While some wonder if androids dream of electric sheep, others wonder where self-driving taxis will “sleep.” Software engineer Sophia Tung has the answer: she lives across the street from a parking lot in San Francisco where Alphabet’s Waymo vehicles park at night. And as you can see in this video, it’s not exactly a relaxing place. The robot taxis tend to honk at each other as they head home around 4 a.m., according to Tung, who says the noise can last for a good hour before it dies down.
« All night I could hear the boop boop boop of the waymos backing up and going in/out. I had trouble sleeping, I could literally hear it in my dreams. I still do this morning ” she wrote on Threads two weeks ago. Some time later, she set up a live stream in which she films the parking lot 24/7 while playing lo-fi music. Other residents have complained to Waymo, the noise waking up the entire neighborhood.
Un taxi Waymo. Image MacGeneration
Waymo explained the origin of the problem: The company implemented a feature to reduce the risk of low-speed collisions that activates the horn when approaching another vehicle. This feature works great in the city, but we didn’t anticipate it would show up so often in our own parking lots. “, a spokesperson told The VergeTaxis have since been updated to limit the risk of night-time cacophony.
