A masked man with a hammer bashed in a Cruise robotaxi in downtown San Francisco on Sunday night — the latest incident involving the autonomous vehicles that have drawn complaints over increased congestion as well as recent traffic incidents.
Viral video that was posted on the X social media platform showed the masked man hammer away at the car’s cameras, windshield, windows, and sensors in the Lower Haight section of downtown San Francisco on Sunday night.
In the video, posted by X user @BrokeAssStuart, the hammer blows inflicted by the suspect, who is wearing a black hoodie and ski mask, produced loud sounds that were audible from a distance.
“Someone seen destroying a RoboTaxi in San Francisco this weekend,” the X user wrote in the post attaching the video.
“What do you think, hero or villain?”
It also appears that the man spray-painted the car.
There were no passengers inside the robotaxi at the time of the incident.
The vandalism activated the car’s alarm.
In the background of the video, one person is heard urging another to call 911.
“On September 10, 2023 at approximately 10:59pm, San Francisco Police Officers assigned to Northern Station responded to the 300 block of Buchanan on a report of a vehicle which was vandalized at that location,” a spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department told The Post.
“When officers arrived on scene, they located an autonomous vehicle in the intersection, which had been vandalized,” the police spokesperson added.
“Officers spoke with a witness, who said that they heard a scream and looked out their window to see the suspect standing in front of the autonomous vehicle.”
The police spokesperson added: “The suspect then began vandalizing the vehicle. The suspect fled the scene prior to officers arriving on scene.”
The police said the suspect was at large and that it is an “active and open investigation.”
The woman who filmed the video told the tech-centric news site 404 Media: “It was really crazy.”
“We are deeply troubled by the behavior displayed by the individual,” a spokesperson for Cruise told The Post.
“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,” the company said.
San Francisco is host city to the nation’s first experiment with robotaxis operated by Cruise, the General Motors-owned company, and Google’s Waymo startup.
In late August, Cruise was told by California regulators to slash its fleet of self-driving cars by 50% after collisions involving a pedestrian and a fire truck.
No one was seriously hurt.
The accidents also came on the heels of a report in which passengers of driverless taxis claimed that they were involved in sexual encounters while riding the vehicles.
San Francisco residents earlier this month posted a video to social media showing a massive traffic jam caused by some 10 Cruise robotaxis that were unable to move due to “wireless connectivity issues” caused by a mass of people who were attending a nearby music festival.
Another social media post showed a Cruise robotaxi driving into a patch of wet cement on a sidewalk.
“We will continue to work in partnership with regulators and city departments on EMV interactions to reduce the likelihood of incidents like these happening again,” Greg Dietrerich, the general manager of Cruise’s San Francisco operations, wrote in a recent blog post.
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