Getty Image
Audio By Carbonatix
Some wild scenes unfolded in Los Angeles over the weekend due to protests stemming from immigration raids in the city. A number of Waymo cars got caught in the crossfire, and the company ultimately opted to suspend services after realizing people were requesting its vehicles for the sole purpose of torching them.
Last week, ICE agents who were sent to Los Angeles to detain undocumented immigrants found themselves facing some stiff opposition from the residents who attempted to interfere with those raids and started clashing with the LAPD officers who were tasked with trying to keep order.
On Saturday night, Donald Trump dispatched 2,000 members of the National Guard to the city to assist with those law enforcement efforts, which unsurprisingly did not do much to quell the tensions between authorities and the protesters who did not exactly welcome the soldiers with open arms.
Those demonstrations continued to unfold on Sunday as both sides continued to clash in the vicinity of the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown L.A., and close to 30 people were arrested for attempting to block a highway and peppering law enforcement officers and their vehicles with fireworks, rocks, and other objects.
According to The Los Angeles Times, five autonomous cars that comprise Waymo’s self-driving taxi fleet also became collateral damage when they were engulfed in flames on Los Angeles Street on Sunday afternoon as they were also covered in graffiti, battered with skateboards, and hit with Lime e-scooters that were tossed on top to fuel the fires.
The LAPD eventually asked Waymo to suspend service in the area to prevent more people from ordering cars for the sole purpose of sending them to a fiery doom, and the company agreed to do exactly that “until it is deemed safe.”
On Sunday night, the LAPD declared the entirety of downtown LA had been classified as an unlawful assembly area in an attempt to restore order, although all signs point to the protests continuing throughout the week.