The handle was wedged in the notch in the seat where the seatbelt clasp sits with the blade sticking straight out.
PHOENIX — A girls trip to Scottsdale, Arizona, took a frightening turn when four women climbed into a Waymo for the first time and discovered a knife wedged into the back seat, blade facing toward passengers.
Bailey, Jadie, Maddie and Adria were headed to a grocery store when the car beeped at them to buckle up. They were on vacation to Scottsdale from Utah and wanted to try the robot cars.
“I put my hand down to grab the buckle and I couldn’t find the buckle, but I touched something really sharp and it hurt my hand,” said Maddie Carlson. “And I looked again and it was a knife.”
It was a knife with a straight blade, about six inches long. The handle was wedged in the notch in the seat where the seatbelt clasp sits with the blade sticking straight out.
“She’s lucky. She could have sat on it. She could have sliced her hand,” Young said.
A driver could have checked the car before they got in, maybe inspected it. A driver would have been able to stop the car. But Waymos have no driver to tell.
“We felt trapped. We couldn’t tell a driver to pull us over if we wanted to get out of the car,” Carlson said. “It was scary.”
Waymo says its response teams contacted the women after the ride to make sure they weren’t injured. A spokesperson says weapons are not allowed in its vehicles.
The company says it is reviewing who was in the car before the women boarded to identify the rider responsible.
Carlson says the experience changed how she’ll approach any ride going forward.
“I don’t think any of us will ever get in a Waymo or an Uber or Lyft or taxi or anything without checking,” she said.