Waymo declined to reply questions from WIRED about what number of cameras are inside its automobiles, precisely how lengthy footage is retained, and whether or not the corporate has ever turned over footage to US federal regulation enforcement or a department of the army. Karp did word, nonetheless, that the corporate’s engineering crew generally makes use of data from sensors, together with video footage and different information, to run simulations aimed toward bettering its know-how. She says Waymo additionally places limits on each who can entry information and the way lengthy it’s retained.
Waymo’s robotaxi service is presently out there within the Phoenix metro space and elements of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin, Texas. Within the firm’s comparatively quick time working in US cities, it has proven a willingness to adjust to requests for footage from regulation enforcement.
Officers working for the Mesa Police Division and the Chandler Police Division in Arizona have been requesting and utilizing footage from Waymos for legal investigations since 2016, or about so long as the automobiles have been of their cities, in keeping with reporting from Phoenix’s ABC 15. Police instructed the information outlet in 2022 that they’ve used the footage for a number of instances, together with an alleged street rage incident. (The person pleaded responsible after being charged with disorderly conduct.)
In Could 2022, two months after Waymo started restricted robotaxi operations in San Francisco, Vice reported {that a} coaching doc for San Francisco police explicitly instructed officers that “autonomous automobiles” have footage that might generally “assist with investigative leads.”
As of 2023, Waymo had been issued a minimum of 9 search warrants in San Francisco and Arizona’s Maricopa County, its main markets on the time, in keeping with reporting from Bloomberg. One of many instances concerned the homicide of an Uber driver in 2021. Whereas San Francisco police stated they couldn’t determine a particular Waymo car that was close to the crime scene, an officer argued that there was “possible trigger” that Waymo automobiles had been “driving across the space” and had footage of the sufferer, attainable suspects, and the crime scene, in keeping with a search warrant considered by Bloomberg. Waymo complied and supplied footage, but it surely in the end didn’t result in the arrest of the suspect, who was convicted of the homicide in 2023.
Final 12 months, WIRED reported that Waymo had sued two people for allegedly vandalizing its automobiles in San Francisco and had digital camera footage from the automobiles of the alleged incidents. (One of many instances is ongoing; the opposite was dismissed final month.)
Waymo’s video-recording and data-collection practices aren’t distinctive. All automobiles with self-driving capabilities depend on a mix of lidar, radar, and video information as a way to function. Cruise, the now defunct self-driving-car enterprise run by Common Motors, additionally reportedly gave digital camera footage to regulation enforcement upon request.
Non-public homeowners of camera-equipped automobiles may also voluntarily flip over digital camera footage to regulation enforcement. For instance, police in Berkeley, California, have acquired a minimum of two units of footage from the proprietor of a Tesla Cybertruck who stated their automotive was vandalized twice this 12 months, in keeping with paperwork obtained by WIRED by way of public document request.
Further reporting by Paresh Dave.
