Human drivers keep crashing into Waymos

Waymo's biggest mistakes happened when it stopped in the wrong place.

This post originally appeared in Understanding AI.

“When Waymo’s vehicles did make mistakes, they were almost always mistakes of excessive caution.”

Last October, Waymo had begun testing its freeway capability, but the company had not yet rolled it out to all vehicles. On a rainy Saturday morning, a routing error caused a Waymo vehicle not qualified for freeway operation to drive onto US 101 just south of the Golden Gate Bridge. Unable to continue, the vehicle stopped in the right lane about 30 meters past the entrance ramp (there was no shoulder).

This screenshot from Google Maps shows the view looking backward from the stopped Waymo. The white SUV entered the roadway from the entrance ramp on the left of this photo after stopping at the stop sign that’s visible just to the right of the lamp pole. Click here to see the exact location on Google Street View.

For the next two minutes and 18 seconds, nothing bad happened. Four vehicles entered US 101 South and routed around the stopped Waymo without incident, according to a Waymo crash report.

But then a white Honda SUV entered the freeway and tried to drive around the Waymo. Unfortunately, the SUV collided with a pickup truck that was driving by in the next lane. The pickup truck lost control, swerved right, crashed through a steel railing, and fell more than 15 feet onto a road below.

Left: An October 2025 screenshot from Google Maps shows the spot — marked off by rope — where the pickup truck crashed through the railing. Right: A photo from the police report shows the pickup truck resting on its side after falling more than 15 feet.