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Waymo Riders Describe Being Trapped During Attacks on Robotaxis
Waymo's safety protocols lock doors during attacks, leaving passengers trapped; company reports 90% fewer serious crashes than human drivers, despite rising vandalism and protests.
- Earlier this year, San Francisco resident Doug Fulop said he was trapped for six minutes as an assailant punched the Waymo's windows, while Waymo's safety protocols kept doors locked and wheels motionless.
- Mounting anti-robotaxi backlash has escalated from online threads to organized protests with rallies and June 2025 arson attacks torching five Waymo vehicles in Los Angeles.
- Assailants commonly exploit the cars' safety logic by surrounding vehicles, banging on windows, covering sensors and setting fires, while viral TikTok by Steven Montes shows bystanders trying to free trapped riders.
- A December 2025 outage showed immediate operational risk when 1,593 Waymo vehicles stalled and sixty-four vehicles were physically moved, yet Waymo completed 15 million trips and plans expansion this year.
- Policy debates center on an accountability gap as Waymo's safety data show a 90% reduction in serious-injury crashes versus the San Francisco benchmark of 7.91 incidents per million miles, while the failed cap bill and Supervisor Jackie Fielder warn of recklessness.
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12 Articles
12 Articles
What Happens When the Waymo You're Riding In Gets Attacked By a Robot Hater? Not Much, and You're Sort of Trapped
As Waymo prepares to launch its robotaxis in 20 cities this year, we're likely going to hear more stories of Waymo passengers who become the unwitting victims of anti-AI rage.At this point in SF we've all seen stories, or witnessed something live, in which a drunk or just plain angry person lashes out at a Waymo vehicle, getting in its way or otherwise taunting it, taking adavantage of its sensors and software that instruct it not to budge an in…
Driverless Waymo taxi ‘traps’ passengers while stopped in traffic on one of Austin’s ‘scariest roads’: report
Two Waymo passengers claimed they were trapped inside a vehicle for over five minutes during a driverless taxi-ride gone wrong, according to a report.
·New York, United States
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Total News Sources12
Leaning Left3Leaning Right2Center3Last UpdatedBias Distribution38% Left, 37% Center
Bias Distribution
- 38% of the sources lean Left, 37% of the sources are Center
38% Left
L 38%
C 37%
R 25%
Factuality
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