A Waymo robotaxi became trapped on light rail tracks in Phoenix on Wednesday afternoon, forcing the passenger to exit the vehicle and cross the roadway before an approaching train struck the autonomous car.
Video of the incident, first shared on TikTok, shows the passenger leaving the driverless vehicle and safely crossing the road as a Valley Metro train approached.
The Waymo, with hazard lights engaged, then traveled alongside the tracks for approximately 30 meters before coming to a stop while obstructing the rail line.
The vehicle subsequently engaged its reverse mode while the light rail operator stopped the train.
No injuries were reported.
Below is the video shared on TikTok.
Phoenix Operations
The incident occurred in the same Metro Phoenix area where Waymo launched autonomous delivery service with DoorDash in early December.
The partnership allows DoorDash customers ordering from DashMart stores in the area to be matched with fully autonomous Waymo vehicles.
The company began offering driverless rides in the Metro Phoenix area in 2019 and currently operates approximately 200 autonomous vehicles across the region, compared with around 800 in San Francisco.
Waymo expanded its Phoenix service in November to include freeway routes for select riders, after more than a year of testing highway drives with employees.
Alphabet’s unit said at the time it was “gradually rolling out access to more riders” across Phoenix, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Expansion
In 2025, Waymo launched its operations in Austin, Los Angeles, and Atlanta while announcing plans to enter Minneapolis, Tokyo and London.
The Phoenix track incident adds to a series of encounters between Waymo vehicles and emergency situations that have drawn regulatory scrutiny as the company scales its operations across multiple US cities.
In late December, amid an outage affecting one-third of San Francisco, Waymo vehicles came to a halt, impacting about 130,000 residents and forcing the company to pause its service.
A few weeks earlier, Tesla CEO Elon Musk dismissed Alphabet’s Waymo as a serious rival in the autonomous vehicle race, claiming the company “never really had a chance.”
Earlier in the year, Musk had mocked Waymo by saying during a Tesla’s earnings conference call that the rival’s robotaxis cost “Way-Mo money.”
Morgan Stanley said last month that both companies are positioned to capture nearly 70% of all autonomous miles by 2032.
