[antinomicus]

This is a legitimate movement in my eyes. I don’t participate, but I see it as valid. This is reminiscent of the Luddite movement - a badly misunderstood movement of folks who were trying to secure labor rights guarantees in the face of automation and new tools threatening to kill large swaths of the workforce.

[lukeschlather]

The Luddites were employed by textile manufacturers and destroyed machines to get better bargaining power in labor negotiations. They weren't indiscriminately targeting automation, they targeted machines that directly affected their work.

[Refreeze5224]

Which makes the comparison of modern anti-AI proponents (like myself) and Luddites even more apt and accurate.

[nine_k]

Destroying someone else's property is much more obviously criminal than cutting off someone else's car, which is not nice, but not destructive.

[chrsstrm]

It's easy to see the word Waymo and think clanker autonomous car, but there are very often people inside that car - they are a rideshare service after all. Calling endangering other humans "legitimate" because you dislike the taxi company is not a good look.

[onionisafruit]

Thank you for the brief explanation of Luddites. It was enough to send me to wikipedia where I learned that what I thought I knew was extremely wrong. Until today I thought they were a religious sect who took their name from the biblical Lud.

[skybrian]

How does cutting off a Waymo help with any of that?

[nine_k]

The feeling of dominance over machines may be saving that coworker the expense and hassle of another visit to a therapist.

[BoorishBears]

I think the important part was telling their coworker ironically: now here we are recognizing their movement

[theamk]

Your general luddite argument - preserve way-of-life of the small group at the expense of a larger group.

In this particular case: for many people, Waymo provides a better service (clean, safer driving, etc..) than Uber or Lyft. This threatens livelihood of human Uber/Lyft drivers. If you sympathize with human Uber/Lyft drivers, and don't care about Waymo users, you want to make Waymo worse, hoping that the people will stop riding Waymo and move to Lyft/Uber instead.

One way to do so is to make riding in Waymo unpleasant, and it's certainly unpleasant when people are cutting your car off all the time!

[stopbulying]

People are free to reject technology as they please.

If you deliberately impede the flow of traffic, vehicularly assault, or otherwise sabotage the health and safety of drivers, passengers, and/or pedestrians, what do you deserve?

If you cause whiplash intentionally, what do you deserve?

What would be use of equal force in self defense in response to the described attack method?

[stinkbeetle]

What exactly do you mean by "legitimate" and "valid"?

Are movements valid if they have aims that you agree with, or are economic self-interest motivated, and invalid otherwise?

[bsder]

Please tell me that he does realize that when something bad happens, that Waymo car has all the footage that it is his fault?

Something in people's brains often makes them think they are anonymous when they are driving their car. Then that gets disastrously proven otherwise when they need to show up in front of a judge.