On paper, AI and automation will pave the way for further technological advancements, but in practice, many people can’t afford to lose their jobs and be replaced by robots. That’s why a huge stigma now exists against automation, and it appears Waymo is not exempt. A viral video has shown a rather troubling fate for one self-driving Waymo car with a passenger inside in California, where a mob can be seen wrecking the robo-taxi after it got stuck.
The incident occurred around January 21 in Harrison & Main, San Francisco, California. Witness testimonies point to a nightly car sideshow activity that’s supposedly blocking the road, and this led to the Waymo car getting trapped while transporting a passenger. The passenger allegedly spoke up against the sideshow crowd, and this led to a heated exchange where they mobbed the car and started attacking it, as seen in the video above.
Some of the assailants even climbed up on the Waymo and started kicking and stomping. It’s not clear what happened to the passenger inside or whether they managed to get out of the car or not, or whether the mob was able to fully destroy the Waymo. However, the incident has since sparked off intense criticism online from people who are not exactly fond of what they perceived as mob mentality.
“Pretty much why we can’t have good stuff 🤦🏻,” rants a commenter, with another saying, “Ghetto 😂 I mean I hate Waymo’s too but this was unnecessary.” Some have noted that Waymo cars have around 29 cameras all over them, meaning the people who vandalized and wrecked the car have definitely been recorded, though some of them were wearing masks.
Some Have Defended the Mob’s Reaction
While it’s also not clear how exactly the sideshow crowd has been aggrieved by Waymo or automated taxi services, certain commenters have played the Devil’s advocate and somehow excused their actions. “Yeah if you are triggered by a bunch of kids stomping a driverless car but not by people dying on tha street due to displacement by tech then you should probably stop looking at your phone and start looking in tha mirror 👤,” claims a commenter.
When one person asked, “What the car do yall?” others answered him with, “Stole a lot of peoples jobs” with other sentiments likening the mob’s actions to a protest, “Actually this is a legit form of protest if you ask me. We don’t want self driving cars taking jobs from people.” For the record, Waymo hasn’t had the best reputation as of late, as they tend to be involved in one car accident every other day, with many protesters painting them with graffiti in big protests last year, particularly in Los Angeles.
