It was supposed to be just another night on the streets of north-west London. Instead, a Waymo robotaxi managed to drive straight through a police cordon in Harlesden — while officers were actively working a double-stabbing crime scene. You couldn’t make it up.
The incident happened on Wednesday evening on Harlesden High Street, where two men in their twenties had been attacked at around 6:25pm. Police had cordoned off the area, flashing squad cars and crime scene tape very much in place, when a Waymo vehicle — the kind plastered with cameras and sensors promising a safer future — rolled straight into the middle of it all.
Now here’s where it gets a bit awkward for Waymo. The company was quick to point out that the car was actually under human control at the time — a so-called “validation driver” was behind the wheel, not the AI. That driver has since been suspended pending an investigation. Waymo apologised for any disruption and said that after a brief chat with police officers through the window, the driver reversed and left the area without causing any damage.
The company then did something that raised a few eyebrows: it claimed that if the automated driving system had been switched on, it would have spotted the police tape and stopped automatically. So, in other words — the robot would have done better than the human. Make of that what you will.
This isn’t the first time a Waymo has had a run-in with law enforcement. Back in December, one of its vehicles crept through a police standoff in the US, passing just feet from a suspect on the ground with officers pointing Tasers. And in February, another ended up at a crime scene in Atlanta.
Waymo began mapping London roads last autumn and is aiming for a commercial robotaxi service here by September, subject to regulatory approval. Around two dozen vehicles are currently operating across London boroughs including Lambeth, Westminster, Kensington, and Chelsea. The fleet uses Jaguar I-PACE vehicles — though interestingly, the steering is on the left, because the cars were originally built for US operations.
It’s still early days for driverless taxis in the UK, and incidents like this don’t exactly help build public confidence. London is effectively a live testing ground right now, and how these companies handle the inevitable bumps in the road — quite literally — will go a long way in shaping whether Brits ever fully warm to the idea.
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Sources: Futurism – https://futurism.com/advanced-transport/waymo-london-crime-scene AOL / PA Media – https://www.aol.com/news/driverless-taxi-veers-london-crime-142929172.html El-Balad – https://www.el-balad.com/16922284 Yahoo Finance / PA Media – https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/driverless-taxi-veers-london-crime-142713732.html
