A pregnant woman, travelling alone, hailed a Waymo self-driving taxi in San Francisco for a ride to the UC San Francisco Medical Centre. It turned out to be an evening the city won’t forget.

By the time she arrived at the hospital’s doorsteps, the baby had already been delivered. Even for San Francisco’s cutting-edge tech scene, this is as futuristic as it gets.

“We can confirm this is true, and that the mother and baby came to our hospital,” said Jess Berthold, a UC San Francisco spokesperson.

Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, operates a driverless ride service across several US cities. There are cameras inside and outside the cars to ensure passenger safety.

The company’s remote rider-support team detected “unusual activity” during the ride, prompting them to initiate a call to check on the woman while simultaneously contacting 911.

During the journey, she gave birth in the back seat while the car continued to drive itself towards the hospital. The miracle occurred before emergency services could reach her.

Although the birth took place on Monday night, Waymo and the hospital made the incident public on Wednesday. In a post, Waymo said: “Earlier this week in San Francisco, a mother in labour hailed a Waymo to the hospital and ended up with an extra surprise: her baby delivered in the backseat.”

After the drop-off, the vehicle was temporarily removed from service so it could be cleaned. Waymo also confirmed that this is not the first time a birth has taken place in one of its autonomous cars, but did not provide further details.

San Francisco has been the testing ground for autonomous-vehicle technology for quite some time. The city’s robotaxis can handle rush-hour traffic and, now, even births.

Waymo began operating its ride-hailing service for select riders in 2021 and opened it to the public in 2024. It has had its share of problems, from disturbing residents with odd-hour honking to killing KitKat, a popular bodega cat, and making an illegal U-turn in front of police. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has recorded Waymo taxis as being involved in at least 14 animal collisions since 2021. Last December, a man recorded footage of his Waymo car driving in nonstop circles as he was trying to get to the airport in Scottsdale, Arizona.

But recent data published by the company shows that Waymo’s self-driving cars were involved in 91 per cent fewer serious-injury-or-worse crashes, and 80 per cent fewer crashes causing any injury, compared with the average human driver over the same distance in the car’s operating cities.