Last weekend (February 10, 2024) an angry mob attacked a Waymo self-driving vehicle in San Francisco, as this footage posted on social media, and repurposed here by The Times of London, shows. In the violence windows were smashed and fireworks thrown inside, which set the vehicle on fire. No one was inside the vehicle at the time and there are no reported injuries or arrests so far.
The incident against the car, which is operated by a company owned by Google’s parent organisation Alphabet, is part of an ongoing backlash against autonomous vehicles (AVs) in California, with public opinion turning against the vehicles due to their reported blocking of other traffic, perceived threat to jobs, and safety incidents involving pedestrians in San Francisco and beyond, which recently forced rival operator, GM’s Cruise, to pull all its test vehicles off all roads in the USA.Â
So what next for AVs? Industry consultant Scott Belcher believes there is still a way forward forward for this technology as you can read in our recent interview.Â
