Your robotaxi might be a narc

In early September, two teenagers got into a Waymo, but then ended up in the back of a police car. The robotaxi company said it detected “a violation of our terms of service involving a firearm,” pulled the car over, and alerted emergency services, according to the Los Angeles Times. Police arrested the passengers after allegedly finding a loaded AR-style “ghost gun” in the vehicle. The arrests exposed a lot of unanswered questions about privacy and autonomous vehicles, including what they are recording, what they do with the footage, and how much privacy riders should expect while riding inside them. Waymo’s camera-covered cars have already been drawn into the debate over privacy and surveillance. On a number of occasions, law enforcement agencies have obtained search warrants for footage captured by its cars, according to Bloomberg. Last year, the LAPD obtained footage of a hit-and-run that was recorded by a nearby Waymo…