Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech Tech boosters might love them, but Waymo’s self-driving cars aren’t exactly currying favor with John Q Public. In the past few months, the company’s robotaxis have blocked first responders, drained government resources, and killed beloved pets. It might be a different story if they were publicly owned and operated, but Waymo — a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet — is a for-profit entity, giving the whole operation an insidious optics problem. Doug Fulop, a tech industry worker in the San Francisco bay area, is one of Waymo’s aforementioned boosters. In January, he met one of the company’s detractors head-on — through the windshield of one of the robotaxis. According to the New York Times, Fulop and two passengers were inside a Waymo one January night when they were beset by an irate protestor, who proceeded to punch the robotaxi’s windows and berate the riders with death threats for six minutes. Waymo cabs are programmed to stop dead …