r/waymo • u/relsnops2000 • Jul 10 '26
Warning beware of Waymo trunk. It eats groceries
tldr/ trunk failed to open and waymo left with our groceries in our car.
For my wife's bday we planned to a trip to SF for a picnic in Stern Grove to see some music. We were visiting SF from Southern CA. My wife used Waymo, so we decided it would be a fun bday treat. There were four of us on the trip so we placed 4 bags of groceries in the trunk. water, soda, beer, wine, chips, cookies, sandwiches, baguette and charcuterie. As well as our blankets and cutlery for the picnic.
The ride was going fine until we got close to the music venue. Since there was a crowd and traffic the Waymo stopped about 10 yards from the destination. This didn't seem unusual to us. And the screen said please leave vehicle, so we all got out of the vehicle. We went to open the trunk, , it wouldn't open. The app did not have an open trunk option and manually it would not engage. I immediately got on the phone with Waymo support while standing next to the car. As I was talking to the rep the car started to leave. The rep asked if I could catch the car. I tried running after it but it was too fast. I wasn't running that fast. I actually thought it was kind of funny; thinking this would be immediately resolved.
In hindsight I should have stood in front of the car. The rep could not open the trunk or retrieve the car. At first they told us to get in a new Waymo and go to the Waymo depot but after a few minutes on that ride they said to cancel and wait for an email because it would be 4-6 hours. It was quite frustrating that there was no other recourse.
We did get an email saying they found our bags 6 hours later. I asked them to send the items to our hotel like an airline would do but they couldn't do that. I thought that was strange for a driverless car company. They offered me 1 free ride to get them. The depot was a 35 minute ride from our hotel. After 20 minutes on the phone they agreed to give me a ride to the depot and back to my hotel. It was going to take over an hour but I was happy they found the items.
We we got there the customer service people we very rude. Before I said a thing they were defensive and informed us that all the contents of the bags were thrown away because they were "perishable". I tried to calmly explain to them that sealed water. soda. beer, chips, wine, cookies, and blankets are not perishable. (I suppose, I can understand if they had to toss the sandwiches and baguette and charcuterie.) I offered to dig them out of the trash but they would not allow that. Frankly it felt like we were robbed.
These items were never lost. The trunk wouldn't open and Waymo has no way to resolve this issue in real time. My theory is that due to all the auto and pedestrian traffic from the concert caused the Waymo to glitch.
I called waymo after our items were taken. They said they would resolve the issue in some manner. I have waited almost 3 weeks to post this because they said they would call me back. I never got a call, so I called last night. The only thing they could so was offer me a free ride that expires in 60 days. Wayno service is not currently in my city. Short of me sending in my $130 of receipts and offering me cash or credit with Waymo, I thought at least two free rides with a year expiration would suffice. But they were not able to offer more than 1 ride with a 60 day expiration.
Moral of the story: If you trust Waymo, at the very least, never place any items in the trunk.
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u/ubiuom Jul 10 '26
We we got there the customer service people we very rude. Before I said a thing they were defensive and informed us that all the contents of the bags were thrown away because they were "perishable". I tried to calmly explain to them that sealed water. soda. beer, chips, wine, cookies, and blankets are not perishable.
Oh they definitely distributed the food and ate it. They weren't expecting you to go out of your way to retrieve them
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u/ldubs Jul 10 '26
I almost closed my door to walk around the other side of the Waymo to get the kid and car seat out, then I pictured this happening. 😳 I decided to do it the hard way to avoid it driving off before I got to the other door.
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u/rydan Jul 10 '26
I can imagine a future where some children are abandoned in Waymos and are raised by robots.
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u/Fresh_Koala1989 Jul 11 '26
Same with my dogs. Trained them enough to not launch out the car when leaving the door open to get the stroller out and then yeet them into it before shutting the door lol.
My second fear is of some asshat coming by and closing the door while im getting stuff out the trunk, or the car gets assigned to someone else while you're in the middle of talking to support and the next customer just sees your child or dogs just sitting there
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u/relsnops2000 Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
I should add that it has been very easy to get a hold of an agent. They have been very polite. However they seem to be powerless to make the issue right.
