Passenger Flees Self-Driving Vehicle After It Stops in Path of an Oncoming Train

A Waymo passenger bolted from a self-driving car after it stopped directly on Phoenix light rail tracks with a train approaching nearby — a tense moment that was caught on video by a bystander.

The footage shows the rider jumping out of the vehicle as it sits on the tracks, then watching as the car slowly continues forward near another train. The incident happened the morning of Jan. 7 near Central and Southern avenues in south Phoenix, where a new light rail extension recently opened, according to KPNX.

Phoenix police confirmed they received a call about the incident but said the Waymo vehicle had already left the area before officers arrived. Authorities reported no disruption to light rail service.

A spokesperson for Valley Metro said an employee who noticed the Waymo car on the tracks immediately alerted operations staff. Trains briefly reversed direction to minimize service impacts, and the situation was cleared in about 15 minutes.

An expert weighed in on the unsettling scene, suggesting the car simply made a bad call in an unfamiliar environment. Andrew Maynard, a professor at Arizona State University, described the moment as a rare “edge case” — a scenario where autonomous systems struggle to respond the way a human driver might.

He explained that self-driving cars work best on carefully mapped roads but can become confused when sudden changes appear. Nearby construction and the newly added light rail infrastructure may have contributed to the vehicle ending up on the tracks.

“Humans are really good at seeing a brand new situation and trying to work out how to get around it,” Maynard said, noting that autonomous vehicles are often more precise than humans when they know the road, but can falter when something completely unexpected pops up.

Despite how alarming the video looks, Maynard emphasized that autonomous vehicles can still be safer than human drivers overall, largely because they eliminate distractions and can react quickly once a problem is detected.

Waymo has been contacted for comment on the incident.

The moment comes after another recent Waymo scare, in which a passenger reported a near-miss when their self-driving ride suddenly swerved into oncoming traffic. In that case, video showed the rider screaming as another driver was forced to honk and swerve to avoid a crash.