India, Dec. 12 -- A routine pick-up near MacArthur Park in Los Angeles turned into an unusual safety scare this week when a woman opened the trunk of an empty Waymo taxi and found a man inside. The moment, recorded on her phone, circulated online quickly and raised new questions about how secure rider-only autonomous cars really are.

Police were called to the scene. They checked the vehicle, spoke to the man, and left without making an arrest. Officers told FOX 11 that no crime had been identified. The questions, however, did not go away.

The passenger, Ollie Shirvani, said she expected the trunk to be empty. Instead, she found a man hiding in the trunk. She asked the man why he was in the trunk, to which he said that "they put me in th...