Waymo halts Los Angeles service
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Several Waymo robotaxis and Lime e-scooters were set ablaze this weekend as unrest in downtown Los Angeles continued.
Now electric, driverless vehicles have been summoned to protest scenes via the Waymo app. The resulting EV fires burn hotter than traditional car fires and are potentially more hazardous. The autonomous robot taxis owned by Google parent company Alphabet were tagged with protest slogans and profanity—and set on fire—as a way to disrupt traffic over the weekend and demonstrate against the widespread roundup of migrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
The incident came amid escalating tensions in L.A. as thousands of protesters took to the streets in response to President Donald Trump's extraordinary deployment of the National Guard, blocking off the 101 Freeway as LAPD officers used tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash bangs to control the crowd.
HOW WE GOT HERE: The protests erupted after Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers on Friday carried out raids in three locations across L.A., where dozens of people were taken into custody. Newsom called the raids “chaotic federal sweeps” that aimed to fill an “arbitrary arrest quota.”
Authorities swept in with flash-bangs and tear gas grenades to disperse hundreds of protesters in Los Angeles.