A Waymo passenger was filmed fleeing from a self-driving car after it merged onto newly installed train tracks and continued heading toward an approaching train.
Autonomous cars are certainly all the rage of late. Following in Tesla’s footsteps, others like Nvidia and Mercedes-Benz are teaming up to design their own cars powered by Artificial Intelligence.
On paper, the benevolent idea is to remove human error, having AI programs perfectly calculate every decision on the road. In practice, however, in its early form, it hasn’t exactly gone to plan.
One Waymo passenger learned this the hard way as a January 14, 2026 trip took a turn. With no driver in the front seat to correct a mistake, the self-driving vehicle was left stuck on train tracks in Phoenix, Arizona.
Waymo car gets stuck on train tracks in Arizona
A video captured by a local nearby, showed a passenger getting out of a vehicle onto a busy road. Why did they step out? Well, their self-driving car was on a set of train tracks and driving toward an oncoming train.
Even after the passenger exited the vehicle, the Waymo car continued driving forward on the tracks, heading closer to a train. Other vehicles stopped in their tracks to turn and watch.
According to First Alert 6, this particular light rail track was constructed in the location within the last year. This could be the reason the self-driving vehicle confused it for a regular road.
As the car remained on the tracks for a number of minutes, “Light rail operations staff” were forced into action, a spokesperson said. To avoid collision, “northbound and southbound trains exchanged passengers before reversing direction to continue service.”
Ultimately, there were said to be “no significant delays,” and the car had found its way off the tracks “within 15 minutes.”
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