Criticism of Waymo

Residents complain about robotaxis honking at night

Residents complain about the robotaxis honking at night.

(Bild: youtube.com/Sophia Tung)

They drive completely autonomously through San Francisco - but parking in their designated parking space after their work is done causes even greater problems for the robotaxis from Google subsidiary Waymo: Local residents complain about annoying honking, especially at night.

The local TV station NBC Bay Area first reported that the driverless vehicles sometimes honk at each other for around an hour at dawn from four o'clock and during the evening rush hour.

"We started with a few honks here and there, and then as more and more cars arrived, the situation got worse," Christopher Cherry, who lives near the rented parking lot in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood where the Waymo cars are parked, told the station.

"It's very distracting during the workday, but most of all it wakes you up at four in the morning," Cherry complained, going on to report that he has now documented more than a dozen disturbing incidents of the vehicles honking at all hours of the day and night.

Waymo promises a remedy
A Waymo spokesperson told Business Insider that the company is "aware that in some scenarios our vehicles may honk briefly while navigating our parking lots". They have identified the cause and are in the process of fixing the problem, they said.

"Honestly, it's fun to watch the cars come and go," software engineer Sophia Tung, who regularly shows the hustle and bustle of the driverless cars in live streams on YouTube, told the US magazine "The Verge". "It's really just the honking that needs to be fixed."