A video of one of Waymo’s autonomous ride-hailing vehicles driving over the carefully groomed lawn of a golf course has gone viral on social media.
“Waymo spotted on golf course, late for tee time?” a user wrote on subreddit dedicated to the company’s self-driving efforts. “Wonder what happened with this one.”
While many interpreted the video as a particularly egregious instance of a driverless taxi getting confused, the company informed Futurism in an email that there was a perfectly reasonable explanation.
Waymo says the car was being driven by a human driver — and not just being supervised as it navigated on its own — as part of a series of concerts called the Sunset Sessions, which take place at the Penmar Golf Course in Los Angeles, California.
While the latest incident didn’t involve a Waymo driving off course, we’ve already come across numerous instances of the firm’s vehicles getting confused in construction zones, smashing into delivery robots, clogging up streets, honking all night, and becoming involved in other shenanigans.
Earlier this year, a cyclist in San Francisco alleged that a Waymo robotaxi had made an illegal stop in the bike lane ahead of her and “doored” her, forcing her to be thrown into a second Waymo, which had pulled into the same bike lane.
Waymo launched its autonomous ride-hailing services in Los Angeles in November 2024. Things haven’t always gone smoothly: in June, five of the company’s vehicles were set ablaze as part of anti-ICE demonstrations, forcing Waymo to temporarily suspend its service in the city.
In response, the company hired a “community and public affairs specialist” to “educate the public on the safety benefits of Waymo’s fully autonomous driving technology.”
However, as 404 Media reported in April, Waymo has worked with the Los Angeles Police Department, handing over footage for investigative purposes, showing that the protesters’ and the company’s motives are far from perfectly aligned.
Regardless, the company has established itself as the clear frontrunner in the autonomous ride-hailing services industry. As the company boasted in July, it has completed 100 million miles of fully autonomous driving, with a fleet of over 1,500 vehicles across five major urban areas in the US.
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