Robotaxis are increasingly becoming associated with a string of accidents and troublesome incidents. Overseas, Waymo's autonomous vehicles have been involved in a series of alarming events. These include running red lights, cutting in line, running over cats and dogs, and, in one particularly unsettling case, inadvertently taking passengers to a location where police were engaged in a standoff with criminals. Moreover, Waymo's vehicles have repeatedly overtaken school buses that were either picking up or dropping off students. Since the beginning of the current academic year, there have been at least 19 such incidents, raising serious concerns about the safety of autonomous vehicles in school zones.

On the domestic front, a similar incident occurred on December 6 in Zhuzhou, Hunan. A Hello self-driving ride-hailing vehicle struck two pedestrians at a zebra crossing, tragically resulting in one person being run over by the vehicle. The injured individuals are currently receiving critical care in the ICU, and the operations involving the implicated vehicle have been temporarily suspended pending further investigation.