Protesters against immigration raids in LA damaged and set several Waymo autonomous taxis on fire on Sunday; Waymo says it is in touch with law enforcement

As police struggled with another day of unrest in downtown L.A., several Waymo autonomous taxis were set on fire …

Los Angeles Times 2025-06-09

Context & Ripple Effects

The Los Angeles attacks fit a longer record of hostility toward Waymo vehicles: a crowd destroyed a Waymo vehicle in San Francisco in 2024, while earlier Chandler coverage documented repeated vandalism and harassment during testing. The recurrence matters because the vehicles can become conspicuous targets even when the underlying protest is not about autonomous driving.

The immediate LA incident was followed by [[a:886676|a suspension of Waymo's downtown Los Angeles operations after multiple vehicles were destroyed]], connecting a public-order disruption directly to robotaxi service continuity.

First-order effects

Waymo must work with law enforcement, assess the damaged fleet, and manage service reliability in the affected area.
The destroyed vehicles reduce available robotaxi capacity locally; the subsequent downtown suspension shows that physical attacks can quickly translate into an operational halt.

Second-order effects

Waymo may need to restrict service more readily during periods of civil unrest, trading coverage and rider availability for vehicle and public safety.
Repeated attacks raise the operating burden around fleet protection, incident response, and recovery, rather than leaving those costs confined to vehicle maintenance.

Third-order effects

If such incidents recur across cities, social acceptance and physical security could become a material constraint on robotaxi scaling alongside the driving system itself.
The pattern could push autonomous-vehicle operators toward more geographically flexible operations, with service footprints adjusted around local risk rather than expanded on a uniform timetable.

The trend: Robotaxi deployment is becoming dependent not only on autonomous-driving performance but also on operators' ability to sustain service amid public hostility and disruption.

Discussion

@jasonkoebler Jason Koebler on bluesky
Gonna try to be nuanced here and speak broadly: There are several reasons to be skeptical of driverless cars, but the biggest one is the fact that they need to record everything in order to function. And then police see them as an extension of the surveillance state and act acco…
@jasonkoebler Jason Koebler on bluesky
Waymo has paused service to downtown LA, says it's working with cops to figure out when it can go pick up the damaged vehicles — www.404media.co/waymo-pauses...
@josephcox Joseph Cox on bluesky
Here's the CBP Black Hawk that repeatedly circled above the downtown Los Angeles protests www.404media.co/dhs-black-ha... [image]
@josephcox Joseph Cox on bluesky
Here's the no callsign aircraft that flew above the protests before going to the U.S. Mexico border. The altitude and hexagon patterns are very similar to a Predator drone that flew over the George Floyd protests in 2020 www.404media.co/dhs-black-ha... [image]
@sentdefender @sentdefender on x
It appears that agitators called several Waymo self-driving autonomous cars to the site of one of the demonstration in Los Angeles, before vandalizing and burning them for absolutely no reason. [video]
@scannerpacific @scannerpacific on x
LAPD requesting Waymo shutdown the app. People keep calling them and then lighting them on fire.
@bgonthescene Brendan Gutenschwager on x
Multiple Waymo vehicles set ablaze here in LA [video]
@naval @naval on x
You can't have a body without skin, a house without walls, or a country without a border.
@micsolana Mike Solana on x
arm the waymos
@paularambles @paularambles on x
hugging my waymo extra tight today
@scannerpacific @scannerpacific on x
All the Waymos which were attacked (5), are now on fire.
@pyanrye Jesus Murphy on x
when you see a waymo on fire [image]
@jarvis_best Jarvis on x
These folks are in for a rude awakening. According to the Waymo TOS if you set three or more of their cars on fire they cancel your account.
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
chatgpt, do waymo feel pain
@keithdorejel Keith Orejel on x
A Waymo arriving to pick up a passenger in downtown Los Angeles. [image]
@bgurley Bill Gurley on x
@SawyerMerritt So each Waymo costs $180k? Thats important data if accurate.
@ghost_prole @ghost_prole on x
It's great that Waymo invented Uber for car fires
@losangeles_scan @losangeles_scan on x
Got this the other side of the Waymo fires [video]
@armanddoma Armand Domalewski on x
imagine ordering a Waymo and it rolls up whilst on fire
@michaeloburns Michael O'Neill Burns on x
if you don't see why setting a waymo on fire is cool then i don't understand you
@sawyermerritt Sawyer Merritt on x
Firefighters obviously couldn't safely get to the Waymos due to the LA protests. Three of them are just completely burnt to rubble now. These 5 Waymos that were vandalized, which represent about 0.4% of the entire fleet, cost ~$900,000. [image]
@gaulicsmith Sulla on x
My neighbor told me rioters keep destroying his Waymos so I asked how many Waymos he has called and he said he just goes on the app and gets a new Waymo afterwards so I said it sounds like he's just feeding Waymos to rioters and then his investors started crying.
@magills_ @magills_ on x
The CATO Institute has released a study saying most immigrants don't set Waymo's on fire
@pitdesi Sheel Mohnot on x
@bgurley @SawyerMerritt probably a little less, but in the ballpark: Waymo co-CEO said it costs as much as $100k on top of the cost of the Jaguars, which are $75k retail. the 6th gen ones are much cheaper. [image]
@samswey Samuel Sinyangwe on x
There are people on here saying it's violent and domestic terrorism to set a Waymo car on fire. A robot car? Are you going to demand justice for the robot dogs next? But not the human beings repeatedly shot with rubber bullets in the street? What kind of politics is this?
@elisejoshi Elise Joshi on x
There is no human element to Waymo. It's expensive and bought-out politicians are using it as an excuse to defund public transit. I pray on Waymo's downfall.
@chrisstankowski Chris Jbostankowski on x
Bro pretended to be on the right side of things until a couple waymo cars got burned lmao
@powerbottomdad1 @powerbottomdad1 on x
this is even sadder when you realize Waymo's are endangered and this is 1/10th of all the remaining ones
@taylorlorenz Taylor Lorenz on x
Someone threw a Lime scooter into the Waymo fire 😅 [video]

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