TEMPE, AZ (AZFamily) – In a video now going viral on TikTok, two East Valley women are hit by a self-driving Waymo heading toward them the wrong way down the road.

The incident occurred last week near Rural Road and Apache Boulevard in Tempe – a busy location right next to the Arizona State campus.

At first, the women found Waymo’s confused look funny, but then realized the situation was serious. ASU graduates Aiselyn Anaya-Hall and Emmie Wuest said they thought they might collide with a Waymo.

“Oh, look, a Waymo. Oh, look, it’s crossing the street. And then, oh, look, it’s going the wrong way,” said Wuest, who was driving her own car when the two witnessed the incident.

The fully autonomous car offers driverless rides through the valley to thousands of people every day.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God, we could actually get hit here,'” Wuest said.

The two said they saw a man in the passenger seat of the Waymo car driving into oncoming traffic.

“He couldn’t do anything. He just put his hands up. You can’t really see that in the video,” said Hall, who shot the viral video.

Both Hall and Wuest are familiar with Waymo, having ridden in one of their vehicles before.

“I used to feel safe with Waymos, but now I think: never again,” Wuest said. “No one died this time.”

Andrew Maynard, a frequent Waymo user, disagrees.

“When I arrived here today, I turned onto campus and there was a human-driven car coming straight at me. This just goes to show that people make stupid mistakes on the road all the time. The same goes for Waymos,” Maynard said.

Maynard is a professor of Advanced Technology Transitions at ASU’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society.

“They are always on top of things. They are not like people who are constantly checking their phones, eating or listening to music. They are hyperaware of their surroundings,” he said.

The professor said data so far shows Waymos are safer than human drivers.

“Waymo is currently offering 100,000 rides a week,” he said. “That’s a huge number of cars without drivers. Of course, they’ll occasionally do strange things. But that’s only a fraction of the rides that are actually being performed.”

Arizona’s family received a statement from a Waymo spokesperson regarding the incident:

“Public trust and safety are our top priority. The Waymo driver was driving through an intersection when the light changed, and the vehicle changed its route by turning right and safely passing through the intersection within a minute. We are continuously improving the performance of our system to handle complex scenarios while ensuring public safety.”

Arizona’s family has clarified to Waymo that “Waymo driver” refers only to the self-driving car. When this happened, the car was not being driven by a human.

The women who witnessed the incident said they posted the video online to warn people to be careful around Waymos, saying they would like to see improvements in safety in the future.

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