Waymo relies on firefighters and police to bail out stuck robotaxis

A California Highway Patrol officer found himself behind the wheel of a Waymo robotaxi last August, manually driving it away from a grass fire after the autonomous vehicle became confused by wrong-way traffic and froze on the shoulder of I-280. The incident reveals a growing pattern where taxpayer-funded first responders have become an unexpected backup plan for the self-driving car company.

TechCrunch identified at least six cases where police and emergency workers had to physically move stuck Waymo vehicles, including during a mass shooting response in Austin and an active crime scene in Atlanta. Despite having its own roadside assistance team and remote workers monitoring the fleet from as far away as the Philippines, Waymo has repeatedly called 911 when its vehicles encounter complex situations.

San Francisco officials have grown frustrated with this arrangement. "Our public safety officers and responders are having to be the ones to physically move Waymos," said Mary Ellen Carroll from the city's emergency management department. "In a sense, they're becoming a default roadside assistance for these vehicles, which we do not think is tenable."

As Waymo expands to 20 more cities this year while providing 400,000 rides weekly, questions remain about whether the company can scale its human support systems fast enough to avoid burdening emergency services.