What should I do if an autonomous vehicle causes a problem on my property?

Last updated: April 15, 2026

Context

Your security or operations team has witnessed an autonomous vehicle behaving unexpectedly, whether that's blocking a lane, stopping in an unauthorized area, causing a near-miss, or generating a complaint from a tenant or visitor.

Answer

If an autonomous vehicle causes an operational issue on your property, here's the escalation process:

Immediate steps:

  1. Ensure safety first. If an AV is blocking emergency access, contact local emergency services as needed.

  2. Document the incident. Note the time, location, vehicle type (Waymo, Tesla, etc.), and what happened. Photos or security camera footage are helpful.

  3. If the vehicle is a Waymo, it has a rider support number on the vehicle exterior. Passengers inside can also contact Waymo support via their app.

Escalate to Autolane:

Contact Autolane at support@goautolane.com or through your shared Slack channel. Include the incident details from step 2.

Autolane has a direct pipeline into AV operator organizations (Waymo, Tesla, etc.) and can escalate on your behalf. This is faster than going through the AV operator's general consumer support channels. Autolane will investigate whether the issue is related to zone placement, coordinate accuracy, or AV operator routing, and recommend corrective action.

For your security team:

Brief your security team that AV incidents should be logged and reported the same way any vehicle incident would be, with the addition of notifying Autolane so the data can be reviewed.

What Autolane can do:

  1. Review dashboard data to see if the AV was detected in or near the zone.

  2. Contact the AV operator's operations team directly with incident details.

  3. Recommend zone adjustments or additional signage to prevent recurrence.

  4. Provide incident documentation for your records.

Most AV interactions will be routine and uneventful. But when something unexpected happens, treat it as an opportunity to improve the system, and loop Autolane in immediately.