Now electric, driverless vehicles have been summoned to protest scenes via the Waymo app. The resulting EV fires burn hotter than traditional car fires and are potentially more hazardous. The autonomous robot taxis owned by Google parent company Alphabet were tagged with protest slogans and profanity—and set on fire—as a way to disrupt traffic over the weekend and demonstrate against the widespread roundup of migrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

As protesters and police clash across Los Angeles and beyond, a striking image from the mayhem has been that of graffiti-strewn white cars engulfed in flames. But these aren’t ordinary cars. They’ve got sensors protruding from the top and sides—and,