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CNN Uncovers Reported Close Calls Involving Waymo Robotaxis; NYC Investigators, Residents Baffled by People Entering Sewers; Federal Panel Reviews Plans for Trump Arch; Women's French Open Final Set at Roland Garros. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired June 04, 2026 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: You've likely seen some of these stories lately, Waymo's acting wacky like randomly gathering in one cul-de-sac in Atlanta last month and doing circles. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it can be life and death. Right now federal and state laws don't require Waymo to fully track and report all the problems that they're having.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: So our CNN investigations team dug into the data of some 1,200 incidents and found that Waymo's are actually causing a whole new set of risks on the road. Here's CNN's Kyung Lah.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He going to go. He going to go. Oh! Oh!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the (BLEEP) is that Waymo doing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, the Waymo is on the track.

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): These are all Waymo robotaxis and you may have seen one of these videos on social media.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That definitely ran a red light. Oh my God.

LAH (voiceover): As Waymo aggressively expands to new and more complicated cities, our CNN analysis of public records, including calls for service, police reports, and city council meetings, finds hundreds of incidents where Waymos are confused in everyday moments, putting pedestrians, passengers and others on the road in potentially dangerous situations.

LAH: If you don't know what a Waymo is, this is it. There's no driver behind this wheel. It is a high-tech car equipped with cameras and sensors, and that's because Waymos are entirely self-driving.

You order a ride with your phone -- in some cities, even through the Uber or Lyft app -- and it takes you without any driver to where you need to go.

LAH (voiceover): On its website, Waymo says its robotaxis have driven more than 170 million miles through the end of last year. And it says peer review data shows that Waymos are better than humans at avoiding crashes that result in injuries.

The company shared this video with us of several close calls. Waymo showing off the ability to swerve last second and dodge people, possibly better than a human driver could.

This is all pretty new tech, learning in real time. But we found it's creating a whole new set of safety problems. The incidents are just a snapshot of the concerns because federal and state rules don't require Waymo to fully track near misses and other safety issues.

[15:35:00]

Waymo tells CNN it safely completes more than half a million rides every week. And those smooth, uneventful rides -- they don't go viral. But here's some key themes we did see in records.

WAYMO CAR: Connected to rider support.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The car is going the wrong way. It's going on the wrong side of the road.

LAH (voiceover): Over and over again we came across reports of Waymos breaking basic traffic and safety laws, like in this video from Austin, Texas where a Waymo appeared to cross double yellow lines and drove on the wrong side of the road --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, (BLEEP). The Waymo is on the track. What an idiot. Here comes a train.

LAH (voiceover): -- or even going completely off the road. This is in Phoenix. The Waymo drove onto the light rail tracks with a passenger still inside. Light rail workers responded and the passenger got out OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, get out! Get out! Get out!

LAH: There's any number of reasons for what might be happening in moments like this when Waymos appear stuck. The company says when their cars face an uncertain situation they'll pick the safest option, including coming to a stop.

Now another possible explanation. Waymo says that at any point in time they have 70 remote human assistance operators working. Half of them are based in the Philippines and Waymo doesn't require that they have a U.S. driver's license. When a Waymo faces an ambiguous situation, it may send a request to those operators who can give it a suggested maneuver, but the car can still decide to accept or reject the advice.

LAH (voiceover): Another problem we kept seeing, how Waymos respond to ambulances, police cars, and fire trucks, failing to stop or even blocking the route entirely. First responders are even having to move the Waymos themselves during an emergency.

MARY ELLEN CARROLL, SAN FRANCISCO EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT: They're becoming a default roadside assistance for these vehicles, which we do not think is tenable.

LAH (voice-over): Waymo told us in the last month they've reduced the number of Waymo-initiated emergency calls by over 50 percent. No technology is perfect, Waymo says in a statement to CNN. But unlike humans, Waymo takes community feedback and applies those safety learnings to our entire fleet.

That has led to a 13 times reduction in serious injury crashes compared to human drivers.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Wow, I had not seen some of that footage before. Our thanks to Kyung Lah for that report.

