If Waymos are ignited during Saturday's No Kings protest, S.F. officials could let them burn

San Francisco Chronicle​

14 hours ago

With massive demonstrations anticipated across the Bay Area on Saturday, firefighters in San Francisco are bracing for one dramatic form of protest theater: The torching of Waymo robotaxis.
Burning the driverless cars became a fraught symbol of the moment during protests in Los Angeles on Sunday and Monday, which tipped off a week of escalating tension between President Donald Trump and California's major blue cities. Photos of the charred, smoldering, graffiti-scrawled cars instantly went viral on social media, transforming a manicured Southern California boulevard into an apparent war zone. If it happens in San Francisco, Fire Chief Dean Crispen said at a recent meeting, it might be better to let the cars burn.
'In a period of civil unrest, we will not try to extinguish those fires unless they are up against a building,' Crispen told members of the San Francisco Fire Commission on Wednesday. He explained that since the electric Waymo SUVs run on lithium ion batteries, they burn 'incredibly hot' and tend to explode when ignited.
Such blazes are challenging to put out, and become dangerous due to the rapidly rising temperatures of the cars' batteries, a phenomenon called 'thermal runaway,' Crispen said. These sudden spikes can lead to sporadic eruptions.
Quelling a Waymo fire would require connecting to a fire hydrant and essentially tethering firefighters to a single area, in a situation where they need to be mobile and agile.
Crispen's comments provided a window into how emergency responders are planning and coordinating for a series of No Kings marches and rallies that could be structured and peaceful — or devolve into violence and property damage.
Waymo plans to constrain service of its Jaguar I-Pace electric vehicles this weekend, pulling the cars out of the Financial District, SoMa, the Mission and Potrero Hill, according to company staff. The robotaxis will still be available on San Francisco's west side and in other areas.
Set to coincide with President Donald Trump's birthday and a military parade in Washington, D.C., No Kings Day will cap off a week of protests in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities, which started off as a reaction to federal immigration raids, and then widened in scope. As Trump deployed troops in Los Angeles to intimidate protesters, anger at the president intensified. Organizers of Saturday's actions have called the president a 'would-be king.'
Among the most captivating images from the initial Los Angeles protests were the scorched Waymo cars, lined up in a row and engulfed in heavy black smoke. Some observers believe the cars were targeted because of their association with Big Tech. Others view the Waymos as hapless victims, because they have no one behind the wheel and easily become paralyzed if an object is placed in their path.
Lighting cars on fire is a common protest tactic, Omar Wasow, an assistant professor of political science at UC Berkeley, said in a recent interview. He noted that in the past, and particularly after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, demonstrators often directed their rage at police cruisers.
'At the same time,' Wasow said. 'There are some things that are specific to a Waymo car. You can stop it easily. There's not a driver who is going to try to drive through the crowd. It's almost a sitting duck.'
Still, others wonder whether the L.A. demonstrators had arranged the cars in a defensive barricade, then lit the fires knowing they would be hard to control.
'I have no doubt the protesters not only called the Waymos, but that they lined the Waymos up in a strategic and defensive position,' said William Riggs, a professor of engineering and management at the University of San Francisco who studies autonomous vehicles.
Representatives of Waymo said they had no reason to believe people had deliberately hailed vehicles to a scene to be destroyed.
'Safety is our top priority, and we are taking heightened measures to keep our vehicles and riders safe including limiting our service in needed areas,' a spokesperson for the company wrote in a statement. 'We are working in close coordination with local law enforcement and fire departments.'
In response to the chaos in Los Angeles, Waymo diverted service from the downtown center. Subsequently, the company limited trips in certain parts of San Francisco, where protesters gathered on Monday.
Though at that time the autonomous vehicle company declined to provide details about what was evidently an evolving service plan, Waymo's self-driving fleet on Monday appeared to be largely absent from SoMa and the Mission, two areas where the cars are normally ubiquitous. Protests took place that night at the 24th and Mission BART Station plaza and outside City Hall.
Crews that responded to the Waymo fires in Los Angeles mostly stood by as the cars incinerated, Crispen said. He noted that San Francisco firefighters will follow suit, while assuring that his personnel would carefully monitor the fires and heed any decisions from incident commanders.