California couple says their Waymo robotaxi blew through a construction zone. Waymo allegedly offered $120 in credits

The autonomous vehicle (AV) growing pains continue. A couple in California thought they were going to lose their lives when a robotaxi they boarded suddenly started speeding through a construction zone on a highway.

One of the passengers, Elliot Slade, revealed that the issue started when the Waymo was attempting to merge alongside other cars on the highway. According to a report by Moneywise, Slade and his fiancée felt the AV reach highway speeds in the construction lane. Then his fiancée turned to him and said, “‘We’re going to die right here in the Waymo.’”

Slade told CBS that, during the 20 seconds the mishap lasted, they both felt helpless as they could see police flashlights behind them and the car initially not slowing down. At that point, they were both trying to reach a human Waymo representative, but it was all in vain.

The AV eventually pulled over in a residential neighborhood. Only then did they get an opportunity to talk to a human from Waymo. Slade told CBS, “She came on the line and said, ‘From what I could see, it seemed like a stressful experience. What do you want to do next?’ I was like, we want to get out. They’re like, ‘Do you want to continue the journey?’ I was like, absolutely not.”

However, Waymo has had a few difficulties integrating its AVs into the open world. Recently, there was a situation in Atlanta where empty Waymos filled up a neighborhood, much to the annoyance of the residents there. Others have also been concerned about getting into one and finding that, apparently, Waymo sometimes needs to check a user’s age. But concerns about data protection and annoying driving are one thing — human safety is an entirely different issue altogether.

Slade explained to CBS how, when a Waymo is being unpredictable, a passenger like him can feel like they lack agency. He told the outlet, “No one was picking up. It was going at 70 [mph] on this construction lane into what we thought were like trucks. And police and everything. I was like, what can we do? We can’t even open the door. What do we do at this point?”

Slade said that he will have a hard time trusting AVs again after their experience. He told CBS that he’s hoping Waymo will take a deep look into what went wrong — hoping that the Alphabet-owned company also works with independent investigators and releases data to increase trust among its passengers. According to Moneywise, Waymo said it will halt all highway travel temporarily until it can “integrate recent technical learnings into our software.” As for Slade and his fiancée, Waymo reportedly offered them three free rides worth up to $40 each in the future.