It seems like residents of San Francisco’s frustrations with Cruise and their malfunctioning robotaxis have come to a head. Unfortunately, it’s a bit violent. SFGATE reports on a video that shows an unknown individual allegedly hitting one of the robotaxis with a hammer.
The video was captured in the Lower Haight neighborhood and shared with SFGATE and X (formerly Twitter) by local resident and blogger Stuart Schuffman. The video shows an individual clad in all black in front of a Cruise robotaxi that’s stopped at the intersection of Haight Street and Buchanan Street. The individual is standing in front of the car; it’s not known if the car is stopped because of a glitch, or if it’s stopped because of the person in front of it. The front of the robotaxi appears to be spray painted with something, though it’s hard to make out what it is.
What’s worse, the individual appears to be repeatedly hitting the sensors on the top of the car as well as smashing the windshield. After a minute more of trying to damage, the car the person runs off. Cruise spokesperson Navideh Forghani confirmed to SFGATE that no one was in the car at the time of the attack and that the company is troubled to see this kind of thing happening:
We are deeply troubled by the behavior displayed by the individual. While there was no one in the vehicle at the time, our priority is to operate safely under all conditions. We have reported the incident to law enforcement and hope they are able to identify those responsible and hold them accountable.
Hopefully this vandalizing attack isn’t a preview of more to come. The robotaxis have recently been malfunctioning recently, frustrating San Francisco residents and officials alike. This attack also comes weeks after California state officals voted to allow Cruise to expand it’s service in the city and less than a week after Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt made some interesting statements defending his company and its tech, essentially calling backlash to the robotaxis “overblown.”