...ROBOTAXIS...ROBOTAXIS..
WAYMOTEST VEHICLE CRASHES INTO POLICE CORDON DURING LONDON STABBING INVESTIGATION
A Waymo “driverless” taxi caused a stir in Harlesden, west London, after it careered into a police crime scene while officers were investigating a double stabbing. Video footage captured the car driving through “Do Not Cross” tape, seemingly ignoring the sirens and flashing lights of emergency
vehicles before
braking sharply. The incident occurred as police were cordoning off the High Street following an attack on two men in their 20s. Despite the car’s design for full autonomy,
Waymo confirmed that the vehicle was
actually being manually driven by a human at the time. A spokesperson for the company stated that the driver involved has since been suspended. In an apology, the firm said: “We sincerely apologise for any disruption caused by
this
validation driver, who was operating the vehicle in manual mode. We
take this matter
seriously and are working with our operations partner to ensure appropriate actions are taken.” Waymo added that “initial analysis suggests” the car’s
automated systems would have likely
identified the danger and stopped itself if the software had been in control. The crash has raised questions as Waymo prepares for a potential London launch this September. The company currently has around 24 vehicles mapping the city’s streets with safety drivers behind the wheel to ensure the systems are effective. This is not the first time Waymo vehicles have interfered with police work; similar incidents involving crime scenes were
previously
reported in the US cities of Atlanta and Los Angeles.
MALFUNCTION LEAVES ROBOTAXI PASSENGERS TRAPPED IN HIGH-SPEED TRAFFIC IN WUHAN
A massive technical failure in China has left dozens of passen- gers stranded in the middle of busy highways after a fleet of self- driving "robotaxis" suddenly froze. Police in the city of Wuhan confirmed that a “system mal- function” caused more than 100 vehicles operated by the tech giant Baidu to come to a halt on Tuesday 31 March, marking the first reported mass shutdown of autonomous cars in the country. Terrified passengers found themselves stuck in the fast lanes of elevated ring roads with traffic racing past on both sides. One college student, identified only as Ms. He, reported being trapped with friends for 90 minutes. She noted that while the car’s internal screen told them to stay buckled up and wait for help:
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robotaxi at 40 mph, explained that the car in front of him swerved at the last second, leaving him no time to react.
“no one ever came, and after another hour of waiting, the three passengers decided to just get out and go home.” Others expressed anger on social media after finding emergency features failed, with one user asking: “I pressed the SOS button it told me it was unavailable. So then what exactly is the SOS for?” The outage created chaos for human drivers, leading to several high-speed collisions. One motorist, whose vehicle was destroyed after hitting a stationary
Another witness recorded a dashcam video showing 16 different stalled vehicles scattered across the road in a single trip. While no injuries were reported, the incident has raised serious questions about the safety of driverless technology as Baidu’s “Apollo Go” service prepares to expand into UK and Switzerland. Despite the warnings on vehicle screens that “Staff are expected to arrive in 5 minutes,” many passengers were forced to risk their lives by stepping out into moving traffic to escape the malfunctioning cars. Baidu has not yet commented on the cause of the failure.
MAY 2026 PHTM
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