XPost: alt.energy.automobile, alt.politics.immigration, alt.los-angeles
XPost: sac.politics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/06/10/waymo-fires- los-angeles-ice-protests-trump-google/84121258007/
It isn’t clear yet how so many Waymo vehicles went up in flames in Los
Angeles over the weekend, but speculation abounds across the internet that protesters hailed them to downtown LA.
Whether there by chance or by protester design, the driverless vehicles
made easy marks for anti-government agitators, who first slashed their
tires, busted out their windows, spray-painted them with graffiti and then
put at least three to the torch.
All of this has resonance in greater Phoenix, where Waymo test drives its
cars in such high numbers that this has become the “largest area for
autonomous ride-hailing service in the nation,” according to the Phoenix Business Journal.
Los Angeles rioters protesting federal immigration roundups attacked five
Waymo vehicles, the Los Angeles Times reported. They badly damaged all and
set fire to three.
LA protesters set 3 Waymo cars on fire
Waymo vehicles are not like yours or mine.
They are generally Jaguar I-Pace electric SUVs retrofitted with
sophisticated LiDAR sensors that employ lasers to 3D map the area around
them. The cars are also retrofitted with 29 cameras that produce a 360-
degree view of the area surrounding the car, something protesting vandals
may not have appreciated.
Nor are these cars cheap.
To produce and retrofit Waymo vehicles with their sophisticated equipment
and software brings the price tag to roughly $150,000 to $200,000 each,
The Wall Street Journal reports. If burning Waymos becomes a protest
“thing,” that could be a problem for Waymo and its parent corporation
Alphabet, which also owns Google.
It could also become a problem for more responsible protesters who march peacefully in support of immigrant rights. Because the militant activists
among them are biting the hand that feeds them.
Anti-ICE protesters forgot Google is not their enemy
Google has been an enthusiastic and generous supporter of immigrant rights
over the past decade.
In 2017, Google created a $4 million crisis fund, at the time the
company’s largest crisis fund ever, to support immigration rights and organizations that advance the cause, USA TODAY reported.
That meant money for the American Civil Liberties Union, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, International Rescue Committee and The United Nations
Refugee Agency to defend the rights of Latin American immigrants, such as
those protesting in Los Angeles this past weekend.
Google proposed these financial grants only days after Google CEO Sundar
Pichai expressed strong objections to President Donald Trump – then in his first term – and Trump’s executive order to suspend entry of all refugees
to the United States for 120 days.
In 2021, Google announced that it would support then-President Joe Biden’s proposal to pass humane and comprehensive immigration reform by paying the application fees for about 500 young migrants seeking jobs under the
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, Reuters reported.
Google’s proposal would send $250,000 to United We Dream, described by
Reuters as assisting immigrants “unlawfully living in the United States
after arriving as children (to) secure work permits and avoid deportation
using DACA.”
The internet laughs at Waymo, for now
By their actions, Los Angeles protesters not only torched Waymos. They
also set the internet on fire with colorful snark.
One post blazing across the internet uses a familiar movie still from
Martin Scorsese’s 1990 gangster film “Goodfellas.” It depicts the face of
mafia enforcer Tommy DeVito (played by Joe Pesci) as he walks into an
empty room and realizes he’s been double-crossed.
College professor Keith Oregel captioned the image, “A Waymo arriving to
pick up a passenger in downtown Los Angeles.”
Another internet meme shows Democratic California Rep. Nancy Pelosi – who gained notoriety for making Wall Street millions – as she walks briskly
and talks on the telephone. The image is captioned, “Sell Waymo.”
Today, the joke is on Waymo.
Tomorrow, when those five cars yield the digital imagery of their combined
145 cameras, it might be on the protesters caught with their pants down.
--
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump. We look
forward to America being great again.
We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.
Every day is an IQ test. Some pass, some, not so much.
Thank you for cleaning up the disasters of the 2008-2017, 2020-2024 Obama
/ Biden / Harris fiascos, President Trump.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)