Waymo pulled over in San Bruno in a now-viral incident

“That’s right … no driver, no hands, no clue,” the post read, accompanied by a photo of an officer peering into the driver’s seat of the driverless car.

“This is not a common occurrence. This is, as far as I know, here in San Bruno, the one and only time,” Lethin said. “It is exceptional, but now, with more and more autonomous vehicles out there, inevitably, it’s going to happen more frequently.”

The Waymo pull-over occurred during a grant-funded DUI saturated patrol last week, Lethin said, which resulted in one stop of a driver under the influence.

It also resulted in significant media coverage for the department, with both local and national outlets like the Associated Press reporting on the violation. The department — which also generated significant interest with another recent post on blocked-off parking spaces — has been intentional in upping its social media presence, Lethin said.

“There’s just so much potential ... with social media and engaging and educating our community and just sharing awareness,” he said. “Our team’s been looking for opportunities to share interesting stuff.”

Involving and educating the community on the day-to-day work of the San Bruno Police Department can not only serve as an educational tool, but an opportunity to generate recruitment interest, Lethin said.

“The opportunity’s there, to keep our community informed, engage them, educate them, but then also, get a brand out there and serve as a recruitment tool,” he said. “They’re doing some great posts, and it’s working so far, so you can expect to see more of the same.”

In response to the incident, Waymo spokesperson Julia Ilina said that the company is dedicated to street safety improvement in cities where it operates.

“Waymo’s autonomous driving system, the Waymo Driver, is designed to respect the rules of the road,” she said. “Following our review, we took immediate steps to address this and are committed to improving road safety through our ongoing learnings and experience.”

The Police Department couldn’t ticket the car for the moving violation, it said on social media, but reported the glitch to the company.

Waymo expanded its autonomous ride-hailing service to more cities in the county, including South San Francisco, Burlingame, Brisbane, Millbrae and San Bruno, this summer. The company currently operates its vehicles across California, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as other major metropolitan areas like Austin and Atlanta.