming faster. Then he went up to the hill,” Salvador Donantonio described, adding that neighbors typically drive 5 to 10 miles per hour on the same narrow street.
The Waymo van finally came to a full stop when it got flat tires. Cellphone video from the scene showed the front bumper of the car was severely damaged, and the airbags were blown inside.
Representatives from the self-driving car company told NBC Los Angeles that an “autonomous specialist” was manually driving when he lost control. There were no riders inside the car.
After seeing the vehicle crashing into his neighbor’s car, Donnantoino said he ran outside and saw the driver.
“I pulled him out,” he described, saying the Waymo employee looked like he was hurt by the air bags. “(The driver said) he was trying to hit the brake, but he said that he lost control.”
The company also said the driver was able to exit the vehicle on his own. The same cellphone video also showed the driver appearing to be disoriented and shocked moments after the vehicle came to a stop.
No one else was injured during the incident, Waymo officials said.