How burning Waymos became the image of the LA protests

Is there a more potent image from the current anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles than a row of driverless Waymo vehicles covered in anti-ICE slogans and engulfed in flames?

At least five Waymos were destroyed during the protests over the weekend, CNN reports. And the company tells us that it has suspended its service in certain parts of the city under direction from the Los Angeles Police Department.

As we’ve seen before, Waymo’s autonomous vehicles have a way of turning into collateral damage during times of civil unrest. They are often sitting ducks, lacking an innate ability to avoid the scene or flee when surrounded by a group of people. Unlike Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they won’t run over protesters who stand in their way — their programming forbids it. And their presence likely adds fuel to a volatile situation, where protests against ICE and billionaire oligarchs are in coexistence. Waymo insists the protests aren’t related to its service, but it seems clear the robotaxis represent a change that a lot of people are unhappy about.

While the protesters aren’t rallying in opposition to the Alphabet-owned company, others watching from afar can’t help but draw some conclusions about the tech industry in general’s role in society today.

Critics note that Waymo’s robotaxis are festooned with cameras, which they use to perceive their environment and detect obstacles. But the cameras are also recording their surrounding environment and storing the footage. The company has been known to share that footage with law enforcement agencies, including the LAPD, when requested or subpoenaed. So it makes sense, these critics theorize, that protesters who are worried about their identities being revealed by rolling “surveillance devices” would seek to destroy them.

Waymo is a project of Google, whose CEO, Sundar Pichai, attended Donald Trump’s inauguration. And the company’s effort to replace human drivers with robots is a threat to blue-collar jobs — to say nothing of its work on AI and all the societal implications on labor and education that entails.

The destruction underscores a serious obstacle to Waymo’s future. By all accounts, most people in Los Angeles like the driverless cars. LA hasn’t experienced the same fierce objections to Waymo as San Francisco. Most of the time, the company has an incredible ability to coast on good vibes and customer delight. The novelty is powerful, and Waymo’s ability to avoid most dangerous situations, while other autonomous vehicle companies have been less lucky, has helped propel it to the front of the pack in the robotaxi race.

But some residents still feel left out of the technological revolution, and those feelings are laid bare during civil unrest like what’s unfolding in LA. They see the gleaming, futuristic robots rolling down the street, with their spinning sensors and all-seeing cameras, and they ask, Why? Did they consent to taking part in an experiment by Big Tech to see if robots can be trained to be better drivers than humans? Will this serve their communities? They point to the examples of blocked intersections, low-speed collisions with pedestrians or cyclists, or minor traffic infractions, and they ask whether this technology is really as ready as the company claims.

The burning Waymos rankle plenty of people, too, even those who support the cause of the protesters. Liberals, especially, often decry the destruction of property and worry that the images of flaming vehicles fuel the right-wing narrative about “lawless cities” and “radicals” or “paid protesters” facing off with law enforcement officers just trying to do their jobs. And they urge protesters to avoid falling into the trap that the right has set for them.

But of course, it’s never so simple. If Waymo continues to expand to new cities, it will naturally come into conflict with protests, just as it does with street festivals, sports victories, and other situations in which the destruction of property is occasionally the unintended outcome. And if the company continues to cooperate with law enforcement, it may find itself increasingly at odds with communities that distrust these agents of the state.

“Safety is our highest priority,” Waymo spokesperson Ethan Teicher said in an email. “We removed vehicles from Downtown Los Angeles and will not be serving that specific area for the time being, out of an abundance of caution and with guidance from LAPD.”

The company’s mission is to become the world’s “most trusted driver” by making transportation safer and more accessible. And there are cases when Waymo releasing footage to law enforcement can be helpful, like when one of its vehicles witnesses a hit-and-run. But as the company becomes a bigger part of city life, it will inevitably come into conflict with all the many forces that are currently roiling our country. And that’s something that not even the world’s most trusted driver can avoid.