oday, 12 July, the vandalism suspect to Waymo robotaxis is being taken to court for the 17 charges from the events in Castro Valley.
This Thursday, a 36-year-old resident from Castro Valley was charged for slashing the tires of 17 robotaxis Waymo in San Francisco. These felonies happened at the end of June, between 24 and 26, and were worth more than $400 in damage.
According to Prosecutors, the vandalism was captured by cameras installed on Waymo's robotaxis, and it's not the first event in the Bay Area. Residents living in the Bay Area have expressed multiple times their dislike of autonomous electric vehicles.
To identify the suspect, the San Francisco Police Department investigated the footage from surveillance cameras placed outside Waymo's EV.
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"The destruction of other people's property will not go unaddressed in San Francisco. People who vandalize property must be held accountable for their actions," District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a statement about the events.
Thursday afternoon, San Francisco Police located the suspect and his vehicle after deciding that these two were the same in both cases of vandalism. The arrested suspect has pleaded not guilty to all 17 felony charges, and the prosecutors placed the 36-year-old man in custody with no bail while awaiting trial. His court date is set for this Friday, July 12.
The 36-year-old Ronalie Joshua Burton it's not on his first felony and he is also accused in another case where he approached a caravan of Waymo vehicles and knifed their tires.
These vandalism events appeared after Waymo allowed all San Francisco residents to download the app for robotaxi service. Until recently, the service was accessible just to those on a waiting list of almost 300,000 residents.
After that, Waymo's autonomous vehicles have been targeted multiple times. In February in San Francisco's Chinatown, an autonomous robotaxi was set on fire and a 14-year-old was arrested in the case.
Moreover, about a year ago, other people who disagreed with these autonomous vehicles vandalized the cars by placing traffic cones on Waymo's cars, which led to their deactivation.
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