SF Gate – Confused Waymo shuts down Calif. restaurant’s drive-thru
See original article at SF Gate
A Chick-fil-A in Santa Monica got the stalled-out robotaxi treatment
When a Waymo car drove into a Chick-fil-A’s drive-thru on Monday evening in Santa Monica, the chicken giant’s famously polite workers couldn’t get it to leave.
KTLA-TV reported that the self-driving vehicle backed up traffic at the drive-thru and takeout-only storefront, stymieing waiting customers. The game of chicken happened at about 9:30 p.m., per KTLA. The outlet received videos from a turned-away customer that showed Chick-fil-A employees standing around the confused vehicle as its hazard lights blinked — the customer told the outlet that he waited in the drive-thru for a half hour before being told it was closed.
The issue began when a passenger took a Waymo ride to the Chick-fil-A parking lot, where they were successfully dropped off, Waymo spokesperson Suzanne Philion told SFGATE via email.
“The Waymo was then unable to complete a multi-point turn due to the proximity of the drive thru lane and multiple other cars in the tight space,” Philion said.
Waymo workers then came to the restaurant to remove the car from the tricky situation, she confirmed. Philion added that Waymo does not “generally” send its cars through drive-thrus, but it’s working on the capability. Chick-fil-A declined to comment on the record.
Besides getting in the way of Santa Monica’s nugget seekers, Waymo’s expansion into parts of Los Angeles County is going fairly smoothly — though not at top speed. The company stopped requiring potential LA riders to join a wait-list in November, but regular passengers aren’t yet allowed to take its cars onto LA’s ubiquitous freeways. In January, Waymo wrote in an X post that it was beginning to send employees on freeway rides, letting them get across town in half the time that it takes via city streets.
Waymo still only operates across 89 square miles of the LA area. Riders can be picked up and dropped off from Santa Monica to downtown LA, and through much of West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Westwood and Culver City. Chinatown is also in the radius, and to the south, Waymo serves Marina del Rey and parts of Inglewood, though not nearby LAX.
Philion said Waymo is serving tens of thousands of trips a week in LA County.
See original article at SF Gate
