Robotaxis burn in Los Angeles in backlash to immigration raids

As Angelenos push back against federal raids, Waymo's I-Paces pay for it.

See full article...

 

[Tolos]

This isn't just some random luddite uprising. As mentioned in the article:

Which are now being used by the Los Angeles Police Department as sources of surveillance footage

 

[ThatGuyKarl]

If Trump declares this an "insurrection" in order to expand his power, then the company won't be able to claim insurance on any damages given that most insurance coverage comes with an insurrection clause.

Fun stuff.

 

[clackerd]

It's obvious TACO wants people to riot so he can call in national guard (without asking governors' permission it appears) to protect his ICE goons. Get fucked, TACO

 

[SirOmega]

This isn't just some random luddite uprising. As mentioned in the article:

Burying the lede there a little bit Ars.

 

[Dachshund]

I am all for protests in these times, but peaceful protests are the way.

 

[Rambie]

If Trump declares this an "insurrection" in order to expand his power,

I think you mean, "When" he's just itching to go full authoritarian dictator.

 

[LordEOD]

Hard to be a patriot when your military arm is dispatched to intimidate or prevent unarmed civilians exercising their constitutional rights to peaceful protest.

It. is. not. right.

Edit: spelling

 

[freaq]

See this stuff does piss me off,

Its summoning someone elses property for the sole purpose of destroying it,
And those people aren’t even the people you hate…

What has google done to support extradition,

Burning peoples personal teslas was also some crazy nonsense, who says the owner would still have supported Musk nowadays. At the dealership, ok maaaaybe, but still you’re endangering workers lives there who may not even agree with him, but personal vehicles?

Protest, yes absolutely for it,
Wanton destruction no.

The last bug riots were terrible too, i saw people tear through my barbers place, an african american barber btw, who was always pro equality and BLM
And he was left with a massive bill he could not get covered properly by insurance.

This is not really protesting anymore,
And yes i get people are outraged and upset and just trying to “stick it to the man” but which man matters.

Sigh.

That said, the dispatch of national guard without the states approval is absolutely insane…
But its almost looking justified for people not in the know because of headlines like this.

 

[Siosphere]

I abhor violence, but it is always interesting how much more vocal people are about property damage, than human rights violations….

Like sure, lighting vehicles on fire is bad…but what ICE is doing is worse…

 

[Rambie]

Hard to be a patriot when your military arm is dispatched to intimidate or prevent unarmed civilians exercising their constitutional rights to peaceful protest.

It. is. not. right.

Sending in the National Guard was just throwing gas onto the fire all it did was inflame tensions. Exactly what he wanted.

 

[clackerd]

What has google done to support extradition,

Waymo is providing law enforcement camera footage from their vehicles. Maybe not doing the extraditing, but playing their part in these raids.

Edit: I say that not as justification, but to understand that these folks aren't randomly calling driverless cars over

 

[weathrmn07]

Ironic they burned EVs to protest ICE instead of...ICE vehicles.

 

[msawzall]

"This is not the right way to protest!" yells the people who also freak out by people kneeling during the national anthem.

Don't like this kind of protest? Get your jack booted fascist thugs out of their community. Problem solved.

 

[petard]

What has google done to support extradition,

Waymo gives the surveillance footage from their cars to police agencies, to help them find people they want to arrest.

One of many articles reporting this...

Edit: beaten by clackerd

 

[connorshea]

Waymo is providing law enforcement camera footage from their vehicles. Maybe not doing the extraditing, but playing their part in these raids.

Edit: I say that not as justification, but to understand that these folks aren't randomly calling driverless cars over

If they have been served a warrant, they don't really have a choice, do they? Ideally the data would be end-to-end encrypted and inaccessible, but then it'd be useless to Waymo for safety analysis, and I assume they need to keep it for X time length for regulatory reasons. Unless they're actively providing the data without requiring a warrant, I don't think they're doing anything inherently wrong.

 

[Reaperman2]

Ars is really doing a disservice to readers on this by hiding the reason behind it in the final paragraph. Waymo is a ridesharing service, but ALSO a powerful surveillance tool, akin to police drones all over downtown streets.

