--- title: "Waymo Halts Service in LA as Vandals Keep Setting Its Robotaxis on Fire" description: "Waymo shut down service to parts of Los Angeles after people, protesting immigration crackdowns, vandalized the vehicles." date: "2025-06-09" modified: "2025-06-09" authors: - name: "Sharon Adarlo" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/sadarlo" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/waymo-robotaxi-fire-los-angeles" categories: - "Advanced Transport" tags: - "los angeles" - "robotaxi" - "the digest" - "waymo" --- # Waymo Halts Service in LA as Vandals Keep Setting Its Robotaxis on Fire ![Waymo shut down service to parts of Los Angeles after people, protesting immigration crackdowns, vandalized the vehicles.]() *\Image: Ringo Chiu / AFP via Getty\* Downtown Los Angeles was a literal riot scene on Sunday as people vandalized and torched several Waymo vehicles while protesting nation-wide deportations of undocumented immigrants, [according to *CNBC*](), prompting the robotaxi company to shut down service to the area. Dramatic [images from the scene]() showed a line of Waymo cars engulfed in flames and smoke while sporting broken windshields, doors ripped from their hinges, and spray-painted graffiti, much of which attacked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has been at the [forefront of detaining and deporting immigrants](). Here's one from Benjamin Hanson, shooting for *Agence France-Presse:* ![A Waymo self-driving taxi is seen in flames during the LA riots]() *Photo by BENJAMIN HANSON/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images* And here's another unbelievable photo, this time from *AFP*'s Etienne Laurent: ![A photo shows numerous Waymo taxis wrecked and burning during the LA riots]() *Photo by ETIENNE LAURENT/AFP via Getty Images* Some rioters brazenly [posed on top of damaged vehicles]() while wearing masks or waving the flag of Mexico, amidst the chaos of law enforcement deploying acrid tear gas and non-lethal rounds. The images of protestors sparked outrage from many, including President Donald Trump, who made it [part of his agenda to kick out millions of immigrants](). "These Radical Left protests, by instigators and often paid troublemakers, will NOT BE TOLERATED," Trump [fulminated]() on Truth Social. Trump [unilaterally ordered the National Guard]() into the city streets, threatening a lawsuit from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who [called]() the move illegal. There were [online rumors]() that protestors deliberately hailed Waymo cars to the area specifically to vandalize them, but this wasn't clear from news reports. After the publication of this story, a Waymo spokesperson pushed back against that idea, telling us that the "Waymos were already in the area when the environment around them shifted, and we have no reason to believe they were hailed by people at the scene with the intention of being destroyed." Regardless, some people online described these actions against the Waymos as terrorism. "Waymo cars torched in the streets aren’t just vandalism," [one person wrote on X](). "Burning lithium batteries release toxic gas, hydrogen fluoride, flammable vapors, cancerous smoke. This isn’t protest. It’s chemical warfare in our country." Others online, like journalist Taylor Lorenz, suggested that protestors had targeted the Waymo robotaxis because they represent government surveillance, citing a [*404* article]() on how the Los Angeles police have used footage from these vehicles for criminal cases. "So people view the cars as an extension of the police," [Lorenz wrote on X](). Well before these riots, people have been vandalizing the robotaxis in parts of California, with varied acts such as [lighting them on fire]() to putting [traffic cones on top of the hood]() to prevent them from driving away. And with the [planned expansion of Waymo robotaxis]() while America is engulfed in national unrest, the road may get more bumpy for these cars. **More on the Waymo:** [*Terrifying Footage Shows Self-Driving Tesla Get Confused by the Sun, Mow Down Innocent Grandmother*]()