Tennis coach sues Waymo after driverless car took off with his valuable gear in trunk

A California tennis instructor is suing the robocar company Waymo, claiming one of its driverless cars malfunctioned and drove off with his pricey sports equipment.

Daniel Linley said he’d just been dropped off at San Francisco’s Golden State Park on Feb. 7 when he went to get his stuff from the trunk, according to the San Francisco Standard.

But the button to open the trunk — which is supposed to automatically appear in the app — didn’t pop up, he said.

“I called customer service to get them to open it remotely, and while I was on the phone with customer service, the car drove away,” he told the Standard.

With it went Linley his expensive teaching items, including a large duffel bag full of tennis balls, a portable teaching cart, a couple of “ball hoppers,” his personal tennis racket and other gear, he told NBC Bay Area.

Linley said he made several unsuccessful attempts to contact Waymo to be reimbursed before he filed a police report in early April.

He is now seeking $12,500 in damages against the company, the maximum amount allowed in small claims cases, according to a complaint filed last Monday in San Francisco Superior Court.

Linley claims his actual losses are higher, since he can’t book his lessons for $100 a pop without the equipment, the Standard reported.

“So I’m out a lot of money, and I’ve got all these people on the hook waiting for me,” Linley said.

“It’s unacceptable,” he said.

“I don’t know how they can’t find this stuff. It didn’t just drive into a black hole.”

Waymo told NBC Bay Area that it “is in touch with the individual and working to resolve the claim.

“Waymo’s Support Team operates with the goal of reuniting riders and their forgotten items.” 

The company has been under fire for recent malfunctions, including drivers claiming they’ve become trapped inside the fully autonomous vehicles.

Passengers using the Waymo app were trapped after their taxi parked in the middle of traffic on “one of the scariest streets in Austin,” according to a report.

A Los Angeles tech entrepreneur also said in January that he allegedly became trapped driving around in circles in an unhinged self-driving Waymo vehicle for so long that he nearly missed his flight.