Obviously, if law enforcement has a warrant, Waymo must comply. But so far we haven't seen evidence -- even a tepid statement from Waymo -- that they're requiring warrants, or that law enforcement doesn't just have 100% access to their cameras.

THIS is the story, Ars. Perhaps you could try reporting on it.

 

[Dr Gitlin]

Burying the lede there a little bit Ars.

The LAPD using Waymo footage story is five weeks old, which is why it's not the lede.

 

[nancy-drew]

Burying the lede there a little bit Ars.

I rarely criticize Ars; for one thing, there's usually nothing to criticize. There's not a better news site on the internet in my opinion. This soft-pedaling of the important parts, however, has become a trend here -- especially in headlines -- which can feel frustrating at times.

Also, hearing about "ICE raids" with "burning electric cars" made a small part of my brain glitch, and I imagined people raiding car dealerships and burning EVs to promote internal combustion engines. It... did not feel too off-base for this timeline.

 

[theOGpetergregory]

I abhor violence, but it is always interesting how much more vocal people are about property damage, than human rights violations….

Like sure, lighting vehicles on fire is bad…but what ICE is doing is worse…

If only we prioritized "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" and "all men are created equal" but that's probably too woke for this country.

 

[graylshaped]

If Trump declares this an "insurrection" in order to expand his power, then the company won't be able to claim insurance on any damages given that most insurance coverage comes with an insurrection clause.

Fun stuff.

I highly doubt Google carries third party insurance for this program outside of an umbrella catastrophic coverage policy with a deductible that starts with a “B”.

 

[RickRoyLeonPrisZhoraRacha]

What's to stop Heritage Foundation in planting inciteful individuals that have actually caused the rioting? Isn't this the Project 2025 plan all along? To have Fuhrerious Drumpf declare martial law and deploy American Troops to shoot Americans?

Protests are healthy till they damage property and others. Don't feed MAGA.

 

[barich]

I am all for protests in these times, but peaceful protests are the way.

And when they don't work? What's next?

 

[illegitimi carborundum]

Waymo gives the surveillance footage from their cars to police agencies, to help them find people they want to arrest.

One of many articles reporting this...

Edit: beaten by clackerd

That article you linked seemed pretty clear that this isn't some nefarious Waymo plot, they are only providing the footage when legally required to do so. Here's Waymo's statement quoted in the article:

"Waymo does not provide information or data to law enforcement without a valid legal request, usually in the form of a warrant, subpoena, or court order. These requests are often the result of eyewitnesses or other video footage that identifies a Waymo vehicle at the scene. We carefully review each request to make sure it satisfies applicable laws and is legally valid. We also analyze the requested data or information, to ensure it is tailored to the specific subject of the warrant. We will narrow the data provided if a request is overbroad, and in some cases, object to producing any information at all."

There's a legitimate debate over the ubiquity of cameras in general. But Waymo is not the correct target for anger about ICE actions.

 

[dtich]

Waymo is providing law enforcement camera footage from their vehicles. Maybe not doing the extraditing, but playing their part in these raids.

Edit: I say that not as justification, but to understand that these folks aren't randomly calling driverless cars over

Well, also, when you are protesting over-reach and abuse by a mask-wearing government militia at a time when it is widely believed computers are threatening to take many more jobs away, the human-less hulks of camera be-sodden corporate tech is fairly symbolic of the whole issue.

 

[SolarMane]

"This is not the right way to protest!" yells the people who also freak out by people kneeling during the national anthem.

Don't like this kind of protest? Get your jack booted fascist thugs out of their community. Problem solved.

Surveys have shown that about 51% of Americans think it's okay for federal agents to enter their communities and search for undocumented aliens. A shockingly large number. Sometimes, I feel like I've been living my whole life in another country...

 

[graylshaped]

See this stuff does piss me off,

Its summoning someone elses property for the sole purpose of destroying it,
And those people aren’t even the people you hate…

What has google done to support extradition,

Burning peoples personal teslas was also some crazy nonsense, who says the owner would still have supported Musk nowadays. At the dealership, ok maaaaybe, but still you’re endangering workers lives there who may not even agree with him, but personal vehicles?

Protest, yes absolutely for it,
Wanton destruction no.

