A driverless car company has responded after several of its vehicles were allegedly called by rioters in Los Angeles for the sole purpose of destroying them.
Waymo is an autonomous car service owned by Google parent company Alphabet and has over 1,500 vehicles on the streets. According to Yahoo, it is the only company currently operating driverless cars in the United States.
On Sunday, as the streets of Los Angeles were flooded with radicals in opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entering the area to conduct deportation raids, multiple reporters posted videos of Waymo cars on fire, alleging rioters had called the cars just to set them ablaze.
‘They are calling Waymos just to burn them.’
One video showed at least four Waymo cars in a row, with all of them vandalized and two of them set on fire. Another video showed a masked protester waving a Mexican flag in front of one of the vehicles, with the rear end of the car engulfed in flames.
“They are calling Waymos just to burn them. … We don’t have to live like this,” one reporter wrote with an attached video of a man destroying one of the cars with a rock.
As a result of the damage, Waymo was forced to respond to the chaos.
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“We will not be serving any rides in the protest area until it is deemed safe,” a Waymo spokesperson told NBC News.
Blaze News reached out to Waymo regarding the cost of the cars and asked if they had been contacted by law enforcement over who requested the vehicles.
A Waymo spokesman simply stated that “a number of” their vehicles were “in the vicinity of active protests taking place in Downtown Los Angeles.”
“We are in touch with law enforcement,” the spokesman added, without answering the other queries.
However, according to a New York Times report, the autonomous vehicles can cost upwards of $100,000 each, which would put the price tag of the riots around at least $400,000 for the company.
The Los Angeles Police Department put out a warning over the destruction of the cars, too, advising that the area would be closed indefinitely due to “demonstrators igniting multiple autonomous vehicles on fire.”
More disturbing footage showed an American flag on fire and placed inside one of the wrecked vehicles. Multiple obese men were seen standing on top of one of the cars; one wearing a mask and suit while speaking into a microphone and a second — who appeared to be a photographer — struggled to climb the car before pouring water on top of it, which garnered applause for some reason.
Protestors stand atop a vandalized Waymo car during immigration raid protests on June 8, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Image.
In response to the damage, Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell asked local residents to trust his department but said his force could not stop ICE from conducting raids.
“Federal authorities have the right to be able to do what they’re doing,” McDonnell said per NBC News. “We don’t engage in that activity,” he added.
According to Los Angeles Magazine, the police chief also said the riots had “gotten out of control” and claimed “somebody could easily be killed” as a result of the agitators who, in addition to the street damage, have attacked law enforcement.
Rioters have been seen throwing rocks at different law enforcement agents at multiple locations.
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