Kids sit in windows as Waymo travels through Westside. Witness alerts company; car doesn't stop

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Look, Ma, no hands! Three boys turned a Waymo ride into a wind-in-their-hair joyride late Friday afternoon in Santa Monica.Local resident Rojia Shahsavani, who was out around 6 p.m.tackling errands, said she witnessed three pre-teen to teen boys taking selfies and sitting on the open window ledges of a white Waymo as the driverless vehicle traveled from Santa Monica into West L.A.“I came across the Waymo a car or two in front of me in the left-hand lane when I saw these kids start crawling out of the car,” Shahsavani told The Times.

“I didn’t focus much on them at first because I thought they were just going to take a quick picture and get back in their car, which they didn’t do.”Shahsavani took several photos of the incident, which was first reported by ABC7.She said she encountered the vehicle at the intersection of Olympic Boulevard and 26th Street.At first, it was just the two boys in the backseat who sat on the window ledge as it proceeded eastbound, according to Shahsavani, who estimated the pair were 12 to 14 years old.Then the youngest of the trio, the front-seat passenger, whom Shahsavani believed was closer to 10, joined the duo in sitting on the window opening as the vehicle passed Stewart Street.That’s when Shahsavani said she pulled up alongside the vehicle and attempted to tell the boys to “sit back down.”Yet the message wasn’t easily received.“They ignored me, and one of them said he only spoke Italian,” she said.

“You don’t have to understand English to understand what I was saying.”Shahsavani said she then decided to call Waymo customer service as the vehicle crossed Bundy Drive, making its way from Santa Monica into West Los Angeles.The kids, meanwhile, took selfies, while one appeared to be holding a red canister.Shahsavani said she quickly reached a Waymo agent, who told her the company had the ability to stop the car should it de...