During recent anti-deportation protests in Los Angeles, several Waymo self-driving cars were vandalized and set on fire by demonstrators.

Protesters reportedly summoned the autonomous vehicles to the protest sites before damaging them.

At least five Waymo vehicles, collectively worth around $600,000, were destroyed.

Dramatic footage circulating on social media shows cars burning and being attacked with batons and baseball bats.

Waymo, a Google-backed company focused on autonomous mobility, operates self-driving ride-hailing services in cities including Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Austin.

Their fleet mainly consists of Jaguar I-Pace vehicles equipped with LiDAR, 360-degree cameras, radar, and onboard compute resources.

Waymo’s approach uses multiple sensors and computing systems, whereas Tesla’s system relies on an interconnected neural network and cameras.

Tesla plans to debut its unsupervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) on the Model Y in Austin, Texas, next week, launching 10 to 20 robotaxis and expanding the service to other cities by the end of 2025.

Initial reports indicate some confrontations between protesters and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) occurred during the events.

PHOTO: AP PHOTO/ERIC THAYER

This article was created with AI assistance.