Self-Driving Waymo Vehicles Torched Throughout ICE Protest in Los Angeles

A number of Waymo autonomous taxis had been vandalized and set on hearth Sunday throughout a protest towards the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Los Angeles and the Trump administration’s deployment of Nationwide Guard into the area.

What the autos had been doing there—who despatched them, and why—is so far unknown. Viral movies posted to social media present demonstrators climbing atop the self-driving taxis, smashing home windows, and spray-painting the edges of the taxis. At the least 5 autos had been severely broken and set on hearth because the protest escalated on Sunday night, in line with a report by KTLA.

As the electrical autos burned, officers warned that the chemical compounds within the vehicles’ batteries may launch poisonous fumes.

Whereas Waymo appeared to reduce its operations within the Los Angeles space on the Waymo app, the corporate mentioned it’s being cautious with additional deployments.

“Waymo continues to be working in Los Angeles,” a spokesperson advised Decrypt. “Nonetheless, out of an abundance of warning, given the latest exercise, we eliminated autos from Downtown Los Angeles and won’t be serving that particular space of LA in the mean time.” The spokesperson famous that Waymo didn’t seem like the goal of the assaults.

Waymo mentioned it was working with native authorities within the aftermath of the incident. The Los Angeles Police Division didn’t reply to Decrypt’s request for remark.