A mother in Los Angeles was horrified to discover a seemingly unstable man hiding in the trunk of a Waymo robotaxi she had booked for her daughter. The unsettling encounter, captured in a video, quickly sparked public debate about the safety of autonomous vehicles.

The video shows the mother confronting the man in the Waymo's trunk, repeatedly asking why he was there. The man slammed the back of the seat, exclaiming, "This thing won't let me out." When she pressed further, he responded, "They locked me in here," vaguely referring to "those people."

A subsequent video, posted by the mother and daughter, confirmed that police removed the stowaway from the vehicle. During the incident, the mother was on the phone with a Waymo representative, who offered a refund for another ride.

The incident left many users shocked, questioning how a self-driving vehicle could lack systems to detect a person hiding inside. "Doesn't Waymo have 30 cameras inside the car?" one user asked online. Another commented, "Everyone needs to stop using Waymo vehicles. It's too risky for many reasons." A third user expressed relief, sharing, "Be careful with Waymo. I'm glad you saw him and that you're safe."

Waymo, owned by Alphabet, Google's parent company, issued a statement confirming that its support team assisted the customer and ensured her safety. The driverless taxi company actively tests its autonomous fleet in major US cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City, where a number of incidents have occurred.

Notably, in late October, a Waymo vehicle ran over and killed a beloved cat at a San Francisco grocery store. Earlier, in late July, two Waymo cars collided in the parking lot of Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport in Arizona.

By My Anh, according to New York Post