A driverless robotaxi from Waymo is parked on a street in San Francisco on May 16, 2024. In recent weeks, Waymo, a company that makes driverless cars, began sending their vehicles to a parking lot when the taxis are off the clock. But every night or early morning when the flock of vehicles typically return, according to neighbours, the chorus of honks begin. — The New York Times
It was a little over two weeks ago that Sophia Tung began waking up before dawn to the sound of cars honking.
The flocks of identical white vehicles outside her window began to fill the parking lot, one by one. As they moved into and out of one another’s paths, they sounded out a chorus of honks and beeps.
As a San Francisco resident, Tung, 28, has seen traffic, but this time there were no drivers to yell at to stop.
The driverless vehicles, made by California-based company Waymo, began to appear in a lot near Tung’s apartment building in late July. Waymo had rented it for the cars to idle in when they weren’t making trips or charging. But because the vehicles are programmed to honk when nearing other vehicles and then change directions, the more crowded the lot became, the more honks erupted.
Tung decided to set up a livestream to share the noisy taxi depot with the world, using an old web camera and a cereal box. She set the video to soft lo-fi music in the background.
“I tend to like to be good-humored on most difficult situations,” Tung said. “It was just for the memes, but for some reason I guess people like watching them.”
What started with just two viewers began to attract hundreds, with the stream peaking at around 350 viewers Monday night. Tung said people liked to guess in the stream’s chat about where the cars would end up parking, putting virtual “dibs” on open spots.
And then Tuesday morning, Tung said Waymo itself entered the chat to let her know the honking problem had been fixed.
Tung wasn’t alone in her online complaints. Neighbors from Tung’s building and the building adjacent to hers also posted videos of the cars honking throughout the night and early in the morning.
One of those residents, Russell Pofsky, has lived in the building for 20 years and said he had never been woken up in the middle of the night as often as he has been in the last two weeks.
Pofsky said the honking noise happens “like every four seconds and continues and continues.” On Tuesday morning, he heard the honking start around 5 a.m.
He said he lay awake when the honking started, feeling “in disbelief of what is actually happening.”
Tung said that much of the noise happened around 2am, when the cars left, and around 4.30am when they returned.
“I assume that’s sort of like a peak downtime,” she said. “But, you know, it also happens to be my peak sleep time.”
A Waymo spokesperson said in an emailed statement that the company had recently introduced the honking feature to help avoid collisions when vehicles got too close.
“It has been working great in the city, but we didn’t quite anticipate it would happen so often in our own parking lots. We’ve updated the software, so our electric vehicles should keep the noise down for our neighbours moving forward,” the statement said.
Since more driverless car services have become available, there have been a few bumps in the road. In some cities, critics have voiced fears about safety issues with the cars. Sometimes the vehicles make less serious errors, like driving into wet concrete.
But Tung said she was a proponent of the Waymo vehicles and did not want the fleet to leave the parking lot – she just wants the honking to stop. For the few years she’s lived in her San Francisco apartment, the parking lot has been used mostly for nearby businesses, she said.
“The alternative is just random people in the parking lot setting off firecrackers and stuff, and that’s also disruptive,” she said. “It’s cool to see the lot being used for something, and it’s super interesting to watch the cars sort of navigate around.” – The New York Times
