In a bizarre turn of events, Waymo’s self-driving cars in San Francisco have finally been silenced after weeks of incessant honking. The issue began when residents of a neighborhood reported being kept awake at night by the constant honking of Waymo cars in a nearby parking lot. It seemed that whenever a Waymo car reversed into a parking space, any already-parked robocars nearby would start honking, creating an echoing cacophony.
Residents, frustrated by the persistent noise, described the situation as escalating, with the number of honks increasing as more cars arrived. One resident, Christopher Cherry, told NBC Bay Area News that the honking was “a couple of honks here and there” at first, but quickly became overwhelming.
Waymo initially responded by claiming they had rolled out a software fix to address the issue. However, the autonomous cars continued their honking symphony. Undeterred, a resident named Sophia Tung decided to take matters into her own hands, setting up a live stream to document the persistent problem. Tung even managed to secure an interview with Vishay Nihalani, Waymo’s director of product and operations, which she live streamed. Nihalani acknowledged the problem, admitting that while honking is crucial for cars to warn human drivers and pedestrians on public roads, there was no justification for autonomous cars honking at each other within a controlled parking lot.
While the initial patch failed to resolve the problem, Waymo has now released a second patch, which is expected to finally silence the robocars, bringing much-needed peace to the once honk-filled neighborhood.
It’s worth noting that Waymo has been testing its driverless cars in San Francisco for years and is currently using them to trial a paid ridesharing service for city residents.
