By Rachel Swan,Staff Writer Nov 5, 2025 (SFChronicle.com)
Gift Article
San Francisco physician Dr. Nasser Mohamed has sued Waymo over civil rights violations, saying the autonomous vehicle company misidentified him as a terrorist.Courtesy Nasser Mohamed
A San Francisco physician has sued Waymo over civil rights violations, saying the autonomous vehicle company denied him service because his name resembles Muslim and Middle Eastern names on a government sanctions list.
Dr. Nasser Mohamed, a human rights and LGBTQ activist who runs a primary care practice near Japantown, filed a lawsuit Tuesday in San Francisco Superior Court asserting that Waymo’s parent company, Alphabet, had misidentified him as a terrorist.
The error stemmed from an artificial intelligence program that scanned the Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions list compiled by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Mohamed’s attorneys recount in their written court complaint. Mohamed said he learned from employees at Waymo that the company had used AI software to cross-check the list as part of its identity verification process after he registered for an account.
Although Nasser Mohamed’s name is not listed, it bears similarities to “one or more Muslim or Middle Eastern names on the list,” the complaint says.
A Waymo spokesperson pushed back on the allegation, which comes on the heels of another headline-grabbing controversy: Some San Franciscans are calling for a ban on autonomous vehicles, after a Waymo robotaxi ran over a cat in the Mission District.
“Waymo does not discriminate use of our service,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement. “We are committed to providing access to all in the communities we serve. We disagree with the claims made.”
Mohamed first realized something was amiss in early November 2023, when he registered for an account with the robotaxi company, which at that point was offering rides to select users of its WaymoOne app. Upon creating an account, Mohamed said he received a string of error messages that prevented him from booking rides in the self-driving cars.
In January, Mohamed began asking Waymo customer support to explain the service denials. He said that when he asked whether the denial was based on discrimination, the company closed his support ticket.
Eventually Mohamed posted about his experience on social media and drew responses from people within his network who are affiliated with Waymo, said his attorney, Shounak Dharap. They explained the identity verification process and described the mechanics of the AI software, but said they were unable to override it, according to the lawsuit.
“This is a new manifestation of a problem that’s going to arise the more we rely on these AI systems,” Dharap said, noting that similar instances of “algorithmic discrimination” have stymied people seeking employment, insurance or public services.
Dharap emphasized that his client did not file the suit for financial gain. Primarily, Mohamed is seeking public injunctive relief “so that this doesn’t happen to anybody else.”
Nov 5, 2025
Reporter
Rachel Swan is a transportation reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. She joined the paper in 2015 after stints at several alt weekly newspapers. Born in Berkeley, she graduated from Cal with a degree in rhetoric and is now raising two daughters in El Cerrito.
