Citizens living in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood are being driven crazy by constant honking in the wee hours of the morning by self-driving Waymo robotaxis.
The Waymo cars have reportedly taken up an entire parking lot in an area near condos where residents are trying to sleep.
NEWS: San Francisco South of Market residents are woken up each morning at 4 AM by a bunch of Waymos honking at each other ? pic.twitter.com/IsSvjOLAfk
— ALEX (@ajtourville) August 13, 2024
After being woken up weeks ago at 4 AM, one resident told ABC 7, “Then it happened again, and again, and I started thinking, well this is an issue.”
The self-driving taxis reportedly honk when another Waymo gets too close while trying to park, which sets off a chain reaction of all the “smart” cars honking at each other.
One person living near the parking lot stated, “Over the past two weeks I’ve been woken up more times overnight than I have combined over 20 years.”
There is even a livestream feed of the parking lot filled with the annoying autonomous vehicles:
Without human drivers operating the vehicles, nobody can really do anything about the constant honking when it’s taking place.
A spokesman for Waymo told local news, “We are aware that in some scenarios our vehicles may briefly honk while navigating our parking lots. We have identified the cause and are in the process of implementing a fix.”
Last month, a Phoenix, Arizona, police officer pulled over a Waymo vehicle that dangerously drove into oncoming traffic.
The bizarre encounter was captured on the officer’s bodycam.
NEW: Phoenix police officer pulls over a driverless Waymo car for driving on the wrong side of the road leading the nonexistent driver to roll the windows down to speak with the police.
This is hilarious.
Waymo has since released a statement, apparently blaming the incident… pic.twitter.com/JKF2JSEGCu
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 4, 2024
With autonomous vehicle technology still being far from perfect, society can expect them to be involved in more incidents going forward.
