A bizarre incident was reported in Tempe, Arizona in which one of the pedestrians allegedly attacked Waymo’s autonomous self-driving vehicle, and the video of this damaged car was doing the rounds over the internet. The incident occurred in the early morning hours of Tuesday, July 5, and there was a passenger sitting inside when this autonomous vehicle was being thrashed. What exactly happened is that a pedestrian rushed towards the vehicle and bombarded the bonnet of the car while it was in “self-driving mode”. Not only this but the windshield was also ruptured in the process. During the incident, the safety driver of the Waymo car also got injured badly.
As soon as the safety driver spotted the pedestrian coming towards the vehicle in an unusual manner, he/she immediately took control of the vehicle and made it come to a stop. The police arrived on the scene immediately and arrested the person, thereby transporting him/her off to the nearby treatment facility. Moreover, a representative from Waymo named Nick Smith labeled the pedestrian as “erratic.” In the video shared on Twitter, it can be seen that a giant hole has been made in the middle of the windshield as well.
We usually hear stories about how these autonomous vehicles cause accidents and traffic jams and hence become one of the reasons for taking precious lives. But this time, the matter is completely reversed as a human is involved in attacking the autonomous vehicle. This pedestrian has created havoc, but the reason for such an attack has not yet been revealed. But we surely know how immense the hatred of anti-autonomous people is as they don’t want to accept this technology that is thriving in the streets.
Apart from this, they should consider the fact that attacking the vehicles at a time when passengers are sitting inside is not a great idea, and they must ensure the safety of the people. The safety driver, who was injured in the incident, was then immediately rushed to the nearby hospital. On the other hand, people are inquisitive about the reason behind this unexpected incident and are looking forward to the company that will legally sue the pedestrian in this case so that it may stop such matters from becoming grave in the future.