Why are autonomous taxis focused by rioters in Los Angeles? | EUROtoday

After its launch in San Francisco and Phoenix, Waymo began to serve Los Angeles last November. The service is accessible by downloading an application. And success is there since in January, Waymo had already traveled 3.6 million kilometers in the city, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Why do the rioters attack vehicles without a driver?

Autonomous cars are now part of the Los Angeles landscape, but are the regular target of vandalism. And since the start of the riots, five vehicles from the brand have been destroyed. In question in particular: the cameras with which they are equipped and which allow you to perceive the environment and detect obstacles on the road.

Except that the demonstrators know it: these cameras record everything. Alphabet, Waymo’s parent company, collaborates with legal requests to share these images. For fear that their identity will not be revealed, opponents of Trump’s migration policy therefore seek to destroy the taxi robots. And when these vehicles park on the bottom side after a race and find themselves surrounded by demonstrators, they never try to force their path: their programming prohibits them.