Vandals thoroughly obliterated a Waymo autonomous taxi in San Francisco’s Chinatown on Saturday evening to the cheers of onlookers. In an emailed statement provided to PopSci, a Waymo spokesperson confirmed the vehicle was empty when the February 10 incident began just before 9PM, and no injuries were reported. Waymo says they are also “working closely with local safety officials to respond to the situation.”
A San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) representative also told PopSci responders arrived on the scene at 9:03PM to a “reported electric autonomous vehicle on fire” in the 700 block of Jackson St., which includes a family owned musical instrument store and a pastry shop.
“SFFD responded to this like any other vehicle fire with 1 engine, 1 truck, and for this particular incident the battalion chief was on scene as well,” the representative added in their email.
Waymo Vehicle surrounded and then graffiti’d, windows were broken, and firework lit on fire inside the vehicle which ultimately caught the entire vehicle on fire. #SFFD
Photos by Séraphine Hossenlopp pic.twitter.com/aOTqL3Rk8V— SAN FRANCISCO FIRE DEPARTMENT MEDIA (@SFFDPIO) February 11, 2024
Multiple social media posts over the weekend depict roughly a dozen people smashing the Waymo Jaguar I-Pace’s windows, covering it in spray paint, and eventually tossing a firework inside that set it ablaze—all to the enthusiastic encouragement of bystanders. After posting their own video recordings to X, one onlooker told Reuters that someone wearing a white hoodie “jumped on the hood of the car and literally WWE style K/O’ed the windshield & broke it.” Additional footage uploaded by street reporter “Franky Frisco” to their YouTube channel also shows emergency responders dousing the flaming EV, which reportedly caught fire after someone tossed a firecracker inside the car. Chinatown’s streets were already crowded by visitors attending Lunar New Year…
Read the full article here