The last bug riots were terrible too, i saw people tear through my barbers place, an african american barber btw, who was always pro equality and BLM
And he was left with a massive bill he could not get covered properly by insurance.

This is not really protesting anymore,
And yes i get people are outraged and upset and just trying to “stick it to the man” but which man matters.

Sigh.

That said, the dispatch of national guard without the states approval is absolutely insane…
But it’s almost looking justified for people not in the know because of headlines like this.

Perhaps a more civilized approach, such as a Tea Party, would be in order.

 

[Cthel]

See this stuff does piss me off,

Its summoning someone elses property for the sole purpose of destroying it,
And those people aren’t even the people you hate…

What has google done to support extradition,

Burning peoples personal teslas was also some crazy nonsense, who says the owner would still have supported Musk nowadays. At the dealership, ok maaaaybe, but still you’re endangering workers lives there who may not even agree with him, but personal vehicles?

Protest, yes absolutely for it,
Wanton destruction no.

The last bug riots were terrible too, i saw people tear through my barbers place, an african american barber btw, who was always pro equality and BLM
And he was left with a massive bill he could not get covered properly by insurance.

This is not really protesting anymore,
And yes i get people are outraged and upset and just trying to “stick it to the man” but which man matters.

Sigh.

That said, the dispatch of national guard without the states approval is absolutely insane…
But its almost looking justified for people not in the know because of headlines like this.

Is there any evidence that the Waymos were summoned by protestors?

If you were an agent provacateur, summoning an already-distrusted auto-taxi to a protest is a pretty good move...

 

[msawzall]

And when they don't work? What's next?

The only result of a peaceful protest is the arrests of the protesters.

IMHO, if you're gonna arrest me no matter what, I'm not making it easy for ya. I'm taking shit down with me.

 

[Dr Gitlin]

Waymo is providing law enforcement camera footage from their vehicles. Maybe not doing the extraditing, but playing their part in these raids.

Edit: I say that not as justification, but to understand that these folks aren't randomly calling driverless cars over

You are conflating some different things here. The LAPD used footage from a Waymo while investigating a hit and run. The LAPD is NOT using Waymo footage to deport immigrants. Neither is ICE.

 

[SixDegrees]

This isn't just some random luddite uprising. As mentioned in the article:

Agree. Somewhat.

But this kind of action plays right into Trump's hands. He's actively trying to provoke destruction and violence to add justification to his increasing attempts at suppression, and this hands exactly the results he's hoping for straight over to him.

Of course, I can guarantee that if protesters weren't doing such things, magats would be stepping up to take their place. I fully expect one of them to chuck a brick or two at NG troops to kickstart a wag-the-dog incident.

 

[TacoBuster]

Fucking shit up like this has a place in many circumstances (Peaceful protest only works when there's a credible threat of unpeaceful stuff). But when protesting ICE, shouldn't the targets of action be a lot more directly tied to what's being protested? I mean, if this was a general protest against surveillance or self driving cars or google, I guess this has some sense to it. But the trigger for these protests is ICE using military style tactics to go after people at fucking home depot. Fucking up waymos does fuck all about that.

 

[jst]

Its summoning someone elses property for the sole purpose of destroying it,
And those people aren’t even the people you hate…

It wasn't clear to me from the article that the people that summoned the vehilcles were the ones that vandalized them. Was that really the case? I can't imagine anyone in their right mind doing that, as Waymo knows who put in the request.

 

[Dr Gitlin]

That article you linked seemed pretty clear that this isn't some nefarious Waymo plot, they are only providing the footage when legally required to do so. Here's Waymo's statement quoted in the article:

"Waymo does not provide information or data to law enforcement without a valid legal request, usually in the form of a warrant, subpoena, or court order. These requests are often the result of eyewitnesses or other video footage that identifies a Waymo vehicle at the scene. We carefully review each request to make sure it satisfies applicable laws and is legally valid. We also analyze the requested data or information, to ensure it is tailored to the specific subject of the warrant. We will narrow the data provided if a request is overbroad, and in some cases, object to producing any information at all."

There's a legitimate debate over the ubiquity of cameras in general. But Waymo is not the correct target for anger about ICE actions.

No, it's not, and a bunch of people are telling on themselves in this thread.