3 Waymo Crash and Standoff Traps SF Neighborhood
On a random Saturday, San Francisco residents were in for a nasty surprise. Three of Google’s driverless Waymo taxis malfunctioned, blocking a one-way street and leaving a neighborhood stranded.
My brother is in San Francisco and texted me the kind of video that makes you laugh out loud, then say, “Oh no!” On a steep residential street, two Waymo taxis had collided. The accident looked like a simple fender bender. But a third Waymo had pulled up to the hood of the two cars, and the three vehicles were frozen in place.
ABC7 News explained, “Three driverless Waymos were locked in a ‘standoff’ on a San Francisco residential street.” The taxis were understandably “frustrating human drivers who were subsequently blocked in on a dead-end road.”
How did this even happen? The taxis may not have navigated the standoff because one of them would have had to reverse up a one-way road for a few feet, which is technically illegal. Or the cars may be programmed to wait for a Waymo employee whenever two vehicles make contact. According to another video I found online, an employee eventually showed up to get the cars moved. You can see the post embedded below.
Three driverless Waymos were locked in a "standoff" on a San Francisco residential street Saturday, frustrating human drivers who were subsequently blocked in on a dead-end road. Two of the autonomous vehicles appeared to have made contact, while a third approaching from the… pic.twitter.com/CTJ0kXheBS
— ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) December 8, 2025
Why recent software updates may be making things worse
This is the latest in a string of incidents after a software update aimed to make the cars “confidently assertive.” A representative said the new settings were “really necessary for us to actually scale this up in San Francisco, especially because of how busy it gets.” Shaving a few seconds off every ride could also increase Google’s profit margins.
Passengers report that Google has “changed the programming to be more aggressive” when passing parked cars, navigating stationary obstacles, and even entering intersections with pedestrians present. Some even report Waymos rolling past stop signs.
Jennifer Jeffries admits, “Sometimes I’ll be in the back seat and I’ll be like, ‘Ooh that was really close.’”
California police have pulled the cars over for illegal U-turns. Austin authorities have reported 19 incidents of the reprogrammed taxis passing a stopped school bus trying to offload students, which spurred an NHTSA investigation.
Waymo taxis hit and killed a cat in the Mission District and fatally injured a small dog in the Western Addition neighborhood.
