Waymo is under new scrutiny in Austin after one of its robotaxis blocked an ambulance responding to the mass shooting on West Sixth Street.
In a viral video posted after the shooting — which began just before 2 a.m. Sunday and left three dead and 14 injured — a Waymo robotaxi is seen blocking an Austin-Travis County EMS ambulance as the driverless vehicle attempts a U-turn and gets stuck crosswise across the street.
The video, posted on TikTok by Austin Realtor Matthew Turnage, shows the Waymo blocking the street with the ambulance inching closer. The Waymo moves forward a tad before freezing.
People can be heard shouting at the robotaxi to “go!” with one person saying, “This is why we shouldn’t have self-driving cars.”
The ambulance eventually reversed down the street to find another route as an Austin police officer got into the driver’s seat of the Waymo to drive it out of the street.
Waymo confirmed the incident in a statement late Sunday.
“A rider hailed a car for a pickup in the wake of this event. As the Waymo vehicle approached the pickup spot along the same route as other traffic, it encountered emergency personnel,” the company said. “The vehicle immediately began making a U-turn to clear the way, and a nearby officer assisted. We are deeply appreciative of first responders and our shared effort to safety and serving the community.”
Texas law requires autonomous vehicle companies to create an action plan with law enforcement that includes response training, how to contact a Waymo representative and more. The company has said that such plans and discussions have taken place with the Austin Police Department.
The incident did not impact response time or have an affect on shooting victims, Austin-Travis County EMS Chief Robert Luckritz said during a press conference Monday afternoon.
“We continue to coordinate with companies operating autonomous vehicles in our area to ensure their systems and our response procedures work together safely and effectively,” EMS said in a statement.
The new incident comes after earlier concerns about Waymo operations in Austin — and an earlier viral video of one of its errant robotaxis.
In December, a video showed a Waymo driving in the wrong direction on the North Interstate 35 frontage road near East Ninth Street.
Before that, Austin ISD officials urged the company to halt operations during morning and afternoon school dropoff and pickup times after observing the company’s robotaxis illegally passing stopped school buses. After the district captured video of Waymos violating the law that requires vehicles to stop for buses with flashing red lights and deployed stop arms, he company issued a software recall and said it was working with the district to gather data necessary to resolve the issue.
Similar incidents have occurred with Waymo’s vehicles in Atlanta, with the cases in both cities prompting an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
In January, one of Waymo’s vehicles struck a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica, Calif. The company reported the incident to the NHTSA, which opened an investigation to assess “whether the Waymo AV exercised appropriate caution given, among other things, its proximity to the elementary school during drop off hours, and the presence of young pedestrians and other potential vulnerable road users.”
The video of Sunday’s incident in Austin had been viewed more than 542,000 times as of Monday morning.
Alex Driggars contributed to this report.