Overview
- A burglar entered Hot 8 Yoga in San Francisco and escaped in a Waymo robotaxi in January, leaving with several items and disappearing within minutes.
- San Francisco police served a search warrant in April for account records and vehicle video but found Waymo had already purged the interior cabin footage.
- Waymo’s cars record a 360-degree view with 29 cameras but the company blurs faces on exterior footage, says it does not use facial recognition, and reviews law-enforcement requests to protect rider privacy.
- The ride account did not lead to an identity and investigators say that outcome is common when thieves use stolen payment credentials or burner phones to book rides.
- Prior cases in Los Angeles and Phoenix ended in arrests when officers intercepted vehicles, and this episode highlights how retention policies and privacy protections can limit evidence in future autonomous-vehicle investigations.