Robotaxi

Waymo will temporarily limit robotaxi service in all of its nationwide markets, the company said Friday, as US cities prepare for a wave of protests of federal immigration policies and law enforcement and military crackdowns on demonstrators. The Alphabet subsidiary will stop service in Los Angeles altogether.

Waymo spokesperson Sandy Karp confirmed the service pause and adjustments but declined to comment further. There is no indication how long the service changes will last.

The adjustments will affect service in San Francisco; Austin, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; and Phoenix, Arizona. On Friday afternoon, some San Francisco riders saw in-app messages showing that all of the company’s robotaxis were busy, and so unable to pick up rides.

The move comes a week after protesters set fire to five autonomous taxis operated by the company in downtown Los Angeles. Images of the fires went viral on social media, and became a flashpoint in discussions about protester violence and the role tech plays in citizen surveillance. The incident raised questions about the camera and sensor data collected by Waymo on public roads, and how or if it’s shared with law enforcement. Earlier this week, Karp told WIRED that the company generally challenges data requests that are overly broad or don’t have a sound legal basis. She declined to comment on specific cases.

Waymo sometimes adjusts service areas ahead of major events marked by large crowds and traffic, including sports matches and concerts, and in response to incidents like fires or floods where road safety is a concern.

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Tesla has been awfully cagey with its self-driving data this week. Reuters is now reporting that Tesla is trying to stop the city of Austin from handing over public records involving its robotaxi operations in the city, which are set to expand this month. This comes just a few days after the automaker asked a judge to prevent the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from releasing certain data related to crashes that involved its cars with self-driving features.

Reuters says that it requested two years’ worth of communications between Tesla and Austin officials in February, shortly after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that Austin would play home to the robotaxi experiment.

Dan Davis, an Austin public information officer, told Reuters in April that “third parties” were asking the city to withhold these records in the interest of protecting “privacy or property.” After the publication escalated the matter to the Texas Attorney General’s office, an attorney for Tesla wrote Ken Paxton opposing the release of what it called “confidential, proprietary, competitively sensitive commercial and/or trade secret information.”

Reuters also spoke with Neal Falgoust, an Austin Law Department official overseeing public records issues about the matter. Falgoust told reporters that the city of Austin doesn’t take any particular position on the confidentiality of the materials involved. When Reuters pressed further, asking if the people of Austin have a right to information about the driverless cars that would be traversing their streets, Falgoust did not respond.

Tesla said just last week that it had been testing driverless Model Ys in Austin for several days, which Elon Musk said was a month ahead of schedule. This would not be the first fleet of autonomous taxis on the streets of the Texas capital, with Waymo operating there since 2023 within a specific geofenced area. Waymo has also partnered with Uber in Austin since March.

By Texas law, the Attorney General’s office has 45 business days to decide whether the city of Austin is required to make these records public, which would be next week.

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Ahead of Protests, Waymo Scales Back Robotaxi Service Nationwide

Tesla is reportedly blocking the city of Austin from releasing Robotaxi records