"SF resident Doug Fulop describes a scary situation in January that went on for six minutes in which an unhinged man punched at the windows of a Waymo he was in with two other passengers, screaming at them for 'giving money to a robot.' Fulop says he and his friends were trapped and stayed frozen inside while they called Waymo Support for help, but they were told to just stay in the vehicle and there was no override system available like, no one could hop behind the wheel and take control."
"At one point when he got distracted from blocking or hitting the vehicle, it sensed that he had stepped far enough away and it began driving off. Police only later arrived on the scene, and confirmed the details of Fulop's account. Fulop tells the Times that he stopped using Waymo at night after this happened."
As Waymo expands its robotaxi service to 20 cities, incidents of anti-AI aggression are escalating. In San Francisco, passengers have witnessed drunk or angry individuals deliberately blocking vehicles, vandalizing them, and physically attacking them. A January incident involved a passenger trapped in a Waymo for six minutes while an aggressive man punched windows and screamed at occupants. When passengers called Waymo Support, they were instructed to remain inside with no override system available and no remote company intervention. The vehicle only escaped when the attacker stepped away, triggering its sensors to drive off. Police arrived afterward. This incident highlights critical safety gaps in Waymo's emergency response protocols and passenger protection measures.
Read at sfist.com
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