Every day, Apple runs a shuttle service from San Francisco to Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino to help employees commute to work. Sadly, some of these buses have been attacked in the last week by unknown criminals resulting in smashed windows. Mashable confirmed with Apple that the incidents were happening but the company did not say how the buses were being damaged; presumably someone is throwing objects (rocks?) to break the glass.
Obviously, this causes unnecessary damage to the vehicles and poses a safety risk to the driver and passengers.
For employee safety, Apple has re-routed the shuttles until they can deal with the problem, avoiding highway 280. The company warned workers that this may add up to 45 minutes of time onto people’s commutes.
Apple says the local police are involved in stopping the criminal activity so that normal shuttle service can resume.
Images via Mashable:
It isn’t clear why these criminal protests are taking place. Some San Francisco residents have complained about company shuttles in the past as they further inflate house prices as many workers at tech companies decide to live in San Francisco even if the campus is based elsewhere (like Apple in Cupertino) because the shuttles provide convenient commuting options.
There is also a general resentment in San Francisco towards tech companies for driving up rents regardless, and attacking the shuttles may be the outlet for this anger. At this time, though, this is just speculation as any motivation is not known.
