Waymo vehicles set on fire in downtown L.A, as protesters, police clash
2 hours ago
2,019
As Los Angeles police struggled with another day of unrest in downtown L.A., several Waymo autonomous taxis were set on fire, sending black smoke billowing into the air.
The dramatic images were captured during an afternoon of clashes between large groups who were protesting immigration raids by the Trump administration and L.A. police who were trying to maintain order.
For some time, protesters blocked traffic on the 101 Freeway before California Highway Patrol officers slowly pushed them back. Police advised residents to avoid the the 101 Freeway through downtown L.A.
Images of the Waymo cars on fire on Los Angeles Street were broadcast nationally as Los Angeles has become a flashpoint in the immigration debate.
Tires were slashed, windows smashed, and anti-ICE messages spray-painted over the cars, which were parked in a row.
Protesters swarmed around the vehicles, tearing the doors off and stomping on the windshields. One man with a mask over his face smashed car windows with a skateboard. Another appeared to use a makeshift flamethrower to set the interior of a car ablaze.
Around 5:30 p.m., some people were seen throwing Lime electric scooters into the burning cars, while others stood back.
The Los Angeles Fire Department responded to the vehicle blazes while the Los Angeles Police Department warned people to stay away from the area.
A protester runs by a damaged Waymo vehicle on Los Angeles Street on Sunday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
“Burning lithium-ion batteries release toxic gases, including hydrogen fluoride, posing risks to responders and those nearby,” said the LAPD in a statement.
Waymo’s fleet of electric, self-driving taxis has become a familiar sight on L.A. roads. A spokesperson for Waymo told The Times the company was in touch with law enforcement regarding the incident.
After launching in San Francisco and Phoenix, Waymo began serving Los Angeles in November. It attracted an initial wait list of around 300,000 people before becoming available to anyone who downloaded the service’s app, a company spokesperson said in January.
As of January, Waymo had already driven 1.9 million miles in Los Angeles.
A legjobb élmény biztosítása érdekében olyan technológiákat használunk, mint a cookie-k az eszközadatok tárolására és/vagy eléréséhez. Ha beleegyezik ezekbe a technológiákba, akkor olyan adatokat dolgozhatunk fel ezen az oldalon, mint a böngészési viselkedés vagy az egyedi azonosítók. A hozzájárulás elmulasztása vagy visszavonása bizonyos funkciókat és funkciókat hátrányosan érinthet.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
