Waymo Robotaxis Stall in Emergencies — Who's Really Driving?
When a Waymo robotaxi breaks down or gets stuck during an emergency, the company's own roadside team isn't always the one showing up. In several confirmed cases across the United States, police officers and firefighters have had to physically take control of autonomous vehicles — pulling them away from active crime scenes, wildfires, and mass shooting responses. This is the untold story behind Waymo's expanding self-driving network.
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A Wildfire, a Stuck Robotaxi, and a 911 Call
Last August, a grass fire tore through California's I-280 near Redwood City. As flames scorched both sides of the freeway, officers rerouted traffic in the opposite direction. A Waymo robotaxi, caught in the chaos, attempted to navigate the shoulder — then simply stopped. It wouldn't move.
Waymo's remote assistance team couldn't resolve the situation remotely. So the company did something that raised eyebrows: it called 911 and asked a California Highway Patrol officer to drive the robotaxi away. Roughly 30 minutes later, a CHP officer got behind the wheel and moved the vehicle to a nearby park-and-ride lot. A Waymo roadside worker retrieved it from there.
This Isn't a One-Off — It's a Pattern
What happened in Redwood City was not an isolated incident. In at least six documented cases over recent months, first responders have had to manually move Waymo vehicles during emergencies. These include an Austin police officer redirecting a robotaxi blocking an ambulance responding to a mass shooting, a first responder in Atlanta disengaging a Waymo that drove into an active crime scene, and a Nashville police officer manually steering a robotaxi out of a stuck intersection just this week.
Each of these incidents places an unplanned burden on emergency personnel already stretched thin during critical moments. City officials are taking notice — and they're not happy.
San Francisco Officials Sound the Alarm
At a tense March 2 hearing in San Francisco, city leaders confronted Waymo about its robotaxis stalling during a major December power outage. The stuck vehicles reportedly delayed or distracted first responders from their core duties. What shocked officials most was what Waymo didn't say.
"What has started to happen is that our public safety officers and responders are having to be the ones to physically move them," said San Francisco's Department of Emergency Management director. "In a sense, they're becoming a default roadside assistance for these vehicles, which we do not think is tenable." Waymo never mentioned its roadside assistance team during the three-hour meeting.
How Waymo's Support System Actually Works
Waymo operates a layered human support structure behind its fleet of roughly 3,000 vehicles. Around 70 remote assistance workers monitor the fleet at any given time — half based in the United States, half in the Philippines. These workers advise the vehicles but do not directly control or steer them.
A separate "event response team," exclusively U.S.-based, handles more complex situations like crashes and coordination with emergency responders. Beyond that, a roadside assistance team handles on-scene physical support, including moving stuck vehicles. Waymo declined to reveal how many roadside workers it employs, which third-party contractors staff them, or how it plans to scale the team as it prepares to launch in roughly 20 more cities this year.
The Accountability Gap Growing Cities Can't Ignore
District Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who led the San Francisco hearing, told reporters he left without the answers he needed. "What are they going to do to ensure that they are going to take more ownership of that roadside assistance component?" he said. That question still doesn't have a satisfying answer.
Waymo has trained over 30,000 first responders globally on how to interact with its vehicles. It has also acknowledged making improvements to surge-staffing capabilities for large emergencies. But specifics remain vague, and a promised follow-up to Mahmood's office has not arrived.
What Comes Next for Waymo's Expanding Fleet
Waymo currently operates across Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, Phoenix, San Antonio, and the San Francisco Bay Area — providing more than 400,000 paid rides per week. Rapid expansion is underway. The pressure to scale safely, without shifting responsibility onto public safety personnel, is building just as fast.
For now, police and firefighters remain an unofficial safety net for self-driving technology that hasn't yet figured out how to save itself. As one San Francisco official put it plainly: "Our first responders should not be AAA."
