For the record:
9:59 a.m. January 6, 2025: An earlier version of this story said Mike Johns missed his flight. He almost missed his flight. An earlier headline said he was headed to LAX. He was in Arizona at the time of the incident.

A Los Angeles man said he almost missed his flight home after getting trapped in a self-driving Waymo vehicle that wouldn’t stop circling in a parking lot on the way to the airport.

L.A. tech entrepreneur Mike Johns posted a video on LinkedIn three weeks ago in which he called a Waymo customer service representative and told him the car was constantly spinning in circles and he was worried he would miss his flight.

“I have to catch a flight. Why is this thing spinning in circles? I feel dizzy,” Johns said. “It circles around a parking lot. I buckled up. I can’t get out of the car. Was this hacked? What’s up? I feel like I’m in the cinema. Is someone playing a joke on me?”

The customer service representative told Johns to open his Waymo app and that she would attempt to stop the car but appeared to be having trouble getting the vehicle to stop.

According to a CBS report, Johns was on his way home from Scottsdale, Arizona.

In his social media post, Johns, who also works on AI initiatives according to his LinkedIn profile, said Waymo did not contact him after the experience.

“By now you might think Waymo would follow up via email, text or phone call,” he wrote.

A Waymo spokesman wrote in an email to The Times on Sunday that the incident occurred in mid-December and that the driver was held up for about five minutes and then driven to his destination.

At the time of the incident, Johns wrote on LinkedIn: “Mind you, I was on my way to the airport and have now missed my flight.” Johns has since updated his post to clarify that he almost missed his flight.

The spokesman said the software error has since been fixed and Johns was not charged for the trip. The spokesperson added that the company attempted to reach him via voicemail.

The company’s autonomous cars have been a common sight on the streets of San Francisco for years, and Waymo recently opened its services to all drivers after initially rolling out a pilot program for select users. Robotaxis debuted in LA last fall.

Waymo’s stated goal is to reduce traffic accidents and deaths through autonomous driving technology, and drivers and advocates for the service have praised it as a safe and easy alternative to human drivers.

However, there were technical glitches and security concerns when the company launched in several cities.

A man in downtown LA allegedly tried to hijack a Waymo and drive away on Thursday. Police arrested the man after finally getting him out of the car.

There were also reports of drivers being harassed by pedestrians blocking the car’s path and causing the vehicle to stall.

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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.