Your robotaxi might be a narc

Your robotaxi might be a narc. TransportationPolicyReportYour robotaxi might be a narcWaymo notified the police when it detected a gun during a ride, leading to the arrest of two teenagers.

What happened

The incident exposes the limits of privacy in an autonomous vehicle. by Rani MollaSep 17, 2026, 3:00 PM UTC Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesTransportationPolicyReportYour robotaxi might be a narcWaymo notified the police when it detected a gun during a ride, leading to the arrest of two teenagers. In early September, two teenagers got into a Waymo, but then ended up in the back of a police car. The robotaxi company said it detected "a violation of our terms of service involving a firearm," pulled the car over, and alerted emergency services, according to the Los Angeles Times. Police arrested the passengers after […]

During anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles, five Waymos were vandalized and set on fire amid questions about whether the vehicles could be capturing images of protesters that might be used as evidence to identify or arrest them. Waymo Ojai autonomous robotaxi travels through the Fourth and Howard streets intersection outside Moscone West, which displays banners for the 2026 Pokemon World Championships, San Francisco, California, August 20, 2026. Waymo did not explain how its automated system determines whether something may be a firearm, how confident it has to be before something gets flagged, what role humans play between an automated alert and a call to police, or what other violations of its terms of service might prompt a police response.

A remote worker brought in to review a flagged moment might not have all of that context because they haven’t experienced the entire ride the way a human driver would. Beyond undermining riders’ trust in robotaxis, a false alarm could put passengers at risk during a police encounter.

The wider picture

Without a driver in the front seat, robotaxis can feel more private than they actually are. In 2023, the San Francisco Standard spoke with four people who said they had hooked up or had sex in Cruise robotaxis, despite the cameras inside them. “I’m not condoning illegal behavior in rideshares,” she said, but “if they’re going to share it with authorities, then that should be clearly stated in the policy. ” As it stands, Tsukayama said, “it is outside of the expectations of consumers. ”Then again, robotaxis themselves are outside the norm.

In a robotaxi, cameras and software can flag what happens inside, remote workers may become involved, and the vehicle can pull over while police are summoned. But the incident also raises a more basic question about what kind of space a robotaxi is: a ride with cameras for safety, a continuously monitored space, or a system that can call the cops on its own passengers. Robotaxis are making their debut as villains in Road Rage, an upcoming short film about a driverless car that turns against humans.

One of the film’s more unsettling ideas is that a robotaxi could end up acting less like transportation and more like law enforcement. This month offered a glimpse of what that might look like.

What has been reported

Richard LawlerSep 8Most people still don’t want anything to do with robotaxisAndrew J. The incident exposes the limits of privacy in an autonomous vehicle. by Rani MollaSep 17, 2026, 3:00 PM UTCPart OfSelf-driving cars: Google and others map the road to automated vehiclessee all updates In early September, two teenagers got into a Waymo, but then ended up in the back of a police car. Police arrested the passengers after allegedly finding a loaded AR-style “ghost gun” in the vehicle.

The arrests exposed a lot of unanswered questions about privacy and autonomous vehicles, including what they are recording, what they do with the footage, and how much privacy riders should expect while riding inside them. Waymo’s camera-covered cars have already been drawn into the debate over privacy and surveillance. On a number of occasions, law enforcement agencies have obtained search warrants for footage captured by its cars, according to Bloomberg. Last year, the LAPD obtained footage of a hit-and-run that was recorded by a nearby Waymo vehicle.

Waymo does not publicly disclose how many law enforcement requests it receives or how often it complies.

What happens next

Those concerns echo the backlash against Flock’s network of automated license-plate readers, which have given police the ability to track cars across jurisdictions and have prompted growing fears about government surveillance and misuse. Unlike fixed Flock cameras, Waymos move through cities carrying cameras both outside and inside their vehicles. Smith Collection/Gado/Getty ImagesThe latest case of the arrested teens takes those concerns a step further. Police did not approach Waymo after a crime looking for footage its cameras happened to capture.

Waymo detected something inside the car and initiated the police response itself. Waymo spokesperson Julia Ilina told The Verge in an email that the company uses its internal cameras to help enforce its terms of service, including detecting prohibited items and behavior. She said it uses automated technology to help Waymo’s teams identify potential violations, such as the presence of firearms inside the vehicle.