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Video footage captured a dramatic incident where a Waymo autonomous vehicle momentarily obstructed Austin ambulance crews racing to respond to Sunday’s tragic mass shooting.
The event unfolded around 2 a.m. in a bustling entertainment district, where a shooter tragically killed three individuals and injured 13 others.
The footage shows the Waymo vehicle coming to a halt in the middle of the street just as an ambulance, sirens blaring, approached the scene.
As the self-driving car hesitated, moving sporadically, bystanders, visibly alarmed, shouted for it to clear the way.
A Waymo autonomous vehicle is depicted blocking emergency personnel in downtown Austin. (Matthew Turnage/Fox 7 Austin)
Moments later, an Austin police car arrives, and an officer enters the Waymo vehicle, driving it into a nearby garage.
The company told Fox News Digital that, in the wake of the shooting, a Waymo car had been hailed by a rider for pickup when it identified a “road blockage and began executing a U-turn.”
As the ambulance appeared mid-turn, the car then “briefly yielded and was assisted by a nearby officer.”
A Waymo self-driving vehicle is positioned near police cars with flashing lights outside a downtown Austin parking facility at night. (Matthew Turnage/Fox 7 Austin)
The company added that the incident served as a learning opportunity for road safety, particularly in densely populated cities.
The Austin-Travis County EMS (ATCEMS) chief addressed the incident Monday, emphasizing that the blockage likely had little impact on the victims’ outcomes as police still arrived at the scene in less than a minute.
A police officer enters a Waymo self-driving car. (Matthew Turnage/Fox 7 Austin)
“[ATCEMS], as well as our fellow public safety partners, work very closely with the autonomous vehicle vendors that operate here in the city of Austin,” Robert Luckritz said during a press conference. “We had more than 20 assets, resources that responded to this event. As said at an earlier press conference, we were on scene within 57 seconds. So in the grand scheme of the impact on the overall incident, we don’t believe it had any impact on patient outcomes.”
Luckritz added that ATCEMS has been in contact with Waymo to discuss steps for addressing the issue moving forward.
Police drive the Waymo self-driving vehicle into a garage in downtown Austin. (Matthew Turnage/Fox 7 Austin)
Early Sunday, multiple people were shot outside Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden on West 6th Street in downtown Austin, Texas.
Sources said the mass shooting is being investigated as a potential terrorism nexus, possibly linked to the recent U.S. and Israel strike on Iran, after the suspect — identified as 53-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen Ndiaga Diagne — was found wearing a “Property of Allah” sweatshirt and an undershirt depicting the Iranian flag.
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