On a recent Saturday evening in Chinatown, a driverless vehicle owned by Waymo, Alphabet Inc's autonomous driving division, was set on fire by vandals, according to the San Francisco Police department.
The company's spokesperson explained that around 9pm on the aforementioned day, the Waymo vehicle was in motion on Jackson Street when it was surrounded and vandalized by a group of individuals. The attackers damaged the windows and tossed a firework into the car, which ignited the flames. Police confirm that between 10 to 15 people participated in this act, but no arrests had been made by Sunday.
"The car wasn't carrying any passengers at the time, and there have been no reported injuries," clarified the spokesperson of the Mountain View-based company.
This instance could be perceived as an act of protest against the prevalence of driverless cars in San Francisco, which alongside California, is the only other U.S. city to allow such vehicles on its public roads.
Earlier in the month, another incident involving an autonomous vehicle occurred; a self-driving car collided with a cyclist at an intersection, resulting in minor injuries. The Waymo spokesperson reasoned, "The cyclist was obscured by a truck and quickly moved behind it, entering the path of the Waymo vehicle."
Current data from the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) shows that nine collisions involving self-driving cars have been reported in California this year. The state's DMV previously prohibited another autonomous car company, Cruise, from deploying robotaxis, attributing the decision to the technology's involvement in various accidents.
