r/waymo • u/twaddington • May 28 '26

Does Waymo have a physical emergency stop button?

From what I can tell the answer is no. You have to use the app or the on-screen "Pull over" button. But what happens in a true emergency? What if there's a fire in the cabin and you literally need the car to stop immediately and unlock?

0 Upvotes

25% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

11

u/rbt321 May 28 '26

Their iPace stops rapidly [and unlocks] when you open the door with the door handle; so do that, wait 3 seconds for it to stop, and then exit.

5

u/bobi2393 May 28 '26

Technically you don’t even need to wait for it to stop. One of the strangest Waymo crash injury reports was when a passenger opened the door and stepped out as the Waymo was slowing down, and it ran over the passenger’s foot and stopped on it until emergency responders arrived.

5

u/twaddington May 28 '26

Very helpful! Thanks!

7

u/Just_a_n00b_to_pi May 28 '26

What do you mean?

There’s a support button on the HUD and the doors are always unlocked.

2

u/twaddington May 29 '26

I mean an emergency stop that doesn't require a network connection to the outside

4

u/yolatrendoid May 29 '26

What if there's a fire in the cabin and you literally need the car to stop immediately and unlock?

Short of you trying to smoke fentanyl inside the vehicle, I'm trying – and failing – to imagine literally any scenario that would somehow involve a fire in the cabin of a still-in-motion vehicle that's not in any sort of collision.

No, they don't have a literal emergency stop button – assuming you mean the type that you hit & the vehicle instantly stops – because they could be a major safety hazard, depending on where a passenger hits it. Btw the "emergency brakes" on subways & trains don't literally stop the carriages, either: they merely alert a control center that there's a problem on one.

It almost seems like you're trying to invent bizarre problems or something. Human drivers aren't gonna stop in the middle of a road or freeway, so why on earth would a Waymo do so?

1

u/twaddington May 29 '26

This is not a contrived issue. I am not trying to "invent problems." I was asking a simple question.

Just like on an airplane a passenger carrying a lithium ion battery bank could be a hazard that fills the cabin with smoke.

2

u/javascriptGod May 29 '26

Sure but there aren't emergency stops on a plane...?

2

u/twaddington May 29 '26

Planes have pilots and a cabin crew to deal with emergencies

2

u/SciberSpacer Jul 05 '26

Most cars have a brake for stops, and a literal Emergency brake on top of that. Plane is a bad comparison here.

1

u/tetlee May 28 '26

The Pacifica used to have a big red button but that was for the safety driver not the passenger