The robotaxi company Waymo has temporarily stopped his service in Downtown Los Angeles. The reason for this are the persistent protests in the US metropolis, in which several self-driving Waymo vehicles have recently been destroyed. A company spokesman confirmed that the news agency “Associated Press” confirmed that a total of five robotaxis were affected.
According to the US news station NBC
The fire caused a bad smell in the area, and explosions occurred inside the robotaxis. The Los Angeles police warned that the fires could release poisonous gases, because the Waymo cars are fully electric I-Pace models from Jaguar, which are operated with lithium-ion batteries.
Several of the vehicles that were sprayed with graffiti and then set on fire can be seen on pictures of the demonstrations in LA. In the end, only completely destroyed wrecks remained that had to be removed from the streets when cleaning up.
“We will no longer carry out any trips in the protest area until the area is again classified as safe,” a Waymo spokesman told NBC
. The demonstrations are currently taking place especially in the area of some street blocks in Downtown Los Angeles, in other parts of the city you can still use the robotaxis.
Protests are not directed against Waymo
The cars of the GoogleHowever, sister companies are not the real goal of the protests. Instead, the demonstrators have been going against US President’s migration policy since last Friday Donald Trump (78) and reinforced raids from the US immigration authority ICE on the streets.
Although, according to the Mayor Karen Bass (71) and California governor Gavino Newsom (57), Trump initially sent 2000 soldiers from the National Guard to LA on Saturday, which means that the situation is further escalating
. In the meantime, the US Department of Defense is mobilizing a further 2,000 national guards and 700 marine fans.
Political scientist Jack Pitney from McKenna College in the east of Los Angeles County regretted that the demonstrations are now producing headlines in this way. “A lot of pictures depend on the perception,” said Pitney. And currently the prevailing image of the protests is that of a burning Waymo.
Currently over 1,500 self-driving cars of the company are completing more than 250,000 trips with passengers per week in four US cities (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix and Austin). This makes Waymo clear market leader among the robotaxi providers and the competition of Uber is increasingly under pressure
.