A Waymo robotaxi recently left a passenger in a predicament, circling a parking lot for five minutes instead of heading to the airport. The incident highlights the challenges autonomous vehicle developers face as they work to perfect the technology.

The man was concerned he'd miss his flight out of Los Angeles as Waymo's customer support took some time to sort things out

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.

Waymo, which is owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, told Gizmodo the rider wasn’t charged for his trip and has attempted to contact Johns but they haven’t connected yet. Waymo also emphasizes the circling lasted about five minutes. Johns told ABC15 Arizona that he was frustrated by the experience and “It’s like people are the experiment.”

The man nearly missed his flight after the self-driving car drove him around and around, all while he was on the phone with a customer service rep who was unable to stop the wayward vehicle.

He had a plane to catch — but his ride to the airport was stuck in a parking lot, driving in circles. That was the experience of a passenger using Waymo, the Alphabet-owned autonomous taxi service that launched in San Francisco last year and has expanded its fleet to Los Angeles and Phoenix.

A Los Angeles tech entrepreneur, Mike Johns, found himself trapped in a self-driving taxi from Waymo as it circled a parking lot in Phoenix, Arizona, on December 9. Johns was on his way to Sky Harbor International Airport when the autonomous vehicle began driving in loops,

Mike Johns, a Los Angeles-based tech entrepreneur, was driven in circles in a parking lot while a Waymo representative tried to assist him over the phone

Passenger Mike Johns says he got into the driverless Waymo taxi to take him from a car rental drop-off to the airport in Scottsdale, Arizona. All at once, he says the taxi started going in circles right in the parking lot.