The idea of driverless vehicles has people divided. Some consider it too dystopian, while others find the idea useful and possibly necessary in the future. One project in California, called Waymo taxis, gets people from one place to another in major cities. The catch? It doesn’t have a driver. However, seeing as this is still a project, they are not without fault. In fact, one Waymo self-driving tax stalled out at a fast food drive-thru, clogging up the line for hungry customers.
The incident in question took place on Monday night at the Santa Monica Chick-fil-A on Lincoln Boulevard. Everything seemed normal enough in the line until a Waymo taxi in front of customers appeared to regret its choices. It then stopped moving through the line. Now it went from an annoyance to a problem.
Customers were seen crowding around the vehicle as it seemingly stalled out, backing up and then stopping again. People were left even more disappointed when they discovered that the restaurant was closing but the car continued to stall. Getting stuck behind a slow driver is annoying enough, but now self-driving cars can do it, too?
Naturally, people on Reddit took plenty of shots at Waymo. Reddit user DaggerHDHD had a hilarious realization, “Bro is just on his lunch break figuring out what to order.“ Even cars have trouble getting their order right!
Another comment by limpchimpblimp, “Who among us hasn’t gotten stuck in a chick-fil-a drive thru?“ Or maybe it was considering supporting another fast-food chain.
Since the arrival of Waymo taxis on our roads several years ago, there have been several incidents reported like this. Some were not as funny, but outright catastrophic. In 2024, a Waymo taxi was involved in a multi-vehicle collision that led to a fatality. There have also been reports of these vehicles being turned around abruptly in traffic or going in the wrong direction.
What did Waymo have to say about the Chick-fil-A incident once it was reported to corporate? “We are committed to continuously improving our service and making appropriate updates to prevent this from happening in the future.” If you’ve ever felt “hangry”, you just know those customers left without food were not as forgiving on the matter.
Though this particular situation ended with a stalled Waymo and hungry customers, it calls into question the safety of self-driving cars. Do the benefits outweigh the risks? Will we ever achieve the point in which these vehicles have a high safety rating that allows for absolutely no mistakes? Only the future will be able to tell if Waymo, as well as other self-driving vehicles, will make things more efficient for us or cause us more grief than good.
