A Los Angeles resident, Mike Johns, nearly missed his flight home after the self-driving Waymo taxi he was riding in wouldn't stop circling a parking lot in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Johns had chosen Waymo for his trip to the airport, but what ensued was far from straightforward. "Why is this thing going in a circle? I'm getting dizzy," he exclaimed in a now-viral video, which has amassed over two million views and engagements on social media.

Trapped inside the vehicle, Johns found himself unable to intervene as the car continued its repetitive path. "It's circling around a parking lot. I've got my seatbelt on, I can't get out of the car. Has this been hacked? What's going on?" he questioned in the video.

The ordeal was only resolved after several minutes when a Waymo representative managed to remotely control the vehicle, allowing Johns to reach the airport just in time for his flight back to LA. However, he expressed frustration over the experience, particularly with the perceived lack of empathy from customer service, which he wasn't sure was human or AI.

"Where's the empathy? Where's the human connection to this?" Johns reflected to CBS News Los Angeles, criticizing the interaction as indicative of broader issues in today's digital landscape. "It's just, again, a case of today's digital world. A half-baked product and nobody meeting the customer, the consumers, in the middle."

Despite his background in the tech industry, Johns is hesitant to use Waymo again until the service proves more reliable. He awaits a response from Waymo regarding his experience, which has yet to come despite the video's widespread attention.

"Human-less, right? Human-less," Johns remarked, likening the incident to the concept of a "ghost in the shell."

In response, Waymo clarified that the incident, which occurred in mid-December, caused a delay of just over five minutes. After which, they successfully transported Johns to his destination without charge and have since updated their software to prevent similar occurrences.

This incident follows closely on the heels of another Waymo event in Los Angeles, where an individual attempted to hijack one of their autonomous, all-electric Jaguars in the downtown area.

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