A Waymo self-driving car blocks an ambulance during the mass shooting in Austin
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Footage captured the terrifying moment Waymo’s self-driving car briefly blocked Austin ambulance crews rushing to the scene of Sunday’s deadly shooting.
The incident happened around 02:00 in a popular entertainment area, where a gunman shot and killed three people and injured 13 others.
In the photo, a Waymo vehicle comes to a stop on the side of the road as an ambulance comes up the road with flashing lights.
As the car appeared to be moving slowly, moving intermittently and stopping, the witnesses, who appeared to be depressed, shouted for it to go away.
Waymo’s self-driving car appears to be blocking emergency services in downtown Austin. (Matthew Turnage/Fox 7 Austin)
Moments later, an Austin police car arrives, and the officer gets into the Waymo car, driving it to a nearby garage.
The company told Fox News Digital that, after the incident, the Waymo vehicle was hailed by a passenger to be picked up when it “saw a roadblock and began to make a U-turn.”
As the ambulance appeared to be in the middle of nowhere, the vehicle then “let go momentarily and was assisted by a nearby officer.”
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A Waymo self-driving car is parked next to police cars with flashing lights outside a downtown Austin parking lot at night. (Matthew Turnage/Fox 7 Austin)
The company added that the incident was an opportunity to learn about road safety, especially in densely populated cities.
Austin-Travis County EMS (ATCEMS) spoke to the incident Monday, stressing that the lockdown may have had little effect on the victims’ outcomes since police arrived on the scene in less than a minute.
A police officer enters a Waymo self-driving car. (Matthew Turnage/Fox 7 Austin)
“[ATCEMS]and our public safety partners, working closely with the private auto dealers that operate here in the city of Austin,” said Robert Luckritz during a press conference. “We have over 20 properties, services that responded to this event. As mentioned in the previous press conference, we were on the scene within 57 seconds. So in the overall positive effect of the incident, we don’t believe it had an impact on patient outcomes.”
Luckritz added that ATCEMS is in contact with Waymo to discuss steps to address the problem moving forward.
Police drive a Waymo self-driving car into a garage in downtown Austin. (Matthew Turnage/Fox 7 Austin)
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Early Sunday morning, multiple people were shot outside Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden on West 6th Street in downtown Austin, Texas.
Sources said the shooting was being investigated as a possible terrorist attack, possibly related to the recent US and Israeli strikes on Iran, after the suspect – identified as natural-born US citizen Ndiaga Diagne, 53 – was found wearing a “Property of Allah” shirt and an undershirt displaying the Iranian flag.
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