Mob burns autonomous Jaguar robo-taxi to the ground
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An autonomous luxury SUV was vandalised by a cheering crowd before being set on fire in another attack on ‘driverless’ robo-taxis.
14:0015 February 2024
Social media images of a white SUV in flames in San Francisco have been confirmed by Waymo as one of its autonomous robo-taxis.
A statement from Waymo – the autonomous vehicle company owned by Google – confirmed the car, a Jaguar I-Pace SUV, was set upon by thecrowd as it moved slowly along a road in Chinatown on Saturday evening, 10 February 2024.
A witness told news outlet Reuters the crowd was celebrating Chinese New Year with fireworks when a person jumped onto the bonnet of theJaguar – which is priced from $147,000 in Australia – before a second person did the same moments later to an applauding crowd.
“That was when it went wild,” said witness Michael Vandi, who posted images on social media and spoke to Reuters.
“There were two groups of people. Folks who encouraged it – and others who were just shocked and started filming. No one stood up – I mean, there wasn’t anything you could do to stand up to dozens of people.”
The intensity of the vandalism increased, with witnesses describing people breaking the vehicle’s windows while others graffitied body panels.
A firework was then thrown into the vehicle which caused it to catch fire.
The San Francisco Fire Department posted images of the vehicle in flames, with the body almost completely destroyed before its crew managed to put the blaze out.
The luxury SUV did not have passengers or a driver aboard and no injuries were reported.
Waymo was the first company to be permitted legally to operate ‘driverless’ robo-taxis in California from August 2023, meaning its cars are allowed on public roads without a human on board – not even a back-up driver.
Police have not laid any charges as the incident is still being investigated, although the vehicle did have 29 cameras and other sensors on board.
Hostility to autonomous vehicles is not uncommon, with multiple events occurring in Arizona where Waymo’s vehicles have been repeatedly attacked.
A Waymo vehicle also killed a dog in 2023, while last week one of its robo-taxis collided with a cyclist, causing minor injuries.
“This was a one-off event,” a Waymo spokesperson told Reuters following the weekend attack on the Jaguar.
Waymo and Jaguar-Land Rover entered into an agreement in 2018 to build as many as 20,000 Jaguar I-Pace ‘premium self-driving’ electricvehicles as they collaborate on autonomous vehicle technology.
Waymo also works with the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance as well as Stellantis – the parent company of 14 car brands, including Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Jeep, and Ram – on the development of autonomous cars.
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