A self-driving Waymo vehicle drove directly through detonating fireworks during Fourth of July celebrations in San Francisco, leaving passengers trapped inside and unable to intervene as the autonomous car continued forward into the blast zone.

Passenger Films Dangerous Encounter

Video captured from inside the robotaxi shows a person on the sidewalk lighting a firework in the middle of an intersection. Instead of stopping or rerouting, the driverless vehicle continued moving forward as the firework began exploding. Passengers can be heard saying “Oh no, no, no” as the car entered the blast. Colorful smoke appeared beneath the vehicle, prompting one passenger to ask if the car was on fire. The incident highlights a critical limitation in autonomous vehicle technology: passengers have no ability to override the computer’s decisions during emergencies.

Traffic Chaos Across Northern San Francisco

The fireworks incident occurred during severe congestion across Northern San Francisco on July Fourth, which disrupted operations for multiple Waymo vehicles throughout the evening. The company acknowledged the problems in a statement, saying extreme traffic congestion affected normal operations for several of its fully electric cars. Waymo’s roadside assistance team worked with local authorities and emergency services to clear vehicles from congested areas. The company did not specify how many robotaxis experienced difficulties or whether any sustained damage from the fireworks.

Growing Autonomous Vehicle Market

Waymo operates as a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, after launching as the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 2009. The company now dominates the autonomous ride-hailing market with 577 registered driverless vehicles providing approximately 500,000 paid rides weekly across ten cities. Its technology relies on advanced LiDAR sensor systems to navigate roads. Tesla is pursuing a different approach, expanding trials in Texas with 42 registered driverless vehicles using camera-only vision systems while developing its Cybercab vehicle. The San Francisco incident raises questions about how autonomous vehicles respond to unpredictable human behavior and hazardous conditions that require split-second judgment calls typically made by human drivers.