Now to a bizarre story that's baffling investigators in New York, a string of mysterious sightings of people popping in and out of the sewers at night. Some of these incidents captured on video.

KEILAR: CNN's Mark Morales is joining us now from the Big Apple. All right, Mark, what are police saying about what's going on here?

MARK MORALES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTER: Well, the working theory is that these are underground scavengers, meaning that they crawl into the sewer system and then look for treasures or just hang out. And believe it or not, as odd as that sounds, there is some precedent for this. Police arrested somebody just last year for doing the same thing.

But it's also important to note that it was deemed that there was no threat to public safety from either one of these instances that we're seeing right now. NYPD sent ESU police officers and members of the Department of Environmental Protection into those very same locations, and they basically retraced their steps. They found that there was no damage to anything.

Nothing was taken. Nothing was disturbed or altered. So essentially, these guys just crawled down into the sewer, hung out for a while, and then left.

And again, the working theory is that they're underground scavengers, but we won't know for sure until we talk to them. So police are still working to identify just who these folks were. And you can be sure that they're going to be using the network of cameras that's all over the city to basically recreate their steps to these locations and away from these locations, surveillance images, whatever they have on the vehicle that they use to drive away, anything that will help them pinpoint to the identities of who these folks are.

And remember, these are very complicated systems that are under the city. We're talking about steam pipes, utility pipes. Anybody who's not supposed to be down there, it's basically for their safety.

So you can rest assured that once these people are found, they may get arrested and possibly charged with, at the very least, trespassing.

SANCHEZ: Have they looked into whether or not these are minions going down there? Why are they dressed like that? New York's hottest club is an underground sewer where people dress like minions and hang out.

What's going on in the world, Mark Morales?

MORALES: I mean, at least they weren't wearing the bandanas around their eyes with multicolor. So at least there's that.

SANCHEZ: Fair. Fair point. Fair point.

KEILAR: They really do look like minions.

SANCHEZ: Yes. New York, the Knicks are in the finals. Why are you hanging out underground? Mark Morales, thank you so much for that update. We'll keep an eye on that story.

So can the president get some arch support? A design commission taking up the president's pet project, a new triumphal arch. Opposition to it is growing stronger though.

[15:40:00]

And police are describing what happened in this car crash as nothing short of a miracle. We'll discuss next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Right now in D.C., the National Capital Planning Commission is meeting and on the agenda is President Trump's plan for a giant arch.

SANCHEZ: The panel is reviewing updated designs for the 250-foot monument amid what's been called an overwhelmingly negative public response, according to a source with knowledge of the project. Current plans put the arch in a traffic circle between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. The location and the size have aroused strong opposition from some historians, preservationists, veterans, and more.

Let's discuss with Washington, D.C., public historian and architect Neil Flanagan. Neil, thank you so much for being with us. So these meetings are open to the public and they were virtual -- there were some virtual and in-person witnesses voicing their opinions. What did you hear from folks?

NEIL FLANAGAN, WASHINGTON, DC PUBLIC HISTORIAN: Generally what you hear, the strongest thing you sense is that people have made this space their own. It is a meaningful space to a large number of people. It's this access between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington Cemetery and therefore it's also, it's an axes between the North and the South and reunification and then also this commemoration of the dead of all wars that America has participated in.

[15:45:00] And that was the most striking thing of all, there was a number of veterans who spoke and the number of service members of the people who had in a sense taken a design that was meant to be that way, but the way that they had introduced their own meaning and reshaped it was actually quite profound.

There's also a lot of stuff from architecture historians about views and the way this will affect views and also some things about circulation and just you know how are they going to get trash out of the arch because if it's going to have this observation deck that they're planning. It's everything from the most subtle commemoration of American life to a zoning board hearing.

KEILAR: Yes, it's almost -- it's hard sometimes I think if you haven't been through this space and also to remind people that having the absence of something there kind of makes sense when we're talking about going from the Lincoln Memorial across Memorial Bridge to Arlington Cemetery and one of the people at this meeting was actually a D.C. resident who's a veteran. His parents are both buried at Arlington National Cemetery and he was talking about that issue of the sight lines. He said that the commission should really walk with a veteran inside of the cemetery to get a sense of that experience.