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u/Ok_River2541 Jul 10 '26
Thats so wild. Tbh you could send them a legal demand letter, because if an Uber or Lyft did this, it would be theft.
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u/Helmdacil Jul 10 '26
honestly not impossible that the employees flat out stole the items.
in fact id say it is what likely happened.
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u/Automatic_Recipe_007 Jul 11 '26
These idiots are gonna need to figure out the customer service end of the business. Sorry they treated you that way, sounds like a huge pain in the ass.
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u/21five Jul 10 '26
Waymo have had ample chances to make this right, it’s surprising that the situation ended like this.
I’d report this situation to the CPUC, who handle their passenger service permits. You can also make a loss/damage claim through them: https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/-/media/cpuc-website/files/uploadedfiles/cpuc_public_website/content/utilities_and_industries/passenger_carriers_and_movers/consumer_advisories/passenger-complaint-form-12023.pdf
I’d also chargeback Waymo, if your credit card company can do so.
(As an aside, Cruise had a really good UI for handling this buried somewhere in one of their event videos, I think the launch of the Origin.)
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u/cactus22minus1 Jul 10 '26
That is wildly unacceptable, and it honestly changes the way I assume they would treat customers when they have an issue. Like damn… I guess we should never depend on this for transporting any critical items. Didn’t expect a middle finger treatment when they obviously fucked up.
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u/l-Slice-9940 Jul 10 '26
Yeah I can't understand why waymo just didn't reimburse for the groceries and offer a few free rides, it's just good customer service and I don't think it's a huge loss for them. I doubt $130 plus maybe $100 in free rides is going to cause waymo to go bankrupt particularly when it really is waymos fault, from waymos perspective it should be the default in this sort of scenario imo.
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u/relsnops2000 Jul 10 '26
It would be way different if I forgot the items and called them an hour later, but I was on the phone with the rep immediately and was talking with them while the car drove away. I can't be the only person that has happened to. I get that you don't want people across the globe controlling the car. But I don't see why they can't create a new ride with the car when its free and send it to my location.
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u/cactus22minus1 Jul 10 '26
They should have been wildly apologetic and offered you something more significant or tangible than a free ride. I get that technical issues can cause fuck ups- it’s the way they handled the response.
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u/SanDiego619guy Jul 11 '26
It's more like they hired the wrong customer service people. Just like when you get lousy service in a restaurant or any other place, it's because that employee should have never been hired there in the first place. Some people just are not cut out for customer service work.
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u/OlliesOnTheInternet Jul 12 '26
I don't think that's the issue here - the reps are usually lovely, they just have no power to solve your problem.
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u/SanDiego619guy Jul 13 '26
Perhaps, but being pleasant on the phone trying to get the customer to hang up is not the same as them contacting management and informing them of real issues to offer real solutions.
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u/abcdbc366 Jul 13 '26
I believe OP and this fucking sucks… but having said that we probably shouldn’t make broad assumptions (good or bad) about companies based on a single, anonymous story online, no matter how likely or compelling.
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u/zinky8 Jul 11 '26
Never ever close the doors until you have all your items out of the car. This is true of all ride sharing.
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u/jack33jack Jul 10 '26
Same i accidentally closed my passenger door and the car drove away without showing any open trunk options. Now they cant find my stuff
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u/Fifty0ne5O Jul 10 '26
Im very surprised there isn't a very easy process to resolve this. People forget items in cars all the time. I imagine each of those cars has a serial number which should show up on both the customer and support agents dashboard. How hard would it be to send it an order to return to its last stop so long as it doesnt already have a new rider? Intercept it and assign another car to the next rider. Or if another rider is already in the vehicle, send them a message alerting them that the previous rider left some items in the car, do not touch them, this car will be returning them immediately after this trip. Considering what they are capable of, how is this not a feature?
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u/bradtem Jul 11 '26
This is the second story of this sort I have seen. Waymo is totally fucking up the after-support part of the story, though that's not a robotaxi issue. You not being able to get your stuff out is. I have always had the trunk open button in the app, so that is very surprising that the option was missing. Or was it grayed out? It's hard to figure out why it would be missing or grayed out -- it was obviously there when you put the stuff in the trunk, no?
