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Waymo Robotaxi Honking Problem Lingers for San Francisco Building Residents

ByYasmeeta Oon

Aug 19, 2024

Waymo Robotaxi Honking Problem Lingers for San Francisco Building Residents

Waymo’s robotaxi depot in San Francisco continues to disturb nearby residents with overnight honking, despite the company’s efforts to address the issue. The honking originally stemmed from a safety feature designed to alert when a Waymo car detects another vehicle reversing toward it. After implementing a patch to resolve this, new problems emerged. Some Waymo vehicles missed the parking lot and ended up in a nearby cul de sac, where they became stuck and began honking.

The company responded by disabling the cul de sac entirely and hosted an ice cream social for the affected residents. However, early this morning, a new issue arose when a queue of Waymo vehicles waiting to enter the lot triggered a chain reaction of honking as one vehicle reversed toward the others. This led to multiple cars honking and reversing in a sequence, further disturbing the neighborhood.

Local resident Sophia Tung, who monitors the situation via a YouTube livestream, has already contacted Waymo about this latest development. She plans to discuss the issue with Waymo’s product management and operations director, Vishay Nihalani, on her livestream tomorrow evening.

Waymo has not yet provided a comment on the situation.


Featured Image courtesy of SlashGear

Follow us for more updates on Waymo’s ‘honkfest’.

Yasmeeta Oon

Just a girl trying to break into the world of journalism, constantly on the hunt for the next big story to share.

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