Waymo Self-Driving Taxis in San Francisco Subjected to Vandalism, Suspect Charged

TapTechNews July 14th news, Ronaile Joshua Burton, a resident of Castro Valley, California, has been charged for allegedly slashing the tires of 17 Waymo self-driving taxis in San Francisco between June 24th and 26th.

According to the San Francisco District Attorney, these tire-damaging acts were all captured by cameras installed on the outside of Waymo self-driving taxis. This is not the first incident of vandalism against Waymo self-driving taxis in the San Francisco Bay Area. Previously, some residents have expressed dissatisfaction with self-driving cars. In February this year, a group of people in the city's Chinatown community set fire to a Waymo self-driving taxi. About a year ago, some opponents of self-driving cars also forced these vehicles to be unable to move by placing traffic cones on the roof.

Waymo stated in an email to the tech website TechCrunch that the San Francisco Police Department reviewed the footage captured by the external cameras of Waymo vehicles to identify the suspect.

Waymo spokeswoman Katherine Barna said in an email, We can confirm that a lawsuit has been filed against a person who maliciously damaged Waymo vehicles (some of which had passengers on board). Waymo is also taking measures to recover losses and reduce the possibility of such incidents in the future.

The prosecutor alleges that these tire-damaging acts that occurred in the San Francisco TL area are related to another case of self-driving taxi vandalism in the city. In another case, the suspect Burton was charged with slashing the tires of a fleet of three Waymo cars with a knife during the same time period.

Burton pleaded not guilty to all 17 charges. The damage caused to each vehicle is estimated to be more than $400 (TapTechNews note: currently about 2907 Chinese yuan), and the prosecutor detained the suspect without bail on the grounds of public safety risk and awaits trial. Her trial date is set for Friday, July 12th.

Waymo said that it will carefully review any request before handing over the video of the vehicle to the law enforcement agency. The company said that it will question, limit or reject requests that lack a valid legal basis or are too broad, and has done so in the past.