An unhoused man was taken into custody on suspicion of grand theft auto after police stated he tried to steal a Waymo self-driving automobile in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday evening.
The person entered and tried to function a Waymo automobile that had stopped to set free a passenger on the nook of 1st and Predominant at 10:30 p.m., LAPD Det. Meghan Aguilar stated. After the person, whom a Waymo spokesman described as an “unauthorized pedestrian,” entered the automobile, the corporate’s Rider Help workforce instructed him to exit the automobile.
When he didn’t, the corporate contacted the police, “who have been then capable of take away and arrest” the person, stated Chris Bonelli, a Waymo spokesman. Vincent Maurice Jones, 34, was arrested at 12:15 a.m. Sunday, Aguilar stated.
No accidents have been reported by the rider, and there was no injury to the automobile, Bonelli stated.
The automobile was stationary throughout all the incident as a result of an unauthorized individual was recognized by the corporate to be within the automobile, in response to Waymo.
Waymo is allowed to function absolutely autonomous autos and carry passengers as a part of its testing and promotions program and has been testing autos in L.A. for greater than a yr.
The corporate, which is a subsidiary of Google guardian firm Alphabet Inc. and focuses on self-driving know-how, has confronted criticism because it expands operations all through the state, together with in components of San Francisco and now L.A.
Final month, a crowd vandalized and burned an empty Waymo automobile in San Francisco’s Chinatown, although the motive for that incident continues to be unclear.
On Friday, the California Public Utilities Fee OK’d the corporate’s plans to broaden into San Mateo and L.A. counties over native leaders’ objections. L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn known as the fee’s approval “a harmful resolution,” and known as for extra native involvement within the approval course of.
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, too, had beforehand requested regulators to offer native officers extra say in regulation, noting {that a} Waymo automobile working in L.A. final yr initially did not cease for a visitors officer at Beaudry Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard.
