“People were saying that they were stuck in traffic for hours.”<\/p>\n
A second video taken in another part of the Presidio showed additional Waymo vehicles stopped in the street.<\/p>\n
Waymo said in a statement: “On July 4th, extreme traffic congestion in Northern San Francisco disrupted normal operations for several Waymo vehicles.”<\/p>\n
Many people in the area reported losing cell phone service during the congestion.<\/p>\n
MORE: How Waymo went from secret Google project to dominant robotaxi company<\/a><\/p>\n Phil Koopman, professor emeritus at Carnegie Mellon University who has spent more than 20 years studying autonomous vehicles, said communication disruptions can create challenges for autonomous vehicle operations.<\/p>\n “If there’s no communications, it can’t get the help, and it’s stuck. But you also have a problem, they don’t have that many remote assistants. It’s a few dozen, so if 100 cars all get stuck at the same time, there aren’t enough people to all get unstuck at the same time,” Koopman said.<\/p>\n Waymo worked with officials to clear the vehicles, but some remained idle long enough that they had to be towed.<\/p>\n Separate video showed a Waymo vehicle carrying passengers driving over a lit firework.<\/p>\n Rose Peterson, a passenger traveling inside the Waymo braced herself as her vehicle drove over the exploding firework.<\/p>\n “The more me and my fianc\u00e9 were talking about it, something really bad could have happened to us, something bad could have happened to the people around us. It was a very scary situation. Thinking about it still today, I’m really grateful to be here, honestly,” Petersom said.<\/p>\n MORE: VIDEO: Waymos stalled, confused in San Francisco as people climb, flip off from robotaxis<\/a><\/p>\n That vehicle did not catch fire, but another unoccupied Waymo vehicle did, according to the report.<\/p>\n No injuries were reported in either incident.<\/p>\n Waymo said, “We take situations like this seriously and are committed to evaluating and learning from these events.”<\/p>\n Peterson said the scene after the fireworks was particularly unusual.<\/p>\n “Oh my gosh, the long roads of San Francisco, it was just a row of Waymos. I didn’t see a single normal car, it was crazy.” she said.<\/p>\n The closure of the Golden Gate Bridge added to traffic challenges in the area, where large crowds gathered to watch fireworks launched from the bridge.<\/p>\n State law allows autonomous vehicles to be cited, though it was unclear whether any citations were issued in connection with the incident.<\/p>\n
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