Bay Area protester traps Waymo robotaxi trapping Doug Fulop
Back in January, a protester in the San Francisco Bay Area managed to trap a Waymo self-driving car by standing close enough to trigger its safety stop, leaving tech worker Doug Fulop and two passengers stuck inside for six minutes.
The protester threatened them while the crowd cheered, and police and Waymo customer service were called, but neither was much help in the moment.
The group finally escaped when the supportive crowd distracted the protester long enough for the robotaxi to drive away.
Doug Fulop avoids Waymo, urges protections
After the scare, Fulop said he avoided hailing Waymos for some time and that he will avoid riding them at night until the company updates its pedestrian safety policy and is urging the company to step up its passenger protections.
As he put it, "As passengers, we deserve more safety than that if someone is trying to attack us."
The incident has sparked fresh worries about how ready self-driving cars really are for real-world risks.