What do you think about that idea?

FLANAGAN: Well I think that is exactly the kind of, you know, not just sort of basic procedural -- procedures to go through but to go through a very deep procedure. We're used to on these projects having -- and a project of this scale. They argue it's not a memorial but it sort of is on the scale memorial those are used to 10-20 year projects where there's deep consultation with different groups and they're usually brought from outside of Washington D.C. and proposed for sites. And the NCPC has this very long process, this very detailed process to identify a site and then what it would mean to be on site and then what kind of memorial. And they might have a design competition where different architects will submit designs. That's been the standard procedure for since at least the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and that is not what they're doing.

I think what people sort of sense particularly about this is that it's kind of hollow. They're not sure what it's for. It commemorates the independents which yes that's great and maybe it commemorates those who died and in commemoration of continued independence but it doesn't really add, you know, from an aesthetic or architectural perspective, it doesn't really add that much more to that meaning.

SANCHEZ: President Trump was in the Oval Office moments ago for this event that is directing large amounts of federal funds to coal projects and he was actually asked about this Arch project. Let's listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They never got the Arch built. It's been the Civil War stopped it. That circle has been sitting there for a long time for many, many years. I guess you could go back to in -- 1902, they tried it and but in 1860 and 1880 they just never got it done. The Civil War stopped it the first time. That was a good reason.

I think that's a probably not a bad -- that was a good excuse but after that it just never happened and we're going to get it done. And so we're doing it with the Department of Interior and we're also doing the National Garden of American Heroes which is phenomenal. And we're doing something that just came up. We'll have a little breaking news here because nobody's heard of it but at the Lincoln Memorial the front was supposed to be the back. The back was supposed to be the front.

It never got built because they built two roadways behind it after it was built and it shut off the gateway to the water. That was really going to be the main entry and we're going to be doing that. We're going to it's called the Promenade.

It'll be the Promenade. They want to call it the Trump Promenade but I don't know if I want to do that but it's going to be beautiful. It's a beautiful project and it's going to take the Lincoln Memorial right down ...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: So quite a bit there from President Trump. I'm curious to get your thoughts as a historian as he describes the federal government never getting it done. He cited three different years 1860, 1880, 1902 as different years in which this arch was apparently attempted.

Is that right?

FLANAGAN: No I think almost none of that is true. Certainly the idea was never proposed really before 1902. I think he's referring to something called the McMillan Plan which is the kind of grand plan for D.C. that defines what it looks like.

That's why the mall is where it is and what it looks like. They originally did plan for this axis. If we think about that time, it's the Civil War veterans are about the same that World War II veterans were when they started doing the World War II Memorial.

So this idea of commemorating was a very live memory. This idea of commemorating the Civil War with this bridge. But they never proposed an arch for that site.

In fact there was a relatively small -- the axis between the two has always been kept very clean. There were small structures proposed in the 1902 plan.

[15:50:00]

In the Arlington Memorial Bridge Act which they have invoked to claim as authorization there actually are these two columns of 166 feet but they are over 200 feet away. There's 200 feet of open space between them in order to preserve that axis. SANCHEZ: And lastly on the promenade at the Lincoln Memorial, that sounds like a bit of news. What do you think of that?

KEILAR: Is that clear to you what he's saying is going to happen there?

FLANAGAN: It's not clear. I think that's a challenge we face with Trump's description of these projects from both the ballroom to the reflecting pool and now to this. He may be referring to what's called the Watergate which is meant as this kind of grand entry.

It's directly to the west of the Lincoln Memorial. I have not heard any of that. I mean certainly that it's interrupted by the George Washington Parkway currently.

KEILAR: Yes, that's a very important point. Hard to see how they would do that. I say that as someone who takes this route very often.

I would have many questions about how that would be operational without really impacting traffic in Washington D.C. Neal, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

FLANAGAN: Thank you so much for having me on.

