People are behind Waymo Robotaxis

In a bizarre (or hilarious) episode at the end of the evening which underlined the public discomfort with autonomous vehicles, several men climbed on the Stabard of Robotaxie Waymo in the district of Marina de San Francisco and began to attack them.

They then started sitting and climbing on them, and are one point started making driver -free cars while an applauded crowd.

City police have finally cleared the premises, but the incident highlights increasing tensions on deployments of Robotaxy in urban areas.

So what happened?

About 2 am last Sunday, the ABC7 Bay region captured disturbing images of Three Waymo vehicles immobilized at the intersection of the Fillmore and Greenwich streets.

Dozens gathered while individuals sat at the top of the cars and gave their sensors. ABC7 reported that no visible damage was caused and that no passengers was inside.

A spectator, captured in the video, was seen going back from the Robotaxi.

Selika Josiah Talbott, a veteran federal advisor in autonomous vehicle regulations, called “shocking and horrible” behavior, warning that such cascades teach IA systems that crowds are aggressive, biaging their behavior in future deployments.

“It is also dangerous. The jumps that these children made … If it was their head to hit the ground, it is simply incredibly dangerous and illegal,” Talbott told ABC7. She urged that “the police must take these incidents seriously … At least at the beginning to send a message.”

Waymo and the Bay region have a long history

The incident is not the first signing of friction.

The Washington Post reported that in 2024 Waymo Vehicles had received 589 parking tickets in San Francisco to hinder traffic, violate street cleaning rules and prevent emergency stakeholders. In one case, Waymo Robotaxes caused more than two hours of transit delays, including blocking fire trucks responding to emergencies.

It is a trend not limited to minor violations. The Guardian reported that Robotaxis had been vandalized by a crowd – painted, deposited on fire or damaged with traffic cones – AMID A protest against autonomous vehicles in crowded neighborhoods. These acts illustrate the deep frustration of residents who feel that their safety and their equity are compromised.

“The vehicle did not transport any cyclist and no injury was reported,” Waymo said in a statement at the time. “We are working closely with local security officials to respond to the situation.”

From technological showcase to cultural flashing point

San Francisco was an early adopter of robotaxis, but more and more the city has become a step for real tests of the way technology really interacts with the people and the places they experience.

Waymo, which is now part of the alphabet, has deployed in several urban areas such as Phoenix, Los Angeles and Austin, and has more than 200,000 rides paid per week at the beginning of 2025. But they are far from omnipresent and the novelty that surrounds them.

Marina’s incident highlights wider societal questions: Robotaxis, always a novelty, causes people’s involuntary psychological responses, especially late at night? Could their hesitation in complex urban environments be misinterpreted, leading to frustration, confrontation or worse? In a case, the crowd itself took over.

“It was then that it was unleashed,” Michael Vandi told Reuters, about the incident involving a criminal fire. “There were two groups of people, people who encouraged him and others who were just shocked and began to film. No one got up. There was nothing to do to resist dozens of people.”

What is the next step for regulators?

Autonomous vehicle companies and regulators must fight more than the avoidance of collisions and cartography, they must approach human reactions in public spaces.

California DMV proposed the power to issue quotes directly to autonomous companies from 2026, reporting the regulatory emergency. Cities can also impose compulsory “social impact” tests or require safety drivers in vehicles in specific areas.

Meanwhile, vehicle designers must consider the clues and behavioral cameras that allow robotaxis to report the intentions of nearby pedestrians, or understand how to get out of situations as being attacked while the point is in a standstill.

Engineers experience tools like this, perhaps via offset lights or audible signals, or something as simple as human visual contact in traffic. This kind of help could have been useful during the Mini Waymo Riot of this week, said a spectator, because even the cars did not know what to do afterwards.

“There was an officer who appeared and who finally hunted everyone on the side so that the vehicle begins to move,” Talbott told the press station. “Even the hesitation of the vehicle as it started to function again was because of the intruder of humans.”

So what now?

What started as an experience in urban transport quickly becomes a cultural flash point, where human expectations collide with advanced technology.

But without a driver to guide or defend them, how the people who use them and the cars themselves come up against hostile spectators and cannot leave immediately? This is perhaps a question that even companies that make driver-free cars cannot answer.

“What becomes very clear is that AV technology is not as sophisticated as the industry wishes as we believed,” the Senator of the State of California, Dave Cortese, told Reuters.

Marina’s show is not just a viral oddity. It’s an alarm clock. Waymo and the industry must navigate not only in the streets, but also a societal land where public confidence must be won a respectful and safe interaction.

“We see people reaching a boiling point on the technology they do not want and cannot improve,” Director of the Director of the George Mason University Autonomy and Robotics Center and former adviser for American road safety regulators told Reuters.