A crowd vandalized and set fire to a Waymo self-driving car using a firework in San Francisco on Saturday, the Alphabet-owned company and authorities said, marking the most destructive attack so far on driverless vehicles in the U.S.
On Saturday night, a crowd surrounded a white sport utility vehicle that was moving along a street in the city’s Chinatown district, a company spokesperson said.
Michael Vandi, a witness who posted videos of the incident, told Reuters that people were celebrating China’s Lunar New Year by setting off fireworks. A person jumped onto the hood of the Waymo vehicle and broke its windshield. Another person also jumped on the hood 30 seconds later as some in the crowd clapped in approval, he told Reuters in an X direct message.
“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 who were just shocked & started filming. No one stood up – i mean there wasn’t anything you could do to stand up to dozens of people.”
His video showed the vehicle engulfed in flames with a huge plume of black smoke.
Waymo said someone threw a firework inside, which set the vehicle on fire. The fire department posted pictures on social media of the charred remains of the car and said a firework started the blaze.
“The vehicle was not transporting any riders and no injuries have been reported. We are working closely with local safety officials to respond to the situation,” the company said. It did not say what caused the attack.
