Was it a Lunar New Year celebration that got out of hand? Or maybe more backlash against the proliferation of driverless cars taking over the streets of San Francisco?
Whatever it was, authorities are investigating after a Waymo autonomous vehicle was set ablaze Saturday night after it was vandalized by a group of people in Chinatown, San Francisco firefighters said.
The vehicle was traveling on Jackson Street, between Stockton and Grant, about 9:25 p.m. when it was surrounded by about 10 to 15 people, Lt. Mariano Elias said.
The “crowd surrounded and vandalized the vehicle, breaking the window and throwing a firework inside, which set the vehicle on fire,” said Sandy Karp, a Waymo spokesperson.
The car was not transporting any passengers and no injuries were reported, said Karp, who added, “We are working closely with local safety officials to respond to the situation.”
In a widely viewed series of videos posted to social media by X user Michael Vandi, people can be seen surrounding the graffiti-covered vehicle and smashing its windows while someone in the crowd yells, “Light that s— on fire!” Another view shows smoke and flames towering from the disabled car.
It is not the first time that autonomous vehicles have been accosted in San Francisco, and there are plenty of accounts of them being disabled by protesters who have figured out how to confuse their sensors and navigation software. The fire department and other first responders have complained of self-driving cars interfering with emergency vehicles or randomly blocking traffic.
But there have been no known incidents of the cars being used as fireworks displays before now. Hopefully it was an isolated incident and not the start of a trend.
Bay City News staff writers Pete Young and Glenn Gehlke contributed to this story.