Angry Mob Torches Robot Taxi In San Francisco

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As we’ve highlighted many times before, tensions about autonomous taxis from Waymo, Cruise, and others in San Francisco have become quite the contentious issue. To show things haven’t calmed down but instead are escalating, an angry mob surrounded a Waymo taxi in the city recently, vandalizing and then burning it to the ground.

Florida classic car dealer apologizes to angry customers.

While those who took part in this act of property destruction represent the more extreme among the anti-robot taxi leaning constituents of San Francisco, there are many others who don’t have warm feelings towards the technology. After all, autonomous cars have caused traffic jams, hit pedestrians, killed a dog, driven into active emergency scenes, and caused many other problems.

Video of the incident, which unfolded in Chinatown, show a group of what appears to be mostly younger people standing around the robotaxi as a party-like atmosphere hangs in the air. There are others sitting on the hoods and roofs of parked cars, but then people start bashing the Waymo vehicle with skateboards and other objects.

They also tag the car using spray paint. Then someone decides to throw fireworks through one of the broken windows, which ignite and catch the autonomous vehicle on fire. The revelry continues as the taxi becomes an inferno.