A South of Market pedestrian made his feelings known about a self-driving Waymo this week, climbing onto the vehicle’s hood, beating the automobile with his belt, and eventually smashing its windshield (because he was standing on it).
Self-driving Waymos are certainly becoming more popular in San Francisco, having surpassed Lyft SF in market share earlier this year. But some of us are still Waymo-bashers, in that we make fun of the robot cars for being far glitchier than advertised. And others are Waymo-bashers in the literal sense that they jump all over the cars and vandalize them.
KTVU introduces us to the newest guy who falls into the latter category, after he jumped on top of a Waymo and beat it with his belt somewhere in the South of Market area earlier this week. The Waymo is stopped in the middle of moving traffic for no apparent reason (and other cars have to drive around it). But that makes the Waymo a sitting duck for this individual throwing an inexplicable anti-Waymo tantrum.
He climbs onto the front hood of the vehicle and immediately starts kicking on the windshield, and then starts ripping off the windshield wipers. At that point, we learn there is a passenger in the vehicle, who gets out of a back door. The passenger briefly attempts to reason with the fellow from a distance, though it becomes clear the dude cannot be reasoned with, and the passenger quickly leaves the scene.
How do we know dude cannot be reasoned with, in a video that does not have sound? Because at that point, the dude has whipped off his belt, and is madly smacking lashes on to the front of the completely empty car. His feet smash through the Waymo’s windshield, he walks onto the top roof of the Waymo by the LIDAR sensor, the over the top of the back of the car, and ultimately goes on his way.
KTVU says the incident happened “yesterday afternoon” in a report that was published Tuesday.
The station adds that “Neither Waymo nor the San Francisco police department responded for comment.”
Related: Tourist In SF For Conference Ends Up Stuck In Weird Waymo Garage Limbo [SFist]
Image: Rear view of Waymo autonomous vehicle stopped at traffic signal with Muni clean air bus in background on 4th Street, San Francisco, California, May 27, 2025. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
