
A bystander remarked that nobody attempted to intervene with the crowd. “There was simply no way to confront dozens of people,” they said.
A group of individuals in San Francisco vandalized an unmanned Waymo self-driving vehicle on Saturday night, shattering its windshield and igniting a fire that reduced the vehicle to a charred shell. Firefighters eventually managed to extinguish the blaze, leaving behind only the burnt remnants of the Waymo.
According to Waymo, the autonomous car was navigating through Chinatown around 9 p.m. when it became surrounded by a crowd. The individuals within the crowd vandalized the vehicle and threw a firecracker inside, resulting in the fire. The San Francisco Police Department confirmed on Sunday that there were no reported injuries and that an investigation into the cause of the fire was underway.
“We are collaborating closely with local authorities to address the situation,” stated a Waymo spokesperson in an email to Gizmodo on Sunday.
This incident occurred shortly after another Waymo self-driving car was involved in a collision with a bicyclist in San Francisco. Additionally, last October, a GM autonomous Cruise vehicle was involved in an incident where it dragged a pedestrian along the road for 20 feet (six meters), prompting California to suspend the operation of Cruise robotaxis in the state due to safety concerns.
Michael Vandi, a former Amazon software engineer who was in Chinatown on Saturday to celebrate the Lunar New Year and witness the fireworks, witnessed the Waymo incident firsthand. He captured the event on video and shared it on X, the platform previously known as Twitter.
Vandi recounted to Gizmodo via direct message that the Waymo vehicle was stopped during a minor traffic delay when an individual wearing a white hoodie “jumped onto the hood of the car and forcefully smashed the windshield, resembling a move seen in WWE wrestling.”

Vandi described the crowd’s initial shock at the unfolding events, noting how people began to take notice and gather around the car. However, the situation escalated when another individual leaped onto the hood, prompting some onlookers to applaud and cheer on the destructive behavior.
“That’s when things got chaotic,” Vandi recalled. “People with skateboards started smashing the glass, while others began graffitiing the car. There were essentially two factions within the crowd—those who encouraged the vandalism and others who were simply taken aback and started recording.”
According to Vandi, no one attempted to intervene, as the sheer number of people made it impossible to confront them effectively.
Vandi witnessed someone ignite a firework underneath the vehicle, though initially, nothing seemed to happen. However, the sudden sound dispersed the crowd, prompting Vandi to move away from the scene. He admitted uncertainty about the subsequent events, but he observed smoke for a brief moment before flames erupted. Vandi decided to leave when he heard the approaching sirens of the fire department.
Franky Francisco, a street reporter known for his FriscoLive415 accounts on X and YouTube, was also present in Chinatown during the incident. Although he did not witness the vandalism firsthand, Francisco responded to reports from the police dispatch and emergency services radio scanner. Arriving after the authorities, Francisco noted the difficulty in identifying the vehicle due to its severe damage.
“It was so extensively damaged that at first, they thought it was a Waymo, then they considered it might be a Zoox, because the vehicle was unrecognizable,” Francisco explained. He emphasized that Waymo cars, produced by Google, and Zoox cars, produced by Amazon, have distinct appearances.
Francisco expressed little surprise at the incident involving the Waymo car, describing it as the most severe case of vandalism against an autonomous vehicle he had encountered. He highlighted the existing negative sentiment toward self-driving cars within certain communities in the city, citing previous instances of public frustration, such as a traffic jam caused by Cruise robotaxis stopping abruptly last August. Despite this, Francisco acknowledged the presence of a contrasting attitude among some individuals who support autonomous technology without resorting to destructive actions.