KRON4 – ‘The system failed’: Mom of teen who found man hiding in trunk of Waymo wants answers
Editors note: Yes, Waymo completely screwed up and once again does not have an answer. But at the same time, this is why unaccompanied children are not allowed in Waymos. It is because they are not safe! The mother demanding an answer is being hypocritical.
See original article by Alex Baker, Lindsey Ford at KRON4
(KRON) — The mother who found a man hiding in the trunk of a Waymo she ordered for her teenage daughter is speaking out to KRON4 and demanding answers. The incident occurred in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles on Dec. 8 at around 10:45 a.m.
Luckevia Thurman ordered a Waymo to take her 17-year-old daughter Isis Walker to school. That’s when things went off course.
The Waymo arrived as ordered, only there was something extra included: a man hiding in the vehicle’s trunk.
“It was a moment that I won’t forget for sure,” said Isis to KRON4. “It didn’t feel real.”Strava fires woman at center of SF viral restaurant video
Isis’s mom rushed to the scene when her daughter alerted her to what was going on.
“My heart was just speeding, it dropped,” said Thurman. “I catch my composure in the minute, seeing that man in the trunk. He was big and it was scary.”
“If she wasn’t aware of her surroundings, if she just got into the back of the car, we would be telling a different story right now,” Thurman added. “Thank goodness her intuition was on point.”
In the video, which has been viewed over 6 million times on TikTok (watch it in the player below), Isis can be heard cursing the man out and asking what he was doing in the back of the autonomous taxi.
“They just put me in it,” the man says.
“Who put you in?” Isis demands.
“The people,” the man responds.
In a follow-up video, the man be seen handcuffed with police officers on the scene. Isis can be heard on the phone with someone who sounds like a Waymo representative. But according to Thurman, the family’s interactions with the company during the incident were confusing and since then, there’s been a lack of clear answers.
“I’m just worried about making sure this doesn’t happen again,” Thurman told KRON4.
KRON4 reached out to Waymo and a spokesperson for the company said, “We’re committed to keeping our riders safe and earning the trust of the communities where we operate.”
The company also said it had measures in place that have been successful in preventing incidents like these. The company said it was actively working to make additional improvements.
However, for Thurman, it’s a question of trust.
“I want to put it out there that I’m not anti-technology,” she said. “I trusted it.” But Thurman has ruled out ordering an autonomous vehicle or rideshare for her daughter again, for the time being at least.
“She has anxiety and I don’t trust it anymore, and I would rather take her,” she said.
“I don’t know if I want to be in one,” Isis added.
For Thurman, the bottom line is about safety, and about getting answers for how this could have happened.
“The system failed. I would really love to hear what happened and how they’re going to fix this next time, so it doesn’t happen again,” she said. “We’re all waiting on answers and hopefully we’ll get them.”
See original article by Alex Baker, Lindsey Ford at KRON4
