SF Chronicle – An S.F. doctor sued Waymo for allegedly flagging him as a terrorist. Here’s why he dropped the case
See original article by Jess Lander at SF Chronicle
A Waymo account holder has dropped his lawsuit against the autonomous vehicle company after its system misidentified him as a terrorist.
Dr. Nasser Mohamed, a human rights and LGBTQ activist who runs a primary care practice near Japantown, sued Waymo’s parent company, Alphabet, in November over civil rights violations. He claimed that the company denied him service because his name resembled Muslim and Middle Eastern names on a government sanctions list.
A Waymo spokesperson initially pushed back on the allegation, but the company has since taken responsibility and developed a new workflow process to prevent future misidentifications, according to Mohamed.
“We are committed to providing access to all in the communities we serve and are pleased to have resolved Dr. Mohamed’s issue,” a Waymo spokesperson said.
Mohamed’s allegations came amid a period of controversy and public blunders for Waymo. Two months prior, in September, police had pulled over a robotaxi after it flipped an illegal U-turn in San Bruno, but were unable to issue it a ticket. (That will change when a new law takes effect in July.) In October, one of the autonomous vehicles ran over a beloved neighborhood cat in the Mission District, drawing ire from some San Franciscans, including a city supervisor. Trust in the company wavered after hundreds of robotaxis stalled in the streets of San Francisco during a December power outage.
For Mohamed, the trouble began when he registered for a Waymo account in early November 2023. He said he received a string of error messages and was unable to book rides in the self-driving cars. Over the course of two years, he submitted several support requests to the company, but his tickets were always closed without explanation.
He eventually posted about his experience on social media. That’s when some people who worked with Waymo told him that the company’s identity verification process cross-checks the Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions list compiled by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The government watch list includes the names of terrorists, narcotics traffickers and people tied to oppressive regimes or national security threats, among others. The list did not contain the name Nasser Mohamed, but it bears similarities to “one or more Muslim or Middle Eastern names on the list,” the lawsuit claimed.
Mohamed said he also heard from several people who had also received error messages and, similarly, could not get past Waymo’s customer service. “I couldn’t get to a human,” he said. “The only way to escalate this was literally to file a lawsuit.”
But Mohamed said he has dropped the lawsuit now that Waymo has developed a new error code that allows users to communicate directly with the company and request an audit. He was the first person to test the new system: Within a week, he said it escalated his request to a human, who verified he’s not on the sanctions list and lifted the ban.
Mohamed did not request any compensation from Waymo, but is now speaking publicly about his experience because he believes it encapsulates a much broader issue in the age of AI.
“I use AI, I’m excited about the innovation,” he said, “but the user must be able to communicate with the company and the developers when they’re impacted. That’s nonnegotiable.”
While his Waymo account has been activated, Mohamed has yet to book a ride in one of its robotaxis. He did ride in a Zoox, which “put him (on the app) immediately.”
See original article by Jess Lander at SF Chronicle
