Overview
- Valley Metro said a Waymo vehicle was seen around 9 a.m. on the northbound tracks near Southern and Central Avenues, triggering an immediate response from operations staff.
- To keep service moving, trains exchanged passengers and reversed direction, and the scene was cleared by 9:15 a.m. with no major disruptions reported.
- Phoenix police said they received a call about the incident, but the vehicle had left before officers arrived.
- Bystander video shows the passenger exiting the robotaxi and the car continuing along the tracks next to an oncoming train.
- Local experts pointed to nearby construction and a newly added rail segment as likely complications for autonomous navigation, describing such events as technology growing pains even as Waymo updates mapping data regularly and equips cars with extensive cameras.