Everyone dreams of the future. However, the dream can be quite different from reality. There’s Marty McFly’s hoverboard from Back to the Future. What did we get? A hoverboard with wheels that have been reported to malfunction and even blow up. There’s also the Delorian which is a flying car. We haven’t mastered that concept yet, but we have mastered self-driving cars! Or have we?
For those of you who don’t know, Waymo is a company that has released complete self-driving cars in LA, Phoenix, and San Fransico. The car is equipped with cameras, sensors, and AI that ensure a smooth and efficient ride. Waymo considers their car, “The World’s Most Experienced Driver,” but social media recently has been labeling Waymo as, “The World’s Least Experienced Driver.”
Hank Unger, a good buddy of mine, asked me one day on the way home from school if I had ever heard of Waymo. Hesitantly, I disagreed. He mentioned how it was a self-driving car that has no driver, and it’s powered by the cameras it uses. I became fascinated with this. What he also told me was how Waymo cars have been going off the hinges recently, and he backed up his statement by showing me multiple videos of Waymo cars malfunctioning. Whether they take a wrong turn or forget to stop at a stop sign, these cars have been getting out of hand. When I got home, I decided to do more research. I dug as far as finding a woman trapped in the back of Waymo that was driving into ONCOMING TRAFFIC! Luckily, she made it out with no injuries.
I can’t help but ask: didn’t they see this coming? You’re asking sensors and AI to power a vehicle that is supposed to be controlled by a human being. Really? That’s a recipe for disaster. It’s one thing to let AI perform actions on a computer or track your heart rate. But letting it drive a car? Not only are they malfunctioning, but they are putting people’s lives at risk.
The best part of all of this is Waymo wants to blame people for their accidents. Between July of 2024 and February of 2025, Waymo reported 38 crashes. The company spoke out, saying that 34 of those accidents were the fault of someone else.
I’m sorry, but chances are your car ISN’T WHERE IT SHOULD BE. Waymo wants to report people hitting their cars. The reality is the car is probably in an easy place to get hit, like the side of the street, or I don’t know, maybe THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD?! It’s downright absurd. We have let AI’s grasp on the conventional world tighten way too far. Make it do fancy stuff on a computer. Make it deliver food to people’s tables. Don’t let it drive out on the open road where there are other drivers and pedestrians at risk.