A man was filmed throwing a rock at one of Waymo’s self-driving test cars in London, shattering a window before the vehicle sped off through a red light to escape him. The footage has since spread widely online.
The attack, according to London Now, went down on Saturday, May 9, in the Battersea and Nine Elms area of London, England. Minicab driver Arif Uzzamam Mohammad, 48, was driving a passenger toward Heathrow Airport when he spotted the scene. His dashcam then recorded the ensuing attack. Mohammad added the man was shouting something while holding a medium-sized rock, which he then struck against the windscreen.
The clip reveals a white Jaguar I-PACE, the same model autonomous taxi company Waymo uses in London, stopped at traffic lights near Battersea Park Road. The man, clad in dark clothing, walks up, yells, and bashes the side window before throwing the rock. The sound of glass breaking can clearly be heard afterward. The person behind the wheel then drives off through despite a red light as the attacker then appears to give chase on foot. Mohammad claimed he had no idea what the man had been perturbed about, nor what would have provoked the attack.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed to they were called to investigate criminal damage to a vehicle in Nine Elms at 11:56am, with a second report logged online just before 3pm. Officers could not locate the car and are still trying to trace the suspect, asking anyone with information to call 101 in the UK with any additional leads they may have about the incident.
Why There Was Someone Behind The Wheel
Unlike Waymo’s fully driverless operations in the United States, Waymo taxis that drive on UK roads each have a trained human in the driver’s seat. The vehicles aren’t yet carrying paying customers anywhere and are instead working through supervised testing phase. That explains how the car was able to run a red light (a judgment made by the human at the controls).
Of course, humans aren’t infallible creatures. Whether a human driver was in control of the vehicle or not, it’s highly possible that there was a judgment call or miscalculation that could have led to the unidentified man’s aggression. There are a number of things that could have occurred, but we likely won’t know until police have captured the suspect to get a complete picture of the incident.
Legal Issues For Waymo Continue
This is just the latest issue with Waymo overseas, which began its London pilot this year. Around two dozen cars were deployed in the hopes of a true driverless launch later this year. Previously in April, one Waymo vehicle drove through a police stop during an investigation.
Waymo claimed that the vehicle was being driven manually, though its driver was later suspended. Additionally, other residents on another street complained that a Waymo car continued to attempt to turn into a dead-end lane three times in a single week around 4 am.
It’s been a rocky start for Waymo with its overseas operations, and this latest incident with its UK customers is no different thus far. It’ll be interesting to see how the company is able to fare once its test pilot has concluded and the vehicles are fully operational, if that becomes a possibility.