Over the weekend, a Waymo driverless taxi became the target of vandalism in the Beverly Grove neighborhood of Los Angeles. According to a video on social media, a crowd surrounded the stopped vehicle at the intersection of La Cienega Boulevard and West 3rd Street around 4:00 a.m., resulting in significant damage. The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to the KTLA that they took a report on the incident, although no arrests had yet to be made.
As displayed in footage shared online by Los Angeles Scanner, one individual was filmed standing on the vehicle's roof, while another appeared to have seated themselves in the robotaxi's driver seat. Another member of the crowd could be seen kicking the back passenger door. The vehicle's windshield and windows were shattered, one tire was flattened, and the passenger front door had been ripped off to rest on the car's hood. Waymo's spokeswoman Julia Ilina emphasized to the Los Angeles Times their commitment to improving road safety and mobility in the cities where we operate, despite such events being rare. However, this incident came against the backdrop of earlier disturbances involving their vehicles, including a situation detailed by a CBS News Los Angeles report where another Waymo car was surrounded and vandalized in San Francisco's Chinatown, eventually being set ablaze in the previous year.
Further details indicated by social media posts pointed to around 40 people participating in the vandalism as part of a street takeover, though officials, such as public information officer J. Chavez of the Los Angeles Police Department, told the Los Angeles Times that they found no evidence supporting the occurrence of a street takeover in the area. The police's involvement with the case remains ongoing.
This recent attack on Waymo's vehicle also echoes another episode earlier in the month where a robbery suspect, during a confrontation with a security guard, attempted to hastily escape using a self-driving taxi, only managing to make it about three miles from the scene before the vehicle pulled over for police, as shown on video acquired by KTLA. Waymo maintains a presence in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix, offering ride-hailing services with its fleet of autonomous cars.
