Robotaxis frustrate sleepless residents with constant honking | Science & Tech News

The world’s only self-driving taxi company has been forced to fix a fleet of cars after residents complained about their constant honking.

Waymo’s self-driving cars arrived a few weeks ago at a parking lot in San Francisco, California, where they wait between jobs.

However, the cars were fitted with an update that caused them to sound their horns whenever another car reversed near them.

Christopher Cherry, who lives next to the parking lot, told Sky’s US partner NBC Bay Area that he was “really excited” to have Waymo in the neighborhood when they moved, thinking it would bring more security and peace of mind to the area.

Instead, taxis called each other throughout the night while parking or embarking on a trip, making sleep difficult.

“We started with a couple honks here and there, and then as more cars started arriving, the situation got worse,” Cherry said.

“The cars are robotic and they honk at each other and there’s no one in the cars when it happens, and that’s absurd.”

One resident became so angry that she began livestreaming the parking lot on YouTube, garnering tens of thousands of views on some of her videos.

“Help,” says Sophia Tung at the end of one of her videos in which you can hear cars honking late at night.

Cherry said honking occurs daily at different levels, with the loudest occurring around 4 a.m. and during the evening rush hour.

“During the work day it’s very distracting, but the most important thing is that it wakes you up at four in the morning,” he said.

The cars appear to be heading to their charging station around 4 a.m., a “parade” of self-driving taxis that caused much excitement on the YouTube livestream.

Hundreds of spectators waited anxiously for the cars to begin leaving Wednesday morning.

“Everyone is starting,” said one viewer. “Parade time!” said another.

Tung’s viewers have even created a Google spreadsheet with time codes for the most interesting moments in the parking lot, like honking excessively or having a fun time parking next to one of the cars.

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“We didn’t fully anticipate it”

The taxi company, owned by Alphabet, Google’s parent company, said the horn issue is now fixed.

“We recently introduced a useful feature to help avoid low-speed collisions by honking if other cars get too close while reversing towards us,” a Waymo spokesperson told Sky News.

“It’s worked very well in the city, but we didn’t anticipate it would happen so often in our own parking lots.

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

When the cars left the parking lot at 4 a.m. Wednesday, the honking seemed to have resolved.

Ms Tung confirmed to her hundreds of viewers live in the chat: “They didn’t honk.”