Waymo is fighting back against the San Francisco populace lashing out against the still-in-development robotaxis roaming the city’s streets. The autonomous tech company is suing two people for allegedly vandalizing its vehicles in separate incidents early this year. While there have been several notable attacks on Waymo’s Jaguars, the company has never sued any perpetrators before.
One suit involves Konstantine Nikka-Sher Piterman, a Tesla Model 3 driver that Waymo claims intentionally rear-ended one of its robotaxis. The company is demanding $45,795 in compensatory damages and $137,000 in punitive damages. The suit also cited a post on X, previously known as Twitter, where Piterman tweets about the incident and asks Elon Musk for a job, Wired reports:
WIRED couldn’t locate the X post cited in the lawsuit. The lawsuit quotes it as saying, “lol @elonmusk this @Waymo just rekt me. I was driving, it was empty. I think I’m ok. Leg hurts a tiny bit but head is fine. My car is rekt. Can I pls work 4 u.”
However, WIRED found an X post uploaded the date of the accident from an account purporting to belong to Piterman: “these waymos are ruining everything. i’m fortunately fine minor concussion but forreal? a bitchass waymo hit me? slammed the brakes? brake checked me in an intersection? nuts @Waymo @Tesla i don’t want a settlement but you two figure out whos at fault, me or the waymo which was EMPTY!! Lol.”
The other suit claims that Ronaile Burton slashed the tires on at least 19 Waymo vehicles over a three-day period. Burton is also facing criminal charges to which she has pleaded not guilty. In the civil case, Waymo is demanding $21,898.76 in compensatory damages and $66,000 in punitive damages.
The worst violence that a Waymo vehicle faced was arguably when a robotaxi was torched in February. While the company hasn’t filed a civil lawsuit related to the incident, prosecutors have criminally charged a 14-year-old boy. Waymo itself is facing scrutiny from federal regulators after footage emerged of a robotaxi driving in the oncoming lane of a city street. It’s fair to say that people don’t like their streets becoming a test lab for autonomous cars.