Waymo Robotaxi Delivers Baby Mid-Ride — 'Seconds Old to Many Years Young,' Firm Says

A new life has entered the world, and its first ride wasn't in a traditional ambulance. In an extraordinary event that sounds straight out of a futuristic script, a baby was born inside a Waymo self-driving taxi.

A woman who was expecting, while travelling to a UCSF medical facility, welcomed her child inside one of the ubiquitous driverless cars on Monday evening.

A New Arrival in the City's Fleet

This incident marks a truly bizarre occurrence—and certainly one of the best outcomes for the corporation—in what has become San Francisco's fiercely debated driverless technology programme.

Following delivery, the self-driving car was immediately taken out of service for cleaning, a detail confirmed by The San Francisco Standard. A company representative commented, 'We're proud to be a trusted ride for moments big and small, serving riders from just seconds old to many years young.'

'We wish the new family all the best, and we look forward to safely getting them where they're going through many of life's events,' the representative added.

Waymo's Conflicting Milestones

As Waymo vehicles grow in number, their presence has been noted in incidents spanning the entire spectrum of human experience, from starting a family to the end of life. New parents have previously used a Waymo to travel home from the maternity ward alongside their infants.

The corporation verified that this latest incident was not the first time a birth had occurred in one of its vehicles; a similar event reportedly occurred in Arizona as well.

'While this is a very rare occurrence,' Waymo said, 'some of our newest riders just can't wait to experience their first Waymo ride.'

This event raises profound questions that earlier eras never had to address: Will the baby be assigned its own passenger score? Are the mother and father expected to leave a gratuity? And what, precisely, does a driverless vehicle process when a person suddenly appears in its passenger compartment?

San Francisco, which has become a proving ground for self-driving car technology, has just recorded another breakthrough in the shift to autonomous transport.

The vehicles operating across the city are now formally capable of managing busy commutes, parking illegally, and, apparently, childbirth. There has been no announcement, however, about whether the infant will be offered complimentary travel passes.

Waymo Deadlock: A Farcical Interruption

This birth takes place against the backdrop of a farcical situation involving San Francisco's advanced transport network, which was recently featured in a TikTok clip. Specifically, the video showed three self-driving Waymo cars in an apparent deadlock on an inclined road.

The video, filmed around noon on Saturday, shows perplexed onlookers waiting on the pavements, observing a small traffic blockage in a cul-de-sac in North Beach. Two Waymo vehicles appear to have bumped into each other where Kearny and Vallejo streets meet; one was travelling upward while the other was oriented to the side, seemingly attempting a turn in a confined space.

The cars are stuck close together with their protective panels making contact and their hazard lights blinking, thereby blocking movement for vehicles coming from both directions. A third driverless Waymo, moving down the slope, is prevented from getting by the other two. It likewise halts, consequently trapping a resident's automobile in their parking spot.

'I just pulled out of the garage and I saw this going on — it's like this Waymo standoff,' a man says in the video, as the camera pans toward the blocked car.

A subsequent clip records the following scene, showing a maintenance employee in a fluorescent vest approaching the driver's entrance to Waymo from the side. It then reverses on its own power, freeing the path for the initial Waymo to continue up the incline.

Waymo staff clarified that the first two vehicles had made 'minor contact' while attempting multiple-point turns at the dead-end street. Company personnel described the occurrence as a valuable learning opportunity for the self-driving cars as they acquire the skill of managing complex or busy thoroughfares.

This incident is also the most recent in a series of widely reported malfunctions, which includes two distressing events where a driverless taxi struck and killed a creature, and a universally ridiculed traffic intervention in September, when San Bruno police officers stopped a Waymo for completing an unlawful turn during a drink-driving operation.

In different cities, Waymo units have been criticised after footage showed them failing to slow down or stop for school buses.