The burning of Waymo cars in Los Angeles is now the subject of a federal investigation.
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) said today that it had deployed a national team to investigate the alleged arson of Waymo’s self-driving vehicles Sunday, along with other fires amid the street protests.
Five Waymo robotaxis were set ablaze in downtown Los Angeles during the Trump protests. Images and video of the burning cars quickly went viral online, even though most demonstrators were peaceful.
“The cause of these fires is quite obvious,” ATF Special Agent in Charge Kenneth Cooper of the Los Angeles Field Division said in a statement.
“The task at hand now is to determine who is responsible. ATF’s National Response Team is going to be a tremendous asset, and we look forward to the results of their efforts to hold the responsible parties accountable,” he said.
Waymo, a spinoff of Google, says it operates about 1,500 robotaxis in four regions: Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix and Austin, Texas, with plans to add more cities this year.