In case you were wondering: A few dollars’ worth of fireworks can apparently turn driverless cars into very expensive roadblocks.
Robotaxis are surprisingly vulnerable to guerrilla activism. Autonomous driving vehicles by Waymo and Cruise — the latter company now defunct and absorbed into General Motors’ general autonomous driving initiatives — have been rendered useless by cones, tape, and even just confusing infrastructure.
A new tactic to stop a self-driving car in its tracks? Fireworks, baby. ‘Cause ‘Merica!
In a video uploaded by Mission Local, a set of street fireworks is shown hobbling a Waymo that was traveling through San Francisco’s Mission district.
“A Waymo autonomous vehicle got stuck behind some street fireworks in the Mission District on July 4, 2025,” reads a caption attached to an Instagram post by the publication, showing an array of fireworks lighting up in front of it … all while the Waymo remained motionless. But it wasn’t just confused with forward population, because the driverless car also struggled to navigate when fireworks fired near its array of rear sensors — “when [the Waymo] tried to reverse, people lit fireworks behind it, too.”
A short Instagram story uploaded by Mission Local later showed another Waymo vehicle was lost amid the pyrotechnics; this vehicle, however, eventually got around the street fireworks once they stopped.
Waymo cars rely on an impressive combination of cameras and sensors — Waymo robotaxis each have thirteen cameras, five LiDAR units, six radar units, and an array of external audio receivers — to navigate the world around them. All this advanced sensory equipment gathers data, which is then processed by onboard CPUs, GPUs, and AI technologies to pilot the car toward a destination. But any interpretation in their communications or observed anomalies can effectively turn these Alphabet-owned robotaxis into $200,000 paperweights.
In the case of impromptu pyrotechnics, the bright light waves produced by these fireworks are perceived as obstacles or threats by LiDAR-equipped vehicles, like Waymo robotaxis, and thus leave the car “bricked” until the sensed impediments are removed. In the case of these street-side San Francisco fireworks shows, that moment only occurred when the last bit of gunpowder was actively kindled.
Robotaxi and autonomous driver assistant technologies will absolutely become more ubiquitous and commonplace in the ensuing decades. Let’s just all hope those advancements won’t cause nationwide pandemonium on Independence Day.
Feature image: Screenshot courtesy of Instagram
