There are reports women passengers of driverless cars in San Francisco are being harassed by male pedestrians who have been chasing the cars, with a lack of a physical driver leading to safety fears.

The Washington Post spoke with four such passengers, three of them women, who were left rattled by their experiences.

In one, a man who looks to be wielding a knife attempts to enter a Waymo vehicle as it was stopped on a deserted street at a red light. The report says he gave up and walked away, but the passenger wished for a human driver who could have just driven away.

Another woman talks about being followed nearly to her home by a car full of men honking and catcalling to her. She didn’t know how to re-route through the app, and emergency services said they couldn’t respond to a moving vehicle. The car behind her gave up the chase just before she got home.

Safety fears around potential driverless terrorist incidents, where a vehicle can be used as a weapon without anyone inside it, have often been cited in research into the technology’s safety, but female safety is now on the agenda.

Waymo has been known to be working hard on all aspects of safety and using the services in San Francisco to constantly update protocols.

(File picture – Waymo)