The last thing two California teenagers probably expected was for their getaway car to call the police on them. According to the San Mateo Police Department, two 15-year-olds were allegedly drinking alcohol and shooting toy guns from a Waymo robotaxi when the company remotely stopped the vehicle and alerted authorities. Officers arrived a short time later and detained both teens.
According to a report by NBC Bay Area News, a Waymo representative was monitoring the live feed of the interior of the car. The representative believed the passengers were firing a real weapon from the vehicle, and called 911 to report the incident. Waymo shared the location of the vehicle with the San Mateo police and remotely disabled the car; to avoid rising any suspicions, the Waymo team reportedly told the teens that the car was experiencing a mechanical issue and needed to stop.
Police then say they moved into position and removed the teens from the vehicle. Upon searching the Waymo, authorities said they discovered it was an Orbeez gun that was being fired from the car, not an actual gun. Orbeez guns fire water-absorbent beads; while the beads are non-lethal, the devices that fire them can resemble a real firearm.
“While there was some ingenuity to this scheme, toy guns, water guns, and BB guns all pose real dangers, especially to an untrained eye,” said the San Mateo Police Department on social media.
The police did give the teens credit for making at least one good decision: they hired a Waymo to be driven around town, instead of drinking and driving. The teens were released to their parents and not arrested.
The incident serves as a reminder that autonomous vehicles are more than just self-driving cars, they're also highly connected computers. As robotaxis become more common, passengers may discover that reckless behavior doesn't go unnoticed the way they might have suspected it would without a human behind the wheel.