Phoenix has emerged as a thriving hub for semiconductor manufacturing and the testing of self-driving cars and drones. This transformation stems from a combination of favorable business conditions, a structured grid system,

PHOENIX (TNND) — A frightening incident occurred inside a self-driving car that nearly caused a man to miss his flight. I got a flight to catch. Why is this thing going in a circle and making me dizzy? Look at what it is doing," Mike Johns, a tech entrepreneur, says in the video he recorded while sitting in the Waymo car.

A Los Angeles tech entrepreneur found himself trapped in a self-driving taxi last month on his way to the airport, with the car repeatedly circling around a parking lot. Mike Johns posted a video on LinkedIn in which he was headed to Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix.

A video posted by a Waymo passenger shows the autonomous car he rode in going in circles in an Arizona parking lot while he tried to get to the airport.

A month ago, a video circulated around social media of a Waymo robotaxi stuck in a roundabout loop — an isolated incident with no passengers in the

Mike Johns says he almost missed his flight after his Waymo self-driving taxi drove in circles — which he captured in a video posted to LinkedIn.

Phoenix, a longtime hub for aerospace and defense, is becoming an epicenter of semiconductor manufacturing and autonomous vehicles.

The vehicles Waymo receives from Geely, it says, are “base vehicles,” stripped of telematics systems and any other technology that would allow the vehicle to communicate with, or send data back to, its manufacturer. Only “authorized personnel” install Waymo's self-driving technology into the cars after they’re delivered to the United States.

A Waymo customer said his self-driving taxi drove him around in eight circles, almost making him late for his flight. A video shows Waymo’s customer service wasn’t able to do much to stop the vehicle, raising concerns about self-driving safety. If you’ve ever worried about a robotaxi going rogue, one Waymo customer has lived your worst nightmare.

The driverless Waymo robotaxis now serving a handful of cities have their critics. I’m not one of them. I’m going to try to do two things here. One: defend Waymo, the driverless taxi a lot of people seem to want to send off a cliff. Two: not make a single pun on the name. Both will be hard.

But for the regulations to push self-driving vehicles forward, safety must be prioritized, the co-CEO said. She hopes that the Trump administration puts risk mitigation at the forefront of its proposed national regulatory framework.

On a recent visit to San Francisco, Adam Engst was thoroughly impressed with a ride in a Waymo robotaxi. How many years will it be before the company expands service to most of the country?