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Waymo, Google's autonomous mobility-focused startup, has been caught in the middle of the anti-deportation mass protests that are currently taking place in Los Angeles.
It appears that agitators called several Waymo self-driving autonomous cars to the site of one of the demonstration in Los Angeles, before vandalizing and burning them for absolutely no reason. pic.twitter.com/fnTG9kkuyz
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) June 9, 2025
To wit, as per the news that is just trickling in, some LA protesters have vandalized Waymo vehicles that were already in the protest area.
NEWS: Multiple self-driving Waymo cars, collectively worth upwards of $600,000, were vandalized by protesters today in Los Angeles. pic.twitter.com/JtAlHqbTNP
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 9, 2025
As per initial reports, as many as 5 Waymo vehicles, collectively worth around $600,000, are believed to have been destroyed.
For the benefit of those who might not be aware, Waymo currently provides ride-hailing services via a fleet of autonomous vehicles in Phoenix (Arizona), Los Angeles (California), San Francisco (California), and Austin (Texas). By the end of 2025, Waymo plans to expand its services to 10 new cities, including Las Vegas and San Diego.
Currently, Waymo's autonomous fleet is almost exclusively made up of Jaguar I-Pace vehicles that are equipped with an expensive array of sensors, including LiDAR, 360-degree view cameras, and a radar, all feeding into onboard compute resources.
In this respect, Waymo's approach to autonomous driving is markedly different from that of Tesla's, which leverages an interconnected neural network along with cameras that are supposedly capable of counting individual photons.
Bear in mind that Tesla is expected to debut its unsupervised FSD on the Model Y in Austin, Texas, next week, concurrent with the launch of between 10 and 20 robotaxis. By the end of 2025, the EV giant intends to roll out this service to a number of US cities.
Multiple Waymo’s on fire pic.twitter.com/uSiBDPQHwG
— Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) June 9, 2025
Coming back, X and other social media platforms are currently being flooded with dramatic footage of Waymo vehicles on fire, as well as those that were seemingly mangled with batons and baseball bats.
As per preliminary reports, at least some skirmishes with the LAPD have also taken place.
The Waymo Massacre of June 8th 2025 at least 4 brutally vandalized and destroyed pic.twitter.com/sIkKEaYfOh
— Intelschizo (@Schizointel) June 9, 2025
We leave you for now with these dramatic images. This post will continue to be periodically updated with relevant details.
Note:
An earlier version of the post erroneously claimed that protesters summoned Waymo vehicles and then went about vandalizing them. This error has now been corrected.
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