'Smart Cars for Not So Smart People:' Group Starts Fighting with Self-Driving Waymo in Austin. Then Things Take a Horrible Turn

• Smart

A downtown Austin confrontation between a group of people and a Waymo self-driving car took an ugly turn when one of the men allegedly "put hands on" the woman filming the incident. The bizarre scene—partly captured in a video—unfolded over nearly 20 minutes as the group attempted to force their way into the autonomous vehicle, blocking traffic and resulting in police intervention.

TikTok user Avery Anne (@iamaveryanne) captured the entire incident in a three-minute video that has garnered over 10,000 views in roughly 24 hours. What started as documenting what she called people "fighting with a driverless vehicle" quickly escalated when one of the men allegedly grabbed her phone and injured her finger.

"I was downtown for a mic and these people were fighting with this Waymo," Avery Anne explains in her video commentary. "I tried to be really nice to them and explain how the Waymos work. And they were being very hard-headed and very rude."

The Waymo Standoff

The confrontation began when a group of people surrounded a Waymo autonomous vehicle in downtown Austin, Texas, apparently trying to get the car to accept them as passengers. Avery Anne, who has experience with Waymo vehicles from previous TikTok content, attempted to help explain how the service works.

"Y'all have seen my Waymo video. I knew that that's not how this worked and they just had to redo it," she says, referring to the group's unsuccessful attempts to board the vehicle.

The autonomous vehicle's safety systems were responding exactly as designed. According to media reports and Waymo's own announcements, the vehicles are designed to avoid any possibility of hitting pedestrians.

This emphasis on safety has led to unintended consequences. Waymos were "sitting ducks" during protests in Los Angeles earlier this year, auto engineer Jeff Fong told NBC, since "where a human wants to do harm, these cars have no countermeasures."

Avery Anne tried explaining this, but the group wasn't receptive to her assistance.

"They were like, 'we're on the phone with customer support,'" she recounts. "It honked probably seven times before I started filming because I was literally just like, at this point, like I'm embarrassed for them."

The situation became more problematic when someone placed a traffic cone directly in front of the Waymo, blocking an entire lane of downtown traffic. "Some absolute genius comes and puts a traffic cone—which I have to feel is illegal, right, by the way—in front of the car," Avery Anne observes.

Then Things Turned Physical

What began as an awkward technology mishap quickly escalated when Avery Anne decided to document the prolonged standoff. After listening to the Waymo's repeated honking for about 15 minutes, she started filming what she describes as their rude behavior.

"I don't like, I, there is no right to privacy on a sidewalk," she explains her decision to film the public confrontation.

That's when the situation took a disturbing turn. The video shows a thick-set man with dark hair, a beard and heavy arm tattoos who’s wearing a pink t-shirt and Terry Black's Barbecue hat approaching Avery Anne.

"The man, one of the men, I'm using that in quotation marks, comes and grabs my phone out of my hand," she says, describing the alleged assault. The footage captures the moment when the man appears to wrestle for control of her phone.

"That man thought it was okay to put his hands on a woman and on my phone," Avery Anne continues. She says that the incident injured her finger, though it wasn't broken.

Police Response and Aftermath

Austin police eventually arrived to resolve the traffic disruption, forcing the group to move away from the Waymo. However, according to Avery Anne, they didn't treat her interaction as an assault.

"Those police officers you see, they came up to me and they're like, ‘Who did it?’ and I said, ‘The short one.’ Obviously a bad choice of words because the short police officer was like, ‘Well do you need an ambulance do you need to go anywhere," she recounts.

She explained that the man had grabbed her phone and hurt her finger, but felt the police weren’t responsive.

"The police there weren't taking it seriously," she later confirmed in response to a commenter asking if she filed a report.

Community Reaction

The incident sparked discussion among TikTok users about both the confrontation and Waymo technology in general. Many commenters were critical of the group's behavior and supportive of Avery Anne's decision to film.

"I love when I see people mad at a Waymo," wrote one commenter, to which Avery Anne replied, "It was objectively hilarious."

Several users questioned what the group was actually trying to accomplish. "What was the purpose for keeping the Waymo captive? Were they trying to make a TikTok or what?" asked user SavageSammy__. Avery Anne responded that the group never explained their reasoning.

Others focused on the alleged physical encounter between Avery Anne and the man. "He assaulted you babes," wrote Noenemiesonlylove, while another commenter suggested she should have used pepper spray.

One commenter who identified as an Austin local shared their perspective: "I work on 6th street,” they wrote. “I keep both on me bc men think they are untouchable."

Some users speculated about the timing of the incident, with EarthlyEms noting, "The way this is only about to get worse with the ACL tourists these next couple of weeks," referring to the annual Austin City Limits Music Festival, which commences this week. 

However, not everyone was sympathetic to Avery Anne's approach. One user criticized her involvement, writing, "Why are you so invested in someone else's business? Girl, just move on and mind your business." Avery Anne fired back, pointing out the irony of the criticism.

The Broader Context

This incident highlights ongoing tensions some people have with autonomous vehicle technology as it becomes more prevalent in urban areas. Austin has been a testing ground for Waymo's ride-hailing services, and interactions between the public and self-driving cars continue to evolve.

The confrontation also raises questions about public behavior toward emerging technology and the safety of people who document such incidents. As Avery Anne noted in her caption, she found it ironic that people were "fighting with a self-driving vehicle" given that she herself has used Waymo services and was trying to help.

The incident serves as a reminder that while autonomous vehicles are designed with extensive safety features, human behavior remains unpredictable—and sometimes problematic—when interacting with new technology.

Motor1 reached out to Avery Anne via TikTok direct message and Austin Police Department via email  for additional comment. We'll be sure to update this if either responds.