A joke in San Francisco caused dozens of self-driving Waymo taxis to get stuck on a street with no way out. The stunt, which quickly spread online, overwhelmed the company’s system for providing driverless rides.
Riley Walz, a 23-year-old software engineer, reportedly orchestrated a prank by booking 50 Waymo self-driving cars to go to the same dead-end street at the same time, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.
A massive traffic jam occurred, caused by self-driving cars all arriving to pick up people who hadn’t requested a ride. Walz later revealed the incident was a deliberate prank on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, and called it “the world’s first Waymo DDoS.”
Prank sends 50 driverless taxis to dead-end street
Someone described a situation where fifty people simultaneously requested Waymo rides to San Francisco’s longest dead-end street, but none of them actually took a ride. The Waymo vehicles arrived, waited for about ten minutes, and then charged a $5 cancellation fee. Waymo responded by temporarily disabling ride service in the immediate area until the next morning.
It was honestly like being back in middle school – total cheerful chaos! Everyone was just so excited and happy. Every time another car pulled up, people would cheer. I think there were only about three or four actual drivers, but they were all laughing and just having fun driving around.
It happened last July, and it reminded me of being back in middle school. Everyone was really excited, and people cheered whenever another car arrived. There were only a few actual drivers, but they all just had fun driving around.
— Riley Walz (@rtwlz) October 12, 2025
Waymo, a self-driving car service owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, runs a fleet of robotaxis in San Francisco and Phoenix. The service has received criticism in the past from city officials who reported issues like vehicles obstructing traffic and causing confusion for emergency vehicles.
The playful stunt quickly went viral on TikTok and Reddit, with many users jokingly comparing it to a real-life cyberattack. However, experts caution that similar, coordinated actions could actually be used to cause traffic problems or interfere with self-driving vehicles, especially during large events.
What might have seemed like a harmless joke to Walz serves as a crucial lesson for Waymo: even the most advanced self-driving cars aren’t immune to clever tricks.
This isn’t the first time Walz has tackled a project like this. Earlier this year, he developed a popular app that pinpointed parking enforcement officers in San Francisco, letting drivers steer clear of tickets.
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2025-10-16 17:51