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On July 15, Waymo, an autonomous driving company under Google's parent company Alphabet, announced that it wouldSan FranciscoA dozenSelf-driving carsbeen destroyed.

A seriestireThe lacerations and the charges against the man who took the slashing underscore how some in San Francisco remain resistant to the future of driving technology.

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced Thursday that Ronaile Joshua Burton, 36, had been charged with 17 counts of sabotaging a self-driving vehicle owned by Waymo, the self-driving car project of Google, now a subsidiary of its parent company, Alphabet.

The incidents occurred in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood between June 24 and 26, and the damage in each incident was more than $400, according to the San Francisco District Attorney's Office. Each incident was recorded by a camera mounted on a car, according to authorities.

Prosecutors allege Burton slashed the tires of three Waymo vehicles. Court records show Burton has been assigned a public defender. Burton's attorney, Deputy Public Defender Adam Birka-White(Adam Birka-White) said Burton chose not to plead guilty.

"Ms. Burton needs help, not incarceration, and our social workers are working diligently to find and secure appropriate services for her," Bilka-White said. "Yet the district attorney appears more interested in punishing the poor at the behest of corporations."

Waymo said in a statement that it is taking steps to compensate for the losses incurred and reduce the likelihood of such incidents in the future.

Waymo added: "Our purpose is to make roads safer, and with that in mind, we will always put the safety of our riders and communities first."

Other acts of vandalism against Waymo self-driving cars were reported last year, and in February this year, a Waymo self-driving taxi was set on fire while driving in San Francisco's Chinatown during the Chinese New Year.

While San Francisco Mayor London Breed described the incident as an "isolated event" at the time, a Waymo passenger was reportedly hit by fireworks the day after the incident.

San Francisco is a prime testing ground for self-driving technology, with Tesla testing its fully autonomous driving feature there earlier this year and Amazon-owned Zoox driving on its twisty streets for the first time in 2018.

General MotorsCruiseCruise began operating self-driving vehicles in cities in 2022, but the following year the company suspended the operation of its test vehicles after a collision with a pedestrian and dragged the person for a distance. The company has now resumed operating the relevant vehicles, but with manual driving enabled. However, Cruise said that the ultimate goal is to resume self-driving.

Some passengers have been impressed by Waymo's self-driving taxis. One journalist who took one wrote that the vehicles drove better than some human drivers in San Francisco.

However, recent incidents of vandalism and the heightened scrutiny over the safety of these self-driving cars over the past year show that even in a high-tech city like San Francisco, the companies behind the cars of the future face huge challenges.