San Francisco robotaxi vandalized as horrified dog watches

Californians have discovered a quite serious flaw in the concept of self-driving taxis. It turns out, it’s remarkably difficult to get away from people if you happen to find yourself driving through a lawless hellscape. Waymo operates its driverless robotaxi things in San Francisco. Until they get stopped by hooligans, that is.

A video showing one such attack has emerged, with a gang of colorful criminals stopping a Waymo taxi in the street and drawing some colorful graffiti all over it. The passenger and his adorably tiny dog could do nothing except sit there and hope the door locks held out. The criminals, highly amused at their own antics, filmed themselves doing this, because it’s San Francisco and no one is going to stop them. The situation was bizarre, comical, terrifying and yet oddly mundane all at the same time.

Speaking of things that are bizarre, comical, terrifying and yet oddly mundane, Waymo is owned by Google’s corporate overlord entity Alphabet, and this isn’t the only problem they’re facing. The massive novelty cameras are seen by many as yet more privacy violations by the tech behemoth, and the numerous recorded traffic violations are seen by many as a threat to what little public order remains. Rather than calling for a cab, many are now calling for robotaxis to be banned entirely. Both because they’re a target of crime, and because they’re a cause of it. San Francisco is a strange place.