5 ms·

Are there statements from the people who actually did this? I'm trying to understand the context. It's intriguing, people in a city with over $300K GDP per cap

by mrtksn 3y ago

Are there statements from the people who actually did this? I'm trying to understand the context. It's intriguing, people in a city with over $300K GDP per capita burning an AI enabled transportation robot. I feel the urge to fit it in some kind of cyberpunk narrative.

hot_gril 3y ago
There's no statement, so it just looks like random destruction. But people in SF have vandalized e-scooters and specifically blocked tech companies' buses before.
wodenokoto 3y ago
Lots of people in SF feel that these tech companies are pricing them out of their hometown. Or it could just be regular vandals looking for an excuse to tear up something and a vague memory about a self driving car killing someone in the news was good enough to tear up one of them.
- meowtimemania 3y ago
  I feel like if you live in SF and don’t own property or don’t work in tech, the rise of the tech industry has been bad for you.
- creer 3y ago
  SF was a city of "old money" long before the tech companies set foot there. And old money still seems to have a lot of say in San Francisco. But yes, that doesn't prevent people who don't even seem to be aware of that "old money" from going after tech.
smsm42 3y ago
SF streets aren't exactly safe for cars for a long time. Breakins are extremely routine occurrence. So, this one time somebody decided to take it up a notch. No need to make Butlerian Jihad out of it.
techie128 3y ago
Per capita income doesn't reveal the actual income disparity. SF wasn't always expensive city to live. It was in fact quite the opposite. Last several decades have made the city inhospitable for the economically vulnerable population. Instead of looking at the per capita GDP, you should see the income distribution in the city. The median household income is $126,000 which is not a livable wage in the city for a family. The recent poverty rate is ~10%. My perception is that, people were partying & were drunk. The Waymo vehicle likely was just passing through and probably got stuck. People simply took out their pent up frustration on it. It's nothing more than that.
geor9e 3y ago
I mean, look at him https://imgur.com/a/7UTrwCQ.png https://imgur.com/a/7UTrwCQ.png . I don't think the philosophy goes too deep.
forthwall 3y ago
This is not a political statement, it just teenagers doing really dumb things when having a metric-ton of fireworks is easily available and no people who will hold them accountable (self driving robots cant get mad)
breathen 3y ago
I mean it's an unprotected corporate asset in a city where the median employee only makes 1/3rd the revenue they bring in, it's not difficult to think of an excuse.
- givemeethekeys 3y ago
  While I understand your sentiment It will be interesting to compare income versus average revenue per employee of tech businesses to other kinds of businesses as well. I have a feeling that employee expenses of 30% are quite normal across all industries.
- mrtksn 3y ago
  There's tons of unprotected corporate assets all over the world, only some are burned down. I wonder if its a result of discontent with the social contract or just drunk or drugged folks.
  - extragood 3y ago
    It's notable that it's in Chinatown. I lived there a decade ago and currently work close by. There are few drug addicted homeless people who reside there. The news makes it sound pervasive for political reasons, but it's actually highly localized. I would bet on job displacement, personally.
SllX 3y ago
I haven’t seen any statements but here’s the context: It’s Chinatown, San Francisco. It’s Chinese New Year. The Streets are tiny, narrow, crowded and full of the young and the drunk celebrating the Year of the Dragon, and nobody at Waymo thought to tell their cars to stay away from this area at this time (or they did and this car missed the memo and ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time anyway). > It's intriguing, people in a city with over $300K GDP per capita burning an AI enabled transportation robot. That GDP per capita figure really misses the mark on what San Francisco is like. Also: not everyone here is in tech, or cares about tech.
- juanani 3y ago
  [dead]
- llsf 3y ago
  Are we blaming Waymo now for letting one car driving through a busy street ? It does not warrant to set the car on fire.
  - SllX 3y ago
    > It does not warrant to set the car on fire. I agree, but it is also true that Waymo shouldn’t have been there. You can blame Waymo for not planning ahead, or the City/State for not being proactive about regulating where and how autonomous vehicles operate around what is basically a festival, or both; and you can also blame the crowd for setting fire to it. However you want to slice that blame cake, it probably shouldn’t have been there and it had no way of making that determination without being directed.
  - hot_gril 3y ago
    I don't see anyone here pinning blame on Waymo for the incident.
- mrtksn 3y ago
  >That GDP per capita figure really misses the mark on what San Francisco is like. Also: not everyone here is in tech, or cares about tech. That's why its interesting. Extreme wealth next to poverty must be a hotbed for things happening.
nojvek 3y ago
Averages are a very bad way to look at things. Elon could be in the midst of a 100 homeless folks and the avg would be still billionaires. SF is a polarized city. Rich tech bros close to people barely making by. This was Chinese new year. If Waymo was blocking traffic and stuck, they’d do it to give a middle finger to the big fat corporation. Technically Waymo is taking away from a job that a human would do. That might not sit well with some.
- nox101 3y ago
  There is no history of new tech not creating more jobs than it displaced. None, zero, zilch. Maybe it will be different this time but with out any evidence to back that up, all of history says that new tech makes more new jobs. So, blocking new tech is protecting a few today and actually preventing more people from having jobs in the near future. Yes, it's no fun for those displaced and we should try to help them but given that more jobs have always been created in the past, protecting those few today means asking more people to go without/starve/be-poor etc. In other words, blocking tech is the exact wrong thing to do if you want more people to have jobs. https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/michael-webb-ai-jobs-labour-market/ https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/michael-webb-ai-jobs... https://pastebin.com/uix3rgBe https://pastebin.com/uix3rgBe
  - stahtops 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - JoshCole 3y ago
      From the Hacker News guidelines: > Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes. > Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive. > When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3." > Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community. > Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something. > Throwaway accounts are ok for sensitive information, but please don't create accounts routinely. HN is a community—users should have an identity that others can relate to. You can read the full guidelines here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

by mrtksn 3y ago

hot_gril 3y ago

There's no statement, so it just looks like random destruction. But people in SF have vandalized e-scooters and specifically blocked tech companies' buses before.

