Why I despise Waymos, and Support Human Drivers -

when I first moved to Santa Monica, I was very excited to witness my first Waymo RoboTaxi (and my first Optimus humanoid robot). I took my first ride in 2023, and having spent years on the bleeding edge of functional computer vision / machine learning research, I was — technically — quite impressed. My Waymo navigated construction zones, odd alleyways, and parallel parking puzzles with confidence, grace and ease. Arguably, far more competently than most human drivers would have. But it also left me feeling a little queasy, and I’ve spent a lot of time since then pondering just why that is.

For fun, I started to track how many Waymos I saw each day. It was generally between zero and 2. And I ped / bike around town a lot — shopping, meeting friends, walking my dog. Then suddenly, in January of this year, I felt like I could not walk out my door, and not encounter a Waymo within 2 minutes. So I started counting. In January, I tracked it at approximately 1 in 150 vehicles (less than 1%). But by February, it was 1 in 100. By April, it was 1 in 50 (2%). And today (July 2026), by my rough measure, Waymos account for well over 5% of all Santa Monica vehicular traffic (that’s one out of every 20 cars on the road).

In the face of this invasion (and that’s what it is: an invasion of human spaces by fully autonomous corporate machines), I started to post anti-Waymo rhetoric on my socials, and got a lot of messages of support, and a few people scratching their heads. So to clarify my position, here are my thoughts on the matter, in outline form. Enjoy.

The Reasons I am against Waymo (and all robotaxis):

Waymos are highly sophisticated
corporate surveillance systems
1. each vehicle has 20+ out-facing cameras
  1. and 6+ in-facing (interior) cameras
  2. PLUS 3d LiDAR high-resolution spatial scanners
  3. ALL this video+spatial data is being streamed to the cloud
  4. recorded, and processed for facial recognition,
    license plate recognition, smartphone logging,
    and gait recognition
2. they also have WiFi and cellular data scanners
  1. and are recording the IMEIs of every cellphone
    that they come within 100 feet of
  2. this data is then being used to fuel
    and optimize “geo-targeted” ad delivery via Google,
  3. and also sold to third parties
    (Amazon, Facebook, TikTok) for same
3. Every person walking by a Waymo has a database record:
  1. face, phone, traffic patterns
4. With the amount of money that they are making:
  1. selling marketing and targeting data on pedestrians,
  2. as well as selling surveillance data to law enforcement,
  3. they could offer the rides for free,
    and still make a profit.
5. do you understand?
  1. Waymos are mobile surveillance systems
    that are optimized to deliver targeted ads
    to humans.
  2. …And to make highly detailed maps of the real world
    for future robots to navigate
6. The surveillance is primary.
  1. The “ride-share” is secondary.
    Merely an excuse to exist..
Waymos are the mechanized army
of multinational corporations
1. at its root, this is the truth:
2. Tech needs Humans.
  Humans do not need Tech.
3. The true purpose of these machines is to castrate human agency and to extract money from our wallets to corporate bank accounts. period.
  .
Waymos are invading the streets
of my neighborhood
1. waymo as precent of total traffic has increased from 1% to >5% (1 in 20 vehicles on road) in less than 6 months here in santa monica.
2. I have witnessed them make multiple and repeated traffic violations
  1. running red lights
  2. stopping in the middle of an active traffic lane
  3. makign illegal turns
3. because corporations are aligned with governments,
  Waymos currently have a 1-year moratorium, where
  police are not allowed to issue them traffic tickets
  .
Waymos are pro-corporate
& anti-human
1. humans actually need jobs
2. regardless of whether a machine can do it “more efficiently” or for “lower cost”
3. …lower cost to WHO? the corporation, or to society?
4. Google is intentionally trying to obsolete human taxi, uber, and lyft drivers… in the case of LA, the strategy is: flood the zone, charge a steep discount (and deliver a better experience) vs. uber and lyft, force uber and lyft to exit the local market (before the olympics), then jack up the prices to double.
  .
Waymos can be hacked
and turned into lethal weapons
1. a fleet of 20 hacked Waymos
  driving in tight formation
  at >60mph equates to
  a seriously lethal weapon
2. targets : individuals, groups, buildings

Counterpoints:

yes, they are statistically safer, for now, both for passengers and pedestrians
as a fleet, it is possible that they are far more efficient when measured as per unit of energy consumed per mile transported (vs. human drivers, vs. gas cars)
this is the inevitable future. get used to it.
.

What do you think?

You can contact me here,
or via DM on Insta : @acroyogi