A man’s first Waymo ride in Atlanta turned into a frightening experience. The driverless car balked at a row of hanging chains and got stuck sideways inthe road in the middle of a failed turn. When a remote support agent sent it a “suggestion,” the car didn’t take it.
Lou Pizzichillo (@loupizzichillo) filmed the ride from the back seat. The clip has been viewed 2.3 million times.
“First Waymo experience did not go as planned,” reads the text on screen, and the caption quotes the car’s own welcome message: “This experience may feel futuristic.” In Atlanta, Waymo rides are “available only on the Uber app,” according to Waymo.
‘Those Chains Were Kind Of Scary’
“Check out my ride coming in hot,” Pizzichillo says as the white Waymo pulls up outside a Best Buy. Once he is inside, the car rolls up to a yellow bar hung with chains at a parking deck and stops. “So now we’re making a three-point turn in the middle of this situation,” he says. “I guess those chains were kind of scary.”
The bar is a height check, commenters explained. “If your vehicle hits the chains, it’ll make a noise letting you know you’ll also hit a low-clearance structure,” wrote hicks1991.
The car ended up diagonal across the lane, with other cars driving around it. The rear screen read, “Our team is working to get you moving” and asked him to “remain in the car with your seat belt fastened.”
“This is my first Waymo experience. I’ve been in the car for probably one minute, maybe two. We are sideways in the road,” Pizzichillo says. “I do feel vulnerable.” A moment later he adds: “We’re diagonal and, uh, welcome to the future here.”
‘Not Taking My Suggestion’
“Yo, team! This team has got to get us moving,” he says, and a support agent comes on the line. “I’ll be making a suggestion over to the Waymo so we can go ahead and get you going on to your destination,” the agent says. “Looks like you’ve been stuck here for some time.” Soon the agent reports that the car is “not taking my suggestion here, so I’m gonna have to work on another one.”
Pizzichillo has his own idea: “If you could tell it to go left, it could just go back the way that we came and not, like, have to deal with these chains. But right now we’re just blocking the road.” The agent says they “may have to have another specialist take a further look into this,” and the video ends with the car still stuck.
‘Advice, Not Control’
“It can tell the help team ‘no’?!” wrote austinkampen, in a comment with more than 37,000 likes. According to Waymo, it can. Remote assistance agents “respond to specific requests for information initiated by the Waymo Driver” and “provide advice which the system can decide to use or reject,” Ryan McNamara, Waymo’s global head of operations, wrote in a February blog. He said about 70 agents were on duty worldwide at any given time, for a fleet of 3,000 vehicles.
Waymo’s help center says the car may “stop in the road if it determines that to be the safest course of action,” and that Waymo “will dispatch Waymo Roadside Assistance for help if necessary.”
Chains have caused Waymo trouble before. In 2025, it recalled the self-driving software on 1,212 vehicles because, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s recall record, it “may cause the vehicles to collide with certain roadway barriers, such as chains and gates.” NHTSA says all were updated by December 2024.
‘Road safe??’
“I value my life too much for this crap,” wrote love_to_love_puppies in a comment. “How is Waymo still in business when its vehicles are not road safe??” asked principalcellist. Mrtofubeans disagreed: “I’ve ridden in plenty of Waymos, and honestly, they’ve driven better than most of the Uber and Lyft drivers that I’ve had.”
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found in July that Waymo’s “crash involvement rate was 68% lower than that of human drivers” in four cities, though it was “4% higher in Austin, where the sample size was relatively small.” Atlanta was not in the study.
“Does a Waymo lock you in the car?” asked rolyatack. Waymo’s rider guide says riders can end a trip early by tapping “Pull over,” a button visible on Pizzichillo’s screen, and “the car will find a safe spot to stop.”
One viewer had seen the car from the other side. “Omg, that was you! I went around you, haha,” wrote thatpinkttrs. Pizzichillo replied: “This is amazing. Also, thank you for your patience… and nice car.”
Subplot News reached out to Pizzichillo via Instagram direct message and Waymo via email for comment. We’ll be sure to update this if they respond.
@loupizzichillo “This experience may feel futuristic.” 🙃
♬ original sound – Lou Pizzichillo
