Waymo Robotaxi Locks In Teens Firing a Toy Gun, Then Delivers Them Straight to Police

Two teenagers who thought a driverless taxi was the perfect place to misbehave found out otherwise this week, after a Waymo robotaxi in San Mateo, California, locked them inside, pulled over and handed them to waiting police officers.

The San Mateo Police Department said in a social media post Monday that officers apprehended two 15-year-old boys who had been drinking alcohol and firing a gel-pellet gun from inside one of the company's autonomous vehicles. Waymo employees monitoring the car's interior cameras believed the passengers were firing a real weapon and immediately called 911, police said. The toy was later identified as an Orby-style water-bead gun that had been painted to look authentically dangerous.

According to the police account, Waymo's remote operators detected the behavior, triggered a safety response that disabled the vehicle, and alerted authorities before the teenagers could leave. The car effectively became a rolling holding cell, keeping the pair in place until officers arrived on the scene. No one was injured, and the incident ended without the weapon the surveillance team feared.

The episode was quickly picked up by local outlets and by NBC News, whose cameras captured the surreal image of an empty-seated robotaxi rolling into an active police scene. But beyond the novelty, the case has reopened a serious debate about the reach of the cameras and microphones that autonomous-vehicle companies point at their own passengers. It is the latest in a string of incidents involving video surveillance of riders and bystanders by self-driving cars, and privacy experts say the questions are only getting sharper as the fleets expand into more American cities.

"It's the latest incident involving video surveillance of passengers and others by autonomous vehicles, raising questions about the limits of privacy in such vehicles," NPR reported Thursday, noting that legal scholars have flagged concerns about passenger monitoring and informed consent. Riders, they argue, may not fully understand that a human team can watch and listen in real time, or that footage can be handed to police. Waymo has defended its monitoring as a safety feature, saying its systems are designed to protect riders, the vehicle and the public.

For law enforcement, the case is a clean win: a potentially dangerous situation defused without a chase or a confrontation. For civil-liberties advocates, it is a warning about a future in which the car itself becomes a witness for the state. And for two San Mateo teenagers, it was a costly lesson that the newest cars on the road are never really driving alone. Both were detained and released to their parents, police said, and the investigation into the incident is ongoing.