Waymo Robotaxi Reportedly Remained Immobilized While Vandals Smashed Vehicle with Passenger Inside

May 9, 2026

On May 9, 2026, a Waymo robotaxi carrying passenger Sherman Watson was vandalized by two men at Pierce and Lombard streets in San Francisco. The autonomous driving system remained immobilized after one man grabbed the bumper, allowing the attackers to smash its windows and climb on it. Despite remote support declining Watson's request to move the vehicle, he reported a possible glass cut and sought therapy. The incident has raised concerns about the safety and security of autonomous vehicles. … contributors—JOIN US—to learn more.

Matched TAIM controls

Suggested mapping from embedding similarity (not a formal assessment). Browse all TAIM controls

MAP 5.1 — similarity 0.566, rank 1. TAIM detail and related incidents →
MANAGE 2.4 — similarity 0.553, rank 2. TAIM detail and related incidents →
MAP 4.2 — similarity 0.553, rank 3. TAIM detail and related incidents →

Alleged deployer: waymo, robotaxi-operators, automated-driving-system-deployers
Alleged developer: waymo, automated-driving-system-developers
Alleged harmed parties: waymo-passengers, sherman-watson, robotaxi-passengers, road-users, passengers

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Source

Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/1599

Data source

Incident data is from the AI Incident Database (AIID).

When citing the database as a whole, please use:

McGregor, S. (2021) Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents: The AI Incident Database. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Third Annual Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI-21). Virtual Conference.

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