A crowd in San Francisco vandalized and set fire to a Waymo self-driving car on Saturday. This incident marks the most severe attack on autonomous vehicles in the U.S. to date.
What Happened: The incident occurred in San Francisco’s Chinatown district on Saturday night, reported Reuters. The crowd surrounded the moving white SUV, with one individual breaking the windshield and others joining in to vandalize the vehicle. The situation escalated when someone threw a firework inside, causing the car to burst into flames.
Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL), confirmed the incident and stated that the vehicle was not carrying any passengers at the time. The San Francisco Police Department is currently investigating the cause of the fire.
Michael Vandi, a witness who shared videos of the incident, told the publication that people were celebrating China’s Lunar New Year with fireworks. He described how one person jumped onto the Waymo vehicle’s hood, followed by another 30 seconds later, while some bystanders applauded.
“That was when it went WILD,” he wrote, describing people with skateboards breaking the glass and others graffitiing the car. “There were 2 groups of people. Folks who encourage it – and others ...