An unidentified person set a driverless car on fire in the city’s Chinatown neighborhood, according to reports. The autonomous driving technology company Waymo reported that someone in a crowd surrounded one of its robotaxis on Saturday, February 10, 2024.
The unidentified person, at about 9 pm Pacific Time, broke one of its windows and threw fireworks inside. Consequently, the vehicle caught fire. Authorities are working to determine if the destruction of the driverless car was the latest in a series of protests targeting autonomous vehicles in the state.
Following the incident, the San Francisco Fire Department posted images of the incinerated SUV on X. The agency alleged that people jumped on the electric vehicle in the city’s Chinatown district. In addition, the agency claimed the group sprayed the car with graffiti before setting it alight with fireworks.
Waymo, a subsidiary of tech company Alphabet, Google’s parent company, does not know why people vandalized the car. However, the San Francisco Police Department is investigating the crime. Officials noted that the vehicle, a Jaguar I-Pace operated by Waymo, Google’s self-driving car project, was unoccupied during the incident.
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Also, officials said they didn’t make any arrests on Monday, February 12, 2024. “The vehicle was not transporting any riders, and no injuries have been reported,” Waymo said. “We are working closely with local safety officials to respond to the situation.”
Also, witnesses reported on X that the accident occurred as fireworks went off for the Lunar New Year. They claimed the driverless car got stuck in front of another vehicle in the area. Furthermore, video from the scene circulating on X shows the white vehicle vandalized with its windows broken.
The video also shows an unidentified person putting fireworks inside the car before it caught fire. “They were putting out some rage for really no reason at all,” witness Edwin Carungay said. “They just wanted to vandalize something, and they did.”
In addition, the witness told news outlets that a group of people vandalized the Waymo vehicle. “One young man jumped on the hood and the windshield,” Carungay said. “That kind of started the whole melee.” The attack follows several recent cases and protests involving autonomous vehicles in California.
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According to reports, the Safe Street Rebels has been against driverless vehicles since last summer. The group has operated a campaign of disrupting and turning off driverless cars in San Francisco since they appeared in 2022.
The group members realized that placing a traffic cone on the hood of a self-driving car interfered with its sensors. In addition, it sends the vehicle into “panic mode,” rendering it immobile until a human employee comes to rescue it. Protesters started questioning the safety of driverless vehicles operated in California last year.
The protests started when Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors, saw its test permit suspended in October 2023. Authorities accused Cruise of hiding the severity of an incident in San Francisco. According to reports, a human-driven car hit a pedestrian at a stoplight.
Unfortunately, the car flung her into the path of a Cruise self-driving car. Then, the self-driving vehicle ran her over and stopped on top of her. Fortunately, the woman survived the accident. Investigation into the Waymo car fire is ongoing, and San Francisco officials have yet to identify any suspects.
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