KEILAR: Of course. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: The women's final at the French onion. French onion, did you hear me say that? I total Freudian slip. It's like lunchtime, I think.

The French Open is what I meant to say. It's now set and we now know that we'll see a first time winner this year.

SANCHEZ: Yes, CNN World Sport anchor Patrick Snell joins us now. Patrick, one of the semi-final matches featured a Russian against a Ukrainian.

PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT ANCHOR: Yes, it absolutely did and with that comes much scrutiny of course. But let's start with Thursday's first semi at Roland-Garros. The Russian team -- you mentioned one of those Russian players that Mirra Andreeva coming face to face with 15- seeded Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine who actually dedicated her quarterfinal victory to her country after that win.

Well the 19-year-old Andreeva showing all her class and style winning this one in straight sets in the end. One and three. Andreeva a class apart on this day. She seals her place in her first ever Grand Slam final. Job done in an hour and 16 minutes.

No post-match handshake I will say between these two players from Russia and Ukraine. Mirra now the youngest Grand Slam finalist in four years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MIRRA ANDREEVA, WORLD NUMBER 8: It feels amazing. Obviously, it's my first time in a Grand Slam final and I'm just very, very happy with how I played today. Marta is an amazing opponent.

She's very tough to play against and you know she's been on a roll during this whole clay season and I knew that the match would be very tough and I just told myself to accept whatever happens on the court. And I don't know, I ended up winning this match somehow and I'm just very, very happy about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNELL: I bet she is. Great win for the teen. And in the final Andreeva will face the remarkable Polish player Maja Chwalinska, who's now become just the second qualifier in history to reach a major final in the professional era.

The 24-year-old has previously been very open as well about her battle with depression which kept her out of competition for a year and a half earlier in her career. Just look what it means to her. Chwalinska ranked 114 in the world beating Russia's number 25 seeded Diana Shnaider in straight sets.

The player who couldn't even afford to pay for her extended hotel in the French capital during her dream run in Paris because players actually they only get their prize money after the tournament ends sealing the most famous of victories Thursday in Paris.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJA CHWALINSKA: Like a dream honestly, I don't know what's going on. I'm just -- yes, I don't know what to say, I'm sorry, I'm just very happy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNELL: Overcome with emotion.

And it's been a long wait for the New York Knicks and their fans. Game one of the NBA finals showing they're taking full advantage of the moment. The Knicks have been waiting 53 years for another title.

Right now they look like they don't want to wait not even one more day. Early on it looked like the French star Victor Wembanyama showing all the class there. The 22-year-old Phenom swatting a shot into next week at one end and burying a three at the other.

But Karl Anthony Towns making every bucket feel like a chore helping hold Wembanyama to six for 21 shooting 26 points. Couple of scares for superstar Jalen Brunson who very much knew he was in a contest there in this encounter. Ouch twice he left the floor twice he came back because Brunson apparently is pretty sturdily built as it turns out. His game high 30 points leading New York to 105 to 95 win on the road.

The tension mounts. Will it be history in the making? We'll see. That's it for now back to you -- Boris and Brianna. KEILAR: Patrick Snell, thank you so much.

Remember when I called the French open the French onion?

SANCHEZ: I mean French onion soup is amazing. Yes, he was talking about the finals. This is going to be the last NBA game for one fan who's now banned for life.

Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 30 right now six point Nick Lee. A fan just ran on the floor and wants to take a selfie security quickly takes him away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: The fan rushed onto the court mid-play trying to take a selfie with Victor Wembanyama. I could have sworn he was running out to hug him. I misunderstood what was happening there was a security guard trying to take the guy out.

I thought the guy went out and hugged him.

[16:00:00]

KEILAR: What's he doing? That's crazy. OK well I hope he enjoyed that because yes, he was arrested.

He's going to be banned for life from all NBA arenas. The second person also received a lifetime ban for their role in the incident.

SANCHEZ: When doing it for the gram goes wrong. French onion soup got to make it happen today.

KEILAR: Yes, it's about to after this.

"THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right now.

END