A guy gets out of a driverless taxi at the airport. He taps the button to pop the trunk. Nothing happens. Then the car just pulls away with his suitcase still inside.
That's the spot Di Jin found himself in last week. He'd taken a Waymo from his Sunnyvale home to San Jose Mineta Airport for a work trip. His first time in a robotaxi. The drive was smooth, he said. No complaints.
Then he stepped out.
"I pressed the trunk open button, tried to get my luggage, but it doesn't do anything, and it drives away immediately," Jin told NBC Bay Area.
He rang Waymo's customer support right then. Too late, they said. The car was already en route to the depot and couldn't be turned back. So, Jin had a decision to make: skip his flight to San Diego and hunt down his bag, or board the plane with nothing? He finally decided to fly out with no suitcase, change of clothes, or work notes.
Later that day, Waymo emailed. Good news: they had his luggage safe at their local depot. Bad news: they wouldn't pay to send it back. Jin could cover the shipping himself. Or, Waymo offered him two free rides so he could make the two-hour round trip to San Francisco and pick it up in person.
"It sounds terrible," Jin said. "It doesn't make any sense at all, because it's not my mistake."
Waymo's policy says it's not responsible for items left behind after a trip ends. But Jin keeps circling back to the same point. This wasn't forgotten luggage. He tried to open the trunk. The button just didn't work.
"I already told them very clearly it's not lost and found, right? I pressed the trunk open button, and it's just not functional."
Turns out this has happened before. About a year ago, a San Francisco tennis coach said a Waymo drove away with his expensive gear in the back. Waymo told reporters at the time that its support team tries to reunite riders with their forgotten items. That coach said he didn't forget anything either.
Everybody loses a suitcase eventually. Usually you blame yourself. But having a robot drive off with your bags before you've even made it inside the terminal? That's a whole new kind of travel headache.
By Friday, Waymo had called Jin back. They said they'd cover the shipping after all. Jin was fine with that. He says he still likes driverless technology. But this whole mess, he admitted, left a bad taste.
Ogbonda Chivumnovu
