How Waymo Handles Footage From Events Like the LA Immigration Protests
1 min read
Summary
Protests have been taking place across the US in opposition to the Trump administration’s immigration policies, with some of the most widespread and visible protests taking place in Los Angeles.
Five autonomous Waymo taxis were vandalised and set alight, prompting the service to be shut down in several areas of Los Angeles and San Francisco, with the cars in question raising questions about the technology that can be used for surveillance against protestors.
Waymo’s self-driving vehicles include 29 external cameras which can give a 360-degree view of the vehicles’ surroundings, however, the number of internal cameras is unknown.
Waymo has previously given police video footage, but the company’s policy is to challenge any data requests that are seen as being overly broad, and it doesn’t disclose any specific cases.
It isn’t known whether any footage from the vandalised cars may have been destroyed in the fire, and any that isn’t destroyed isn’t known to be kept for any specific length of time.
