Waymo Robotaxi Captures Deadly Shooting in San Francisco

On the weekend of 2025-11-18, a lethal shooting occurred in San Francisco's Mission neighborhood, leaving one man dead and another critically injured. According to calls to 9-1-1 dispatchers, a Waymo robotaxi was parked nearby and may have recorded the incident. The suspect, 23-year-old Larry Hudgson Jr., was located in a nearby neighborhood, arrested without incident, and booked into the county jail.

Waymo vehicles are equipped with numerous cameras, making them well-suited to surveil their surroundings. While privacy advocates have previously raised concerns about the cars' surveillance capabilities, Waymo has stated that it only provides data to law enforcement when served with a proper legal request. The company has also said it will challenge requests that lack a valid legal basis.

As autonomous vehicles become more prevalent on American streets, they are emerging as crucial tools for law enforcement investigations. In recent years, evidence from smart devices like Amazon Echo and Tesla cameras has been used in criminal cases. With driverless cars set to become even more common, it seems inevitable that self-driving vehicles will be the next frontier for digital evidence gathering.