first reported by ABC7<\/a>. She said she encountered the vehicle at the intersection of Olympic Boulevard and 26th Street.<\/p>\nAt first, it was just the two boys in the backseat who sat on the window ledge as it proceeded eastbound, according to Shahsavani, who estimated the pair were 12 to 14 years old.<\/p>\n
Then the youngest of the trio, the front-seat passenger, whom Shahsavani believed was closer to 10, joined the duo in sitting on the window opening as the vehicle passed Stewart Street.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when Shahsavani said she pulled up alongside the vehicle and attempted to tell the boys to \u201csit back down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet the message wasn\u2019t easily received.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey ignored me, and one of them said he only spoke Italian,\u201d she said. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to understand English to understand what I was saying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shahsavani said she then decided to call Waymo customer service as the vehicle crossed Bundy Drive, making its way from Santa Monica into West Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
The kids, meanwhile, took selfies, while one appeared to be holding a red canister.<\/p>\n
Shahsavani said she quickly reached a Waymo agent, who told her the company had the ability to stop the car should it determine a threat. Shahsavani said Waymo told her several cameras could monitor the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe kept passing intersections, and the car kept going,\u201d she said. \u201cI kept waiting for Waymo to stop the car, and they kept telling me, \u2018It\u2019s not the right place to stop the car.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
A Times inquiry to Waymo media relations was not returned. Lt. Lewis Gilmour, Santa Monica police public information officer, said his department had received no calls or reports about the incident. He said any witnesses should contact the department at (310) 458-8491. <\/p>\n
Shahsavani said she grew more concerned as the speed limit increased along with the number of cars on the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom Bundy [Drive] to Barrington [Avenue], everyone was going between 30 to 35 miles per hour,\u201d she said. \u201cThen around Sepulveda [Boulevard], traffic picked up and drivers were going faster, and then the number of lanes opened up to four.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shahsavani followed behind until the Waymo turned right in the area of Rancho Park and Cheviot Hills, the kids still hanging out the windows.<\/p>\n
She said she was speaking up because any number of people could have been hurt, including the boys, other drivers or bystanders.<\/p>\n
\u201cListen, I\u2019m all for technology and innovation, but I didn\u2019t think Waymo was all that concerned about what was happening and the misuse of the car,\u201d Shahsavani said. \u201cAs technology becomes more common, public safety has to evolve and catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Look, Ma, no hands! Three boys turned a Waymo ride into a wind-in-their-hair joyride late Friday afternoon in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":888592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[31142,360310,1582,276,2332,638,360309,18996,2961,224,2444,5337,13009,171394,9503,360308,17228,74935,45000,15159],"class_list":["post-888591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-boy","tag-bundy-drive","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-car","tag-company","tag-driverless-vehicle","tag-kid","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-losangeles","tag-number","tag-olympic-boulevard","tag-santa-monica","tag-shahsavani","tag-waymo","tag-westside","tag-window","tag-witness"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116802980823613048","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}