Why Waymo settled for the wrong car

A California man rolled up to a yoga studio in San Francisco’s Marina District in a self-driving Waymo car, walked into the studio, grabbed an armful of yoga shorts, got back in the Waymo and took off.

[…Keep reading]

Six months later, police still haven’t found him, according to a story this week in The San Francisco Chronicle. Since the rider’s credit card information didn’t lead to an arrest, we can assume the perp used a stolen phone’s Waymo account and financial information to hail the ride. And by the time police requested interior video of the man’s face, Waymo had already deleted it.

This is a “California Man” story in part because of the association of Waymo with the city of San Francisco. Soon that association will be obsolete. (In fact, while Waymo is headquartered in San Francisco and is more visible there, Arizona got Waymos two years before San Francisco did.)

At the moment, Waymos are publicly available to riders in 11 US cities — San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Austin, Atlanta, Miami, Orlando, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Nashville.

About Author

AndyC

Andy Curtis is an award-winning security consultant, researcher and public speaker. He has been working in the computer security industry since the early 1990s, having been employed by state and federal government, leading healthcare and banking providers across three continents. He has given talks about computer security for some of the world’s largest companies, worked with law enforcement agencies on investigations into hacking groups, and is a regular voice on TV and radio explaining IT security threats.

See author's posts