Trapped in a haywire Waymo: SF passenger recounts terrifying construction zone ordeal

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco resident Elliot Slade had a terrifying experience on a Waymo ride back to the city last month.

Slade says he was about five minutes into a journey along Highway 101 when his Waymo came into a construction zone.

He says while the car first tried merging into other lanes, it eventually drove into the construction zone itself before taking off.

"There were signs. There were lights. There were cones. And it went through the cones and then sped up straight away," said Slade.

To make matters even worse, Slade tells us a nearby highway patrol car began chasing them after seeing what was going on.

"Shouting, 'Stop Waymo. Stop Waymo. Stop Waymo.' We're like- what the heck is going on?" said Slade.

VIDEO: 3 Waymo self-driving cars in 'standoff' cause traffic jam in San Francisco

The video shows three self-driving Waymo cars blocking a residential street after two of them appeared to have hit each other. The third seemed to have stopped when it sensed the others.

Slade says the Waymo eventually left the construction zone and then took an exit off of the freeway into a residential neighborhood.

Instances like these are what's led Waymo to recall the software for almost 4,000 cars, according to notices filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Records show there were seven cases on Bay Area roads just in one day last month.

In a statement sent to ABC7 Eyewitness News, Waymo says they've identified improvement areas for their cars in construction zones.

They've also voluntarily restricted freeway access while they implement those improvements.

A move supported by Slade, who says he and his fiancé even feared for their lives.

VIDEO: Waymo pulled over by San Bruno police for making illegal U-turn with no driver, passenger in car

San Bruno police officers pulled over a Waymo car with no driver while conducting a DUI crackdown.

"In that moment it's like, oh this technology is not ready. This is 100% not ready. If something else had gone wrong, someone in that road might have got hit. We might have crashed in the car," said Slade.

Autonomous vehicle experts say while issues will happen with new technologies, there are steps companies like Waymo can take.

That includes things like better sharing of data between cars and state organizations.

"Transportation agencies that are doing construction on highways, they're actively feeding data into these data exchanges that connect to vehicles," said Scott Moura of UC Berkeley's Institute of Transportation Studies.

Slade took an Uber home that night and says he's only taken Waymo once since the incident.

"I don't want to use it again. There was a moment where even getting into it again was kind of freaky. A bit of PTSD- yeah."