Waymo Limits Service in San Francisco as Immigration Protests Spread

New York Times

2 days ago

After protesters set fire to five Waymo robot taxis in Los Angeles on Sunday, the company on Monday began preemptively limiting rides to areas of San Francisco where people were expected to gather to show their opposition to President Trump's immigration policies.
Waymo declined to say where in San Francisco it would suspend its service or for how long. Its robot taxis are popular in the city and have become a tourist attraction. The vehicles, which are electric Jaguar I-Paces and include dozens of cameras and sensors, cost around $100,000 each.
'We're aware of potential protests and will not be providing service in the areas protesters may be gathering out of abundance of caution,' a company spokeswoman said in a statement.
The robot taxis have become a way for some protesters to display resistance to the tech industry's close ties to the Trump administration, said Elise Joshi, an activist in San Francisco who attended rallies on Monday.
'Waymos don't have human drivers, they're devoid of humanity,' she said. Destroyed robot taxis are 'symbolic of the attempts, throughout the history of this country, by the tech industry to strip us of community.'
Waymo's actions in San Francisco followed the burning of its self-driving cars in Los Angeles on Sunday, where hundreds of people have demonstrated in recent days against the Trump administration's escalating immigration enforcement activity. Images of burned Waymos — including one protester with a Mexican flag posing for photos above the scorched cars — quickly spread online. Elon Musk and right-wing influencers then shared the image and others like it as emblems of the supposed dysfunction in Los Angeles.
Waymo cut its service off in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday evening, in coordination with the Los Angeles Police Department, a company spokeswoman said. She said its vehicles were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and added that the company did not know if the damaged vehicles were hailed by protesters with the intention of being destroyed, or if they were just dropping off riders in the area.
Waymo announced in November that its service was 'open to all in Los Angeles.' In 2023, Mayor Karen Bass sent a letter to the California Public Utilities Commission highlighting several incidents with self-driving taxis and arguing that more testing was needed. Other groups, including disability rights organizations, have argued that autonomous taxis can help their constituents.
In May, Waymo said it was providing more than 250,000 paid robot taxi rides a week in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin and Phoenix.