A crowd in San Francisco’s Chinatown surrounded a Waymo robotaxi and then set it on fire Saturday night, according to a report in the San Francisco Standard and other media outlets.

Although there is no apparent motive for the attack, videos posted on social media show the car being mobbed by a crowd that began by scrawling graffiti on the outside and then one individual jumped on the hood and smashed in the front window. Shortly thereafter another person threw firecrackers into the interior and flames quickly consumed the entire vehicle. 

Raw HD footage: @Waymo vehicle torched in Chinatown –> Holy moly we just got done clipping together this HD footage from tonight for y'all… hope you enjoy (warning: there's a horn for the first few seconds and you're gonna get wet!) #SplashZone https://t.co/5VeWvgPEhe pic.twitter.com/N4ZwIeGjAg

— FriscoLive415 (@friscolive415) February 11, 2024

In a statement, a spokesperson for Waymo LLC said that the autonomous vehicle was unoccupied and had “recently dropped off a rider and was navigating to its next destination when the event occurred.” Despite the incident, the company said it continued to operate in the city during Super Bowl Sunday morning.

The call about the fire was reported at 9:03 p.m. PST, according to the San Francisco Fire Department.

Crowds in the area were larger than usual on Saturday night thanks to celebrations on the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year. This is also the reason for the presence of fireworks, which are customarily set off at midnight to celebrate the tradition.

The attack comes during a time when driverless car companies are struggling to get their vehicles on the road amid criticism of their capabilities and safety. As recently as October, a robotaxi operated by Waymo rival Cruise LLC dragged a pedestrian 20 feet down a street in San Francisco. That led the California Department of Motor Vehicles and California’s Public Utilities Commission to suspend the company’s permits to test its vehicles.

As for Waymo’s vehicles, the company has revealed that its vehicles have caused only three crashes with minor injuries through October 2023, according to a report published in Ars Technica with two in Phoenix, Arizona and one in San Francisco. The first fatal accident involved a self-driving vehicle from Uber Technologies Inc. in Tempe, Arizona, in 2018.

Although it’s unknown why the crowd mobbed the driverless vehicles, it is not uncommon for people to vent their frustrations on robots. In August, protestors would use orange traffic cones to block the view of driverless cars to cause them to stop moving. These protests came after autonomous cars had hit the streets causing congestion, minor accidents and issues with emergency vehicles.

Photo: Waymo