Waymo autonomous vehicle attacked by an ‘erratic’ pedestrian in Arizona

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

The safety driver of a self-drive vehicle was injured late Tuesday evening when a pedestrian smashed the vehicle's window. As the company ramps up its commercial service in the state, there have been attacks on their vehicles by people.

In the early hours of July 5th, a person ran out in front of a vehicle that was in self-driving mode. A person jumped onto the hood of a car after the safety driver switched the vehicle into manual mode. The driver of the car was injured when theerratic person punctured the window.

Smith says that the driver was not seriously hurt when police arrested the suspect. Smith said that the company is in contact with local law enforcement.

A video of the damaged Waymo vehicle, one of the company's electric Jaguar I-Pace vehicles, was posted on social media a few hours after the incident.

The police report of the incident was not immediately made public.

In Phoenix and the surrounding towns, the company uses both fully driverless vehicles and vehicles with drivers in them. Local elected officials and business leaders have welcomed the company with open arms, but some residents are not.

There have been a number of attacks on the company's vehicles in the past few years. According to The Arizona Republic, police in one of the towns where Waymo operates have recorded at least two dozen incidents in the last year.

Drivers have tried to drive off the road. The New York Times reported that a man drove up next to a minivan and threatened the safety driver with a piece of pipe.

Some of the violent backlash seems to have arisen from an incident in which a self-driving car struck and killed a person. The man who waved a gun at the car was questioned by the police. The fact that the company was not involved in the crash is irrelevant.

The majority of its vehicles are able to drive thousands of miles without incident, according to the company.