Who gets the ticket? Police stumped after pulling over self-driving Waymo for an illegal turn
The growth of self-driving cars has already started to change the way that we travel, but the laws haven’t necessarily changed to keep up.
For years, the prospect of self-driving cars has been floated as a solution to the public transportation crisis in many cities. But the new technologies also provoke some strange new questions.
One arose recently when police were forced to confront a Waymo, the popular self-driving taxi service. The company now operates commercial taxi services in Phoenix, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles Miami, Atlanta and Austin, and there are plans to expand to more US cities. But the largely-successful roll-out hasn’t been without incident.
A video uploaded to TikTok appears to show a Waymo vehicle being pulled over by cops after making a wrong turn in front of them. However there wasn’t even a passenger in the car at the time of the incident, so it’s not exactly clear what the cops could do to address the situation.
As one TikTok user asked in the comments: “What even happens in this situation. Who does the cop talk to and how? Do they just write a ticket and send it to Google?”
The company, Waymo, was founded in 2009 and has been working towards driverless cars for years. They were finally able to go fully driverless in 2020 and have been gradually rolling out the service since then. As of April 2025 the company reports that it takes more than 250,000 paid rides per week.
The likes of Tesla and other companies are also looking to expand into the world of self-driving cars but Waymo, for now, appears to be the most advanced of these efforts. CEOs have already managed to raise $5.5 billion and $5.6 billion in two separate rounds of funding in recent years.
It looks like the future, eventually, will involve the use of driverless taxis to help individuals traverse across America’s cities. But for now, it’s clear that there are still some teething problems with the ground-breaking technology.
Get your game on! Whether you’re into NFL touchdowns, NBA buzzer-beaters, world-class soccer goals, or MLB home runs, our app has it all.
Dive into live coverage, expert insights, breaking news, exclusive videos, and more – plus, stay updated on the latest in current affairs and entertainment. Download now for all-access coverage, right at your fingertips – anytime, anywhere.