Los Angeles authorities arrested a man who allegedly attempted to hijack a Waymo self-driving taxi early Thursday morning, according to local reports.
Video footage obtained by KTLA5 shows the suspect sitting in the would-be driver’s seat of the vehicle shortly before 1:00 a.m. in the downtown area of the city, near South Hill and 5th streets:
Officers then approached the man, who reportedly refused to exit the driverless car on his own, and were able to pull him out and handcuff him.
His identity has not been published and it is unclear why he entered the front seat of the Waymo car, which is owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet.
Waymo, which was already publicly available in Phoenix, Arizona, and San Francisco, California, was introduced to Los Angeles in early 2024 and currently “operates 24/7 across 79 square miles” of the area, according to the company.
The technology has received mixed reviews, with some passengers — especially women — complaining of facing harassment and other safety concerns while trying to ride to their destinations, Breitbart News reported in December.
Stephanie, a San Francisco tech worker, recounted a concerning experience to the Washington Post, when a car of several young men shouting inappropriate comments followed her Waymo vehicle late one evening — and she could not do anything to redirect her driverless vehicle’s route.
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Even after calling 911, Stephanie was told that police could not send a car to a moving vehicle, the publication reported.
Another shocking Waymo incident out of San Francisco was captured on video by a passenger named Amina, showing two men blocking her vehicle’s path while demanding her cell phone number:
“No… go, go, go!” Amina can be heard shouting at the men as they stood in front of her vehicle that had stopped for a red light.
Because the self-driving car’s censors detected something moving in front of the vehicle, it could not maneuver around the obstruction.
One of the men, wearing a hat and glasses, can be seen repeatedly making a “call me” gesture with his hand and refusing to get out of the street.
“I love Waymo but this was scary,” Amina wrote on X in September 2024. “2 men stopped in front of my car and demanded that I give my number. It left me stuck as the car was stalled in the street.”
“Thankfully, it only lasted a few minutes… Ladies please be aware of this,” she added.
When one commenter replied with, “Yeah these are not going to work out in a low trust society,” Amina said she still has “hope” in Waymo:
