Published On 5/8/2026
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Last update: 5/9/2026 13:41 (Mecca time)
Imagine taking a self-driving taxi, enjoying complete calm and absolute privacy away from the drivers’ side conversations, arriving at the airport exactly on time.
But there is a problem, the car decided to leave with all your bags! This is not a joke. This technical nightmare became a reality for a Waymo passenger in the United States. It turns out that sometimes, nothing replaces the presence of a human driver.
In a scene reminiscent of science fiction comedies, businessman De Gen had an unforgettable experience with a fleet of Waymo self-driving cars, heading to San Jose Airport for a business trip. Jin actually arrived on time, while the smart car decided to take his luggage on a private tour to a different destination.
This incident highlights a critical gap in the world of smart transportation, and re-asks the fundamental question: Are we really ready to dispense with the human element in our logistical tasks?
Details of the incident
In late April, De Gen had his first experience in the world of fully automated taxis, using the Waymo service, which the giant company Alphabet had long promoted as a revolutionary alternative to traditional transportation. Jin quietly climbed into the self-driving electric Jaguar I-Pace from Sunnyvale, and the journey to San Jose’s Mineta Airport began without any problems.
But the real drama began the moment he arrived at the airport. Jin calmly got out of the car and headed to the trunk to collect his necessary luggage for his work trip. Here, the scene turned into a technological farce: the actual button to open the box didn’t work. At the crucial moments when any traveler expected to find an immediate solution, the car – as if breathing a sigh of relief to finish its mission – began to move and drive away towards its next destination, carrying with it “Jane’s” bag.
Distraught and angry, Jin tried to call Waymo customer service to explain the urgent situation. The response he received was more of a slap in the face to logic: “Sorry, the automated vehicle cannot be redirected, it is already on its way to the warehouse.”
Thus, quite simply, Gene had to board his plane and go on a business trip without any of his personal belongings, while his bag was on its way to visit the San Francisco warehouse on a tour that was not part of his plans.
Post trip crisis
The problem did not stop with the loss of the bag, but rather extended to new chapters of the bureaucratic absurdity of machines. Later that same day, Jin received a message confirming that Waymo had successfully retrieved his bag from the warehouse. The joy was not complete, as the response was accompanied by shocking news: the warehouse is located in San Francisco, and the giant company refuses to pay the shipping costs to return the bag to its owner in San Jose.
Instead, the company offered a solution that reflected a strange disconnect from human reality, which was to give him two free trips “to and from” the warehouse, so he could go personally to pick it up. This offer meant that Gene would spend two full hours of his time correcting a mistake he had not made.
Under pressure from the story that spread in the media, specifically in an interview with NBC, Waymo finally surrendered and retracted its position, as the company confirmed that it would bear the costs of shipping the bags and delivering them to Jane, implicitly acknowledging the gravity of the mistake and trying to contain the situation.
How did that happen? Technical vulnerability
Waymo later explained that the mechanism designed to receive luggage depends on two clear options: the first is pressing the physical release button located on the tailgate of the car, and the second is clicking the digital “open the trunk” button within the Waymo application on the smartphone.
According to the story, neither option worked for Jane at that fateful moment. Here lies the gap. In a traditional taxi, a simple human scream or a knock on the glass could solve the problem in seconds. In the world of robots, the absence of a human driver means the absence of an immediate link between the passenger and the system, leaving the passenger in front of a deaf system that does not respond to instantaneous distress calls.
The stray Waymo bag reveals more than just a technical malfunction in the trunk button. It provides an eloquent metaphor for the stage of “technological adolescence” that artificial intelligence systems are experiencing, where they can master the complex task of driving to outperform humans in navigating the roads, but they childishly stumble in the simplest tasks of human service, such as immediate communication when an emergency occurs.
This incident demonstrated, in a humorous and bitter way at the same time, that the human driver is not just the engine of the vehicle, but rather the one responsible for the overall passenger experience, the guardian who prevents the suitcase from becoming an independent traveler.
As Waymo continues its journey towards the future, the most important lesson remains: that smart technology, no matter how advanced it is, remains incapable of overcoming exceptional situations without the innate intelligence of humans, as it is the only one capable of decoding the “strays” that algorithms stray from, thanks to its unique ability to take initiative and realize the essence of responsibility, as the human mind acts with intuition that is not bound by the boundaries of systems or data warehouses.
