Waymo disables robotaxi after teens mistook toy gun for real weapon

Waymo remotely disabled a robotaxi near 20th Avenue and El Camino Real after live interior camera feeds made employees think two boys inside were firing a real weapon. San Mateo police said the company’s representative called 911, shared the vehicle’s location and helped officers treat the stop as high-risk before the teenagers were taken out safely without incident.

Police said the passengers were boys ages 14 and 15, though other accounts described them as two 15-year-olds. Investigators later determined they were shooting an Orbeez gun, a toy that fires water-filled pellets and can look like a real firearm. The San Mateo Police Department said toys such as Orbeez guns, BB guns and replica weapons can pose public-safety risks because they can be mistaken for real guns in a fast-moving encounter.

The episode has put Waymo’s in-cabin monitoring under a harsher light. Waymo says its vehicles use cameras and microphones inside the car to help with safety, emergency response, seatbelt checks, cleanliness and lost items, and that support may access live video during urgent circumstances. The company’s privacy policy, last updated April 10, 2026, says it may detect, investigate and prevent fraud and other illegal activity, while its help materials say it does not use facial recognition or other biometric identification to identify people.

That same surveillance that helped officers locate the vehicle also raised questions about how much watching a rider should expect in a driverless car. Experts, including Irina Raicu of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, questioned the ethics of active passenger monitoring even as police praised Waymo’s response. The tension runs through the entire incident: a live feed that may have prevented a dangerous misunderstanding, and a data system that can also make riders subject to closer scrutiny than they might realize.

The San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office is expected to decide whether the teens will face charges. For now, the case stands as a test of how autonomous-vehicle companies balance public safety, passenger privacy and police cooperation when there is no human driver in the front seat.