Waymo Passenger Stuck in Self-Driving Taxi Going in Circles Says He Nearly Missed Flight: WATCH

Mike Johns, a Los Angeles-based tech entrepreneur, was driven in circles in a parking lot while a Waymo representative tried to assist him over the phone

A Los Angeles-based tech entrepreneur claims he almost missed his flight after a mishap in a self-driving taxi.

Mike Johns was headed to Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, and he decided to take a Waymo self-driving rideshare car — the autonomous vehicles run by Google parent company Alphabet. But after buckling his seatbelt, Johns recounted in a LinkedIn post, “the saga begins.”

“This autonomous vehicle said to heck with GPS,” wrote Johns. “The car just went around in circles, eight circles at that.”

In a video that accompanied the post, Johns can be seen sitting in the back seat of the self-driving car, growing increasingly frustrated as the vehicle makes several loops around a parking lot. “Why is this happening to me on a Monday?” he says to the camera.

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Later in the video — as the car continues to drive in circles — Johns is able to call the “Waymo support" line and an employee attempts to troubleshoot the issue with the vehicle.

Mike Johns/TMX Waymo Vehicle

Mike Johns/TMX

Waymo Vehicle

“I got a flight to catch. Why is this thing going in a circle — I’m getting dizzy,” Johns tells the company representative. “Has this been hacked? What’s going on? I feel like I’m in the movies.”

Related: Tesla Recalls 362,758 Vehicles Due to Self-Driving Software That 'Increases the Risk of a Crash'

The support team member apologizes and admits that she cannot remotely “control the car,” instead asking John to press a button within the Waymo app on his end. She does, however, note that she is “finding a spot” to pull over and “temporarily pausing” the ride.

According to Johns’ post, he “nearly missed” his flight because of the debacle, though the company said that the incident only caused him a five-minute delay, per CNN.

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Johns said he had sworn off the self-driving taxi service after the incident. “I'll keep it old fashion and just Lyft or Uber,” he concluded his post.

Related: Toyota Suspends Use of Self-Driving Vehicles After Collision With Paralympics Athlete in Tokyo

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty; Mike Johns/TMX

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty; Mike Johns/TMX

The mishap comes after a clip went viral in August depicting nearly three dozen Waymo vehicles repeatedly honking at each other in a San Francisco parking lot at 4 a.m.

"The robotaxis in the Waymo lot are clustered and actually honking at each other," Randol White, the Facebook user who first posted the viral clip, captioned the video. "I would find it funny if it wasn't 4 a.m."

White’s neighbor, Christopher Cherry, told NBC Bay Area that he was initially “really excited” to welcome the self-driving vehicles into his neighborhood — but that they were honking at an increasing frequency.

waymo

waymo

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"We started out with a couple of honks here and there, and then as more and more cars started to arrive, the situation got worse, " he told the outlet. "It's very distracting during the work day, but most importantly it wakes you up at four in the morning."

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A company spokesperson explained to PEOPLE at the time that its vehicles sometimes “help avoid low speed collisions by honking if other cars get too close while reversing toward us” — as they appeared to do in the video. They added that they had "updated the software, so our electric vehicles should keep the noise down for our neighbors moving forward.”

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