Woman Orders Waymo In Atlanta. Then She Notices Traffic Start Behaving Oddly: ‘Calling The Waymo Like A Dog Is Killing Me’

A woman turned her Waymo’s lane merge struggle into a tragicomedy on social media. TikTok user @maryimogenn uploaded footage of the driverless car she scheduled for a trip in Atlanta. Her footage shows the car with its right turn signal activated as it slowly attempts to inch into an adjacent lane. Preventing it from doing so are numerous cars that zip right past the vehicle. The TikToker quipped in a caption for her post that she sympathized with the autonomous taxi. “Poor Waymo I feel so bad for him. Waymo was just doing his best,” she wrote.

Folks who replied to her video had varying responses to the video, which prompts questions regarding Waymo driving efficacy and safety.

Waymo in Merge Purgatory

“POV: no one will let your Waymo over in Atlanta,” a text overlay in the video reads. In the clip, several voices can be heard off camera commenting on the Waymo’s pick-up struggle. While recording the car, they can be heard calling out to it. “Here he comes, here he comes!” one person says excitedly. However, the Waymo down the street is having difficulty merging over to the lane closest to the curb where they await its arrival. 

One of the off-screen voices vehicle points out that the ride is “struggling” to get to them. “Come on, Waymo,” they say, adding, “Come here, baby,” as if they were talking to a pet.

“Let him over,” they shout out at a white cargo van, which drives up to the curb and begins driving into the area. As it does, the Waymo stutters and begins inching around it. “He got it, he’s here. Waymo’s here,” Imogen says as a man, presumably from her group, is shown on camera approaching the vehicle. 

Conflicting Waymo Opinions

A number of folks who responded to the video shared that they weren’t too fond of Waymos. One user said that their ire for the autonomous taxi service was rooted in an accident that resulted in the death of a beloved bodega cat. “Justice for Kit Kat. will never support a Waymo,” they wrote.

Others stated that they were especially dubious of getting into a Waymo in Atlanta. “Waymo too chill for ATL drivers,” one said.

Someone else speculated that the way Atlanta is structured as a city isn’t conducive to autonomous driving. “These things were made for grid systems. Not Atlanta.” 

Another wrote that they thought the lane change performed by the Waymo was unlawful, which prompted a thread in the comments of the video, where folks debated the legality of intersection lane changes. The Telegraph writes that changing lanes in an intersection isn’t illegal but that authorities can issue citations if the lane change was found to have been done in an unsafe manner.

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Waymo’s Expansion

Waymo first became available to Atlanta passengers in June 2024 and covers around 65 square miles of the city. 

The Google-owned autonomous taxi service recently broadened its service network to include Philadelphia, Baltimore, St. Louis, and Pittsburgh. The latter three will to start with manual driving, meaning monitors sitting in the front seats of the cars, before eventually shifting to fully autonomous driving protocols, CNET reported.

In a Nov. 18 press release, Waymo wrote that fully autonomous rides will be available in even more major cities including Miami, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando. Waymo stressed that its roll-outs are conducted to comply with local traffic regulations. “We are driving … forward with a commitment to quality and safety. Our rigorous process … ensures that we put communities first … [and] this commitment is how we will continue to bring the safe, reliable, and magical ride-hail experience to more Waymo riders,” the company writes.

Waymo Driving Protocols

Waymo’s geographically zoned driving networks have been criticized in the past. One San Francisco resident stated that their normal work commute took much longer in a Waymo, which others have attributed to Waymo’s routing preferences. That is, the algorithm eschews freeway driving in favor of local roads, which can add to travel time. However, Waymo has begun expanding its route options to implement highways as part of its itineraries.

InsideEVs has reached out to the creator and Waymo via email for further comment.

 

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