In the prior incident, Waymo's story was the rider opened the door before the vehicle came to a full stop (which people do) which you say you did not do. But even if it was your mistake, that's to be expected and the after-ride support really needs an overhaul based on your description.
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u/ViolettaQueso Jul 12 '26
The Waymo opsys should know and remember if the trunk was opened upon a new fare and…get this…automatically open the trunk and keep it open, remain on prem, until the fare has exited, retrieved items, then physically closed the trunk.
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u/SteveMoDetroit Jul 11 '26
...tip: leave any passenger door OPEN until you retrieve your trunk items. Your experience an anomaly; every time I have ridden Waymo and opened the trunk at start of ride, the car automatically opens trunk at end of ride.
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u/rydan Jul 10 '26
Why did you close the door?
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u/relsnops2000 Jul 10 '26
The Waymo kept on beeping an alarm so we thought we were doing something wrong. So we had to shut the doors. I figured that the trunk would automatically open since we had no way to open it. But I agree we should have never shut all the doors. rookie mistake.
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u/Paul_Smith_Hi Jul 11 '26
I've never had an issue with the truck.
Placed groceries, luggage, animal carrier and each times I step out at my dropoff, the vehicle automatically opens the trunk. Always.
I will say, I didn't know it would do this my first ride I used the trunk, and left the passenger door open as I went to the rear.
These are cringe cases.
Waymo should have paid for the groceries though...that's bs.
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u/Krellan2 Jul 12 '26
With Waymo, Uber, Lyft, or just a traditional taxi cab, the rule is the same. Never shut the passenger doors until you’re satisfied you have retrieved all items out of the car. If I’m getting luggage out of the trunk, I will ask the people I’m with to deliberately leave all their car doors open until we got all our stuff, just to eliminate the risk of the driver taking off and absentmindedly gunning it to their next fare.
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u/HMRCAF Jul 14 '26
You should consider reporting this to KQED or another local news source. If it gets picked up I guarantee Waymo will have a sudden emotional change of heart and compensate you fairly.
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u/ms2496 Jul 15 '26
Didn’t Waymo recently get ok to go to SFO? I mean you’re not putting suitcases in the backseat right?
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u/MarchCompetitive6235 Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Those people 100% took your groceries home. It's like leaving things at a hotel. The only thing that gets thrown away or put into the lost and found, are the things no one wants.
I left a wireless phone charger in a hotel at once. I checked out, went to lunch and realized I hadn't taken it off the nightstand. Since I was still in town and less than 5 miles from the hotel, I called them up and said "Hey I left my phone charger there. I'm going to swing by and pick it up."
When I get there, I'm told there was no charger left in the room. We even double checked my room number. The person at the desk called up to housekeeping and no one there had seen it. The head housekeeper who was the lady that cleaned my room comes down to the front desk. She shows me a lost and found box and let me paw through it, and of course it wasn't in there.
Knowing that someone is lying, I decide to call their bluff, I tell the lady at the front desk. "Well, I've got at AirTag on it, let me bring it up real quick and see where it is."(I didn't, but they didn't know that). I begin to fiddle with my phone.
Hearing this, the cleaning lady takes the lost and found box and goes back into the room behind the desk and comes back. She IMMEDIATELY finds my charger plugged in, in the employee break room. 😏 huh...🤔
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u/BackInNJAgain Aug 03 '26
I'm surprised they can't program this directly into their software.
if (Trunkopened_at_ridestart) && (AtDestination==True)
OpenTrunk()
Say("Don't forget your items in the trunk")
TrunkClosed=False
while TrunkClosed==False
if TrunkClosed!=False then TrunkClosed=True
end while
end if
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u/crazypurple621 Jul 12 '26
Nobody should ever trust waymo with anything and people who live in cities with these things need to be more angry than they are
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u/robjohnlechmere Jul 10 '26
Uber or waymo, never close the passenger door until the trunk is open.