On 8 June, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) campaign against illegal immigrants in Los Angeles triggered a massive protest that led to a rapid escalation. The tension was further heightened by the announcement by United States President Trump of the deployment of 2,000 National Guards in response to the riots. While protesters and law enforcement officials were deadlocked, the unmanned car service, Waymo, was “apocalyptic”.
According to numerous media reports, such as the daily newspaper Los Angeles, ICE has been conducting raids in Los Angeles since 6 June to arrest dozens of undocumented migrants, prompting strong opposition from the local population. The protests began on 7 June, when more than 1,000 protesters surrounded the federal agency building, clashed with the police and 45 people were arrested.
On Sunday morning (8 June), protesters gathered in the downtown area of Los Angeles and reached Highway 101 around 3.30 p.m. The California Road Patrol (CHP) then closed the road for hours in an attempt to disperse the demonstrators and detained several people during the course. Protesters then accused ICE of “human rights violations” and expressed dissatisfaction with camera surveillance of unmanned vehicles, which could assist law enforcement authorities.
At around 5 p.m., a group of demonstrators attacked five Waymo taxis parked on Los Angeles (between Arcadia and Alameda). The tyres of the auto-driving taxis were cut, the windows were smashed and anti-ICE slogans were sprayed on them. Three of the vehicles were subsequently set on fire. Protesters surrounded the vehicle, tore off the door and stomped on the windshield. One masked man smashed his window with a skateboard, while the other appeared to have lit the interior of the car with a homemade flame sprayer.
When the vehicle was devoured by fire, some were seen throwing the Lime electric skateboard into the burning shell, while others were standing far from the fire. At one point, the sieged Waymo vehicle began to sound a sound in chaos, intertwined with the protesters ‘ shouts and the sound of a helicopter on top of their heads. The Los Angeles Fire Service responded to the vehicle fire, while the Los Angeles Police Department warned people to stay away from the area and smell of snot in the air.
Waymo is the auto-driving car company under the banner of Alphabet (the Google parent company), whose auto-driving fleet consists almost entirely of Jaguar I-Pace vehicles equipped with expensive sensor arrays, including laser radar (LiDAR), 360-degree panorama cameras and radar, all of which are transmitted to the vehicle-borne computing resources for processing.
Waymo confirmed that at least four unmanned taxis were burned during the protests at a cost of approximately $150,000 to $200,000 per vehicle, with a total loss of over $600,000. The laser radars, cameras and computing units of the damaged vehicles were severely damaged, resulting in their inoperable operation. Waymo issued a statement emphasizing that its technology “is far more secure than human driving”, but, given the current situation, decided to suspend Los Angeles City services in order to assess losses and upgrade vehicle protection measures.
Waymo currently provides Internet-based bus services in Phoenix, Arizona, Los Angeles and San Francisco, California, and Austin, Texas, through auto-driving convoys. Waymo plans to extend its services to 10 new cities, including Las Vegas and Santiago, by the end of 2025.
By January of this year, Waymo was 1.9 million miles away from Los Angeles. Despite increasing prevalence, these vehicles have repeatedly been targeted by spoilers. In January this year, a group of people destroyed an automatic taxi in the Beverly Grove district. In February 2024, a Waymo was set on fire in the Tongue neighbourhood of San Francisco. In July of the same year, according to San Francisco Chronicle, a Castro Valley resident was accused of destroying 17 Waymo taxis in San Francisco in three days.
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