(Credit: Shutterstock / Phil Pasquini)
A driverless Waymo vehicle in San Francisco was set on fire and vandalized by a crowd in the city’s Chinatown Saturday evening.
According to The Autopian, someone first jumped on the hood of the car and smashed its front window before a crowd formed around the vehicle, broke its windows, and covered it with spray paint before setting it on fire.
Waymo offers a driverless taxi service in San Francisco. At the time of the incident, no passengers were reportedly in the vehicle.
Waymo and Cruise were both given clearance to operate driverless rides 24/7 in San Francisco last August. At the time, San Francisco Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson noted that it had tallied 55 incidents where self-driving vehicles had interfered with rescue operations in the city.
In June, one of the vehicles also killed a dog while driving autonomously in the city.
Cruise vehicles aren’t immune to the issues. Shortly after being given that 24/7 license, 10 of the cars were responsible for blocking an intersection in the city for 20 minutes after a music festival. Later, a Cruise car hit a pedestrian who had been flung into its path after another crash, prompting Cruise to shut down its self-driving taxi operation for the time being.
Many Bay Area residents opposed the vehicles being given a license for 24/7 operation last year and have made moves to incapacitate the cars. In some cases, residents have put orange cones on the hoods of cars, which makes them temporarily immobile.