wodenokoto 3y ago

Lots of people in SF feel that these tech companies are pricing them out of their hometown. Or it could just be regular vandals looking for an excuse to tear up something and a vague memory about a self driving car killing someone in the news was good enough to tear up one of them.

meowtimemania 3y ago
I feel like if you live in SF and don’t own property or don’t work in tech, the rise of the tech industry has been bad for you.
creer 3y ago
SF was a city of "old money" long before the tech companies set foot there. And old money still seems to have a lot of say in San Francisco. But yes, that doesn't prevent people who don't even seem to be aware of that "old money" from going after tech.

smsm42 3y ago

SF streets aren't exactly safe for cars for a long time. Breakins are extremely routine occurrence. So, this one time somebody decided to take it up a notch. No need to make Butlerian Jihad out of it.

techie128 3y ago

Per capita income doesn't reveal the actual income disparity. SF wasn't always expensive city to live. It was in fact quite the opposite. Last several decades have made the city inhospitable for the economically vulnerable population. Instead of looking at the per capita GDP, you should see the income distribution in the city. The median household income is $126,000 which is not a livable wage in the city for a family. The recent poverty rate is ~10%. My perception is that, people were partying & were drunk. The Waymo vehicle likely was just passing through and probably got stuck. People simply took out their pent up frustration on it. It's nothing more than that.

geor9e 3y ago

I mean, look at him https://imgur.com/a/7UTrwCQ.png https://imgur.com/a/7UTrwCQ.png . I don't think the philosophy goes too deep.

forthwall 3y ago

This is not a political statement, it just teenagers doing really dumb things when having a metric-ton of fireworks is easily available and no people who will hold them accountable (self driving robots cant get mad)

breathen 3y ago

I mean it's an unprotected corporate asset in a city where the median employee only makes 1/3rd the revenue they bring in, it's not difficult to think of an excuse.

givemeethekeys 3y ago
While I understand your sentiment It will be interesting to compare income versus average revenue per employee of tech businesses to other kinds of businesses as well. I have a feeling that employee expenses of 30% are quite normal across all industries.
mrtksn 3y ago
There's tons of unprotected corporate assets all over the world, only some are burned down. I wonder if its a result of discontent with the social contract or just drunk or drugged folks.
- extragood 3y ago
  It's notable that it's in Chinatown. I lived there a decade ago and currently work close by. There are few drug addicted homeless people who reside there. The news makes it sound pervasive for political reasons, but it's actually highly localized. I would bet on job displacement, personally.

SllX 3y ago

I haven’t seen any statements but here’s the context: It’s Chinatown, San Francisco. It’s Chinese New Year. The Streets are tiny, narrow, crowded and full of the young and the drunk celebrating the Year of the Dragon, and nobody at Waymo thought to tell their cars to stay away from this area at this time (or they did and this car missed the memo and ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time anyway). > It's intriguing, people in a city with over $300K GDP per capita burning an AI enabled transportation robot. That GDP per capita figure really misses the mark on what San Francisco is like. Also: not everyone here is in tech, or cares about tech.

juanani 3y ago
[dead]
llsf 3y ago
Are we blaming Waymo now for letting one car driving through a busy street ? It does not warrant to set the car on fire.
- SllX 3y ago
  > It does not warrant to set the car on fire. I agree, but it is also true that Waymo shouldn’t have been there. You can blame Waymo for not planning ahead, or the City/State for not being proactive about regulating where and how autonomous vehicles operate around what is basically a festival, or both; and you can also blame the crowd for setting fire to it. However you want to slice that blame cake, it probably shouldn’t have been there and it had no way of making that determination without being directed.
- hot_gril 3y ago
  I don't see anyone here pinning blame on Waymo for the incident.
mrtksn 3y ago
>That GDP per capita figure really misses the mark on what San Francisco is like. Also: not everyone here is in tech, or cares about tech. That's why its interesting. Extreme wealth next to poverty must be a hotbed for things happening.

nojvek 3y ago

Averages are a very bad way to look at things. Elon could be in the midst of a 100 homeless folks and the avg would be still billionaires. SF is a polarized city. Rich tech bros close to people barely making by. This was Chinese new year. If Waymo was blocking traffic and stuck, they’d do it to give a middle finger to the big fat corporation. Technically Waymo is taking away from a job that a human would do. That might not sit well with some.

nox101 3y ago
There is no history of new tech not creating more jobs than it displaced. None, zero, zilch. Maybe it will be different this time but with out any evidence to back that up, all of history says that new tech makes more new jobs. So, blocking new tech is protecting a few today and actually preventing more people from having jobs in the near future. Yes, it's no fun for those displaced and we should try to help them but given that more jobs have always been created in the past, protecting those few today means asking more people to go without/starve/be-poor etc. In other words, blocking tech is the exact wrong thing to do if you want more people to have jobs. https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/michael-webb-ai-jobs-labour-market/ https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/michael-webb-ai-jobs... https://pastebin.com/uix3rgBe https://pastebin.com/uix3rgBe
- stahtops 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - JoshCole 3y ago
    From the Hacker News guidelines: > Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes. > Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive. > When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3." > Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community. > Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something. > Throwaway accounts are ok for sensitive information, but please don't create accounts routinely. HN is a community—users should have an identity that others can relate to. You can read the full guidelines here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html