Waymo Robotaxi’s Late-Night Honking Nightmare Sparks Outrage Among San Fran Residents

Residents in downtown San Francisco have been furious about Waymo robot taxis honking at each other in the middle of the night. 

Residents spoke with NBC Bay Area about the honking chaos coming from Waymo cars in a parking lot near their apartment building in the South of Market neighborhood near 2nd Street.

The residents said peak honking occurred at 0400 local time.

A video uploaded on X by ABC7 News shows what residents have been dealing with for weeks… 

Imagine being woken up at 4 a.m. by cars honking at each other. That’s what some San Francisco residents have been dealing with for weeks, as the Waymos can be heard in this video honking and blinking headlights in a parking lot outside of their condo. https://t.co/2cVmDfUk4i pic.twitter.com/pkxNTT5vXd

— ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) August 13, 2024

On Tuesday, residents were given relief from the overnight honking. Waymo spokesperson told NBC Bay Area that the company had implemented a fix:

“We’ve updated the software, so our electric vehicles should keep the noise down for our neighbors moving forward.”

The spokesperson said the honking feature on the robotaxis first launched in January “to help avoid low speed collisions by honking if other cars get too close while reversing toward us.”

“It has been working great in the city, but we didn’t quite anticipate it would happen so often in our own parking lots,” the spokesperson continued.

Waymo’s Chief Product Officer recently shared a real-life situation of the honking feature in use.  

We get this a lot 😀. The @Waymo Driver does indeed honk when necessary! Here’s an example where a garbage truck in SF began reversing towards our vehicle. The Driver automatically honked and reversed to make way for the truck before moving on. https://t.co/tuNrtx9qGB pic.twitter.com/v0IGgljHoc

— Saswat Panigrahi (@saswat101) August 7, 2024

One X user said, “This is an easy fix compared to lot of other things SF residents are dealing with for several years.” 

This is an easy fix compared to lot of other things SF residents are dealing with for several years .

— Bpain (@bipanthegreat) August 13, 2024

Others said…

It’s kind of like all the red robots in I Robot. I’m sure it’s fine.

— Joe Moschella (@joemosch) August 13, 2024

Why is this legal? What kind of city allows this kind of disturbance in a residential neighborhood?

— realhackhistory ۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗۗ (@realhackhistory) August 13, 2024

It’s really a dystopian cyberpunk future hell for San Fran residents.