San Francisco Activists Disable Waymo and Cruise Robotaxis Using Traffic Cones

In August 2023, a coordinated campaign by the activist group 'Safe Street Rebel' exposed critical vulnerabilities in autonomous vehicle (AV) perception systems operating in San Francisco. The group discovered that placing standard orange traffic cones on the hoods of Waymo and Cruise robotaxis would cause the vehicles to immediately stop and become immobilized, unable to continue their routes or properly respond to the situation. The technique, which activists dubbed 'coning,' exploited fundamental weaknesses in how AV sensor systems interpret and classify objects in their environment. When a traffic cone was placed on a vehicle's hood, the autonomous driving system would detect the cone through its LIDAR, camera, and radar sensors but failed to recognize it as a removable object that could be safely ignored or worked around. Instead, the vehicles interpreted the cones as legitimate traffic control devices or permanent obstacles, triggering safety protocols that required them to stop and wait. Safe Street Rebel, a group opposing the rapid deployment of autonomous vehicles in San Francisco residential neighborhoods, used this tactic repeatedly throughout August and September 2023. Video footage shared on social media showed activists approaching stopped robotaxis and placing cones on their hoods, after which the vehicles would remain motionless until remote human operators could intervene. In some cases, vehicles sat disabled for 15-20 minutes before remote operators could coordinate cone removal or override the systems. The incidents highlighted broader public opposition to AV testing in San Francisco, where residents complained about robotaxis blocking traffic, interfering with emergency vehicles, and operating unpredictably in complex urban scenarios. Waymo and Cruise both acknowledged the cone incidents but emphasized that their remote monitoring systems allowed human operators to eventually resolve each situation safely. However, the ease with which civilian objects could disable multi-million-dollar autonomous systems raised serious questions about the technology's readiness for widespread urban deployment. Both companies subsequently updated their software to better handle similar scenarios, though they declined to provide specific details about the technical modifications. The California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates robotaxi operations, reviewed the incidents as part of broader safety assessments but did not impose immediate restrictions on either company's operations.