In an unusual incident that took place in San Francisco’s Chinatown, a crowd set fire to a Waymo self-driving car. The incident occurred during the Lunar New Year celebration over the weekend. A video circulating online shows that the crowd set fire to the Waymo’s car around 9 pm local time.
Crowd sets Waymo’s self-driving car on fire
This isn’t the first time people have attacked a self-driving car. But this time, it’s worse. It shows that more and more people are getting mad at self-driving cars. It came into a much brighter light when the fire department shared pictures of the burned car on social media. They said a firework inside the car caused the fire.
A Waymo spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that there were no injuries or deaths. “The vehicle was not transporting any riders and no injuries have been reported,” they told the publication.
What caused this incident remains a mystery
It’s not clear why the vandalism happened. However, according to witnesses around the incident, the road is often busy with fireworks and celebrations for the Lunar New Year. Nevertheless, it has sparked a debate that how people are reacting to advancements in technologies like self-driving cars and AI. Especially after reports say that Waymo driverless cars have outperformed humans.
While cars with human drivers could move away from the fireworks, the self-driving car couldn’t. So, people started damaging it. Eventually, someone threw a lit firework through the front passenger window, which quickly caused a fire inside the car.
San Francisco’s Mayor, London Breed, called this incident a “dangerous and destructive act of vandalism,” adding it could have impacted the surroundings. On the same note, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California shared a part of the law that talks about the punishments for destroying a vehicle with fire or explosives. If nobody gets hurt from the act, the minimum jail time mentioned in the law is five years in prison.