A Waymo robotaxi was caught on video sliding into the wrong lane and briefly blocking oncoming traffic near Century and Crenshaw boulevards in Inglewood on Monday, right in the middle of heavy World Cup-related gridlock. The clip shows the self-driving vehicle stopping to the left of the double yellow line, lingering there, then easing its way back into the correct lane. A nearby motorist told reporters he worried the move could have led to a serious crash. The car ultimately merged back into the proper lane.
According to ABC7 Los Angeles, the footage was recorded by Kimoon Kim and captures the vehicle stopped left of the double yellow line as it moved along the roadway near the intersection. The ABC7 account notes that the car cut off another driver before returning to its lane, and that the motorist said he feared a serious crash could happen.
Where the robotaxis roam
Waymo has rolled out its robotaxi operations across wide stretches of Los Angeles County, with service zones that now include Inglewood, Santa Monica and Echo Park, according to Los Angeles Times. The company has increasingly moved into busy corridors where event and game traffic can snarl the streets and create confusing, stop-and-go situations for autonomous systems to sort out.
Past incidents put focus on safety
The Inglewood clip surfaces alongside other high-profile moments involving Waymo vehicles in the region. Surveillance video from January showed a Waymo van leave the roadway and collide with parked cars in Echo Park, NBC Los Angeles reported. In that incident, Waymo said the vehicle was in manual driving mode with an employee behind the wheel, and no riders were injured. The earlier crash drew local scrutiny and renewed questions about how robotaxis handle tight, unpredictable city streets.
Regulatory oversight and company rules
Waymo operates under state permits and regulatory filings that spell out an operational design domain and passenger-safety plans, as detailed in documents filed with the California Public Utilities Commission. Those filings state that Waymo software is designed to bring a vehicle to a minimal-risk condition if it encounters situations outside its approved operating domain, and that the company coordinates with local officials before it widens its service areas.
The Inglewood footage has revived debate over how robotaxis behave in heavy, event-driven traffic and how quickly they recover from strange or unexpected routing decisions. Waymo points to a broad safety framework and published data showing fewer serious-injury crashes than comparable human drivers, according to Waymo, while some local drivers say clips like this keep real-world performance under a skeptical spotlight.
