Waymo turned onto Phoenix light rail tracks in front of a train, TikTok video shows

A Waymo turned onto a light rail track in front of an approaching train in south Phoenix on Wednesday morning.

A viral video posted on TikTok depicted the robotaxi turning north onto tracks with northbound and southbound trains approaching near the Southern/Central Avenue station.

The vehicle stops shortly after turning onto the tracks, and a passenger can be seen exiting the Waymo before it continues down the tracks, where it approached a southbound train.

The Waymo continued traveling north down the tracks before exiting without further incident.

Waymo says the passenger safely exited the vehicle.

This is not an isolated incident. Alison Stearman was in a Waymo when she said she had a similar experience in downtown Mesa in December.

“We're on the tracks, and then it jerked left again, and then jerked left again, then it jerked right again,” Stearman said. “So I think we were kind of stuck, and so we're trying to get out. The doors are locked.”

Stearman said the Waymo was taking a detour to avoid construction when it “got confused” and turned onto the tracks.

“We were only on the tracks, I would say, for five seconds, but it feels like a very long time you're trying to get out of a vehicle, and you don't know, you know, when the next light rail is going to come,” Stearman said.

Stearman said there was not a train approaching at the time. She got off the tracks safely.

Valley Metro said to minimize delays, northbound and southbound trains exchanged passengers before switching direction. There was no significant delay in service.