2024-08-15 07:52:40
Robotaxis have taken over a parking lot in San Francisco and disturbed residents with their honking. The blame lies with an actually useful function of the cars.
Waymo robot taxis have been disturbing residents next to a parking lot in San Francisco with their nightly honking – now the Google sister company is remedying the situation with a software update.
The trigger was a new function that causes the self-driving cars to honk when someone reverses towards them at a slow speed. This worked excellently in the city, but Waymo did not expect the situation to occur frequently in its own parking lot, a spokesperson told the technology blog “The Verge”. The software update will restore calm.
In recent days, a local resident had set up a live stream from the parking lot rented by Waymo and added music to the honking noises. She reported that some of the cars had returned to the parking lot from nighttime operations as of 4 a.m.
Their videos show the driverless robotaxis reversing while cornering in the parking lot, getting closer to the cars behind them, which honk at them.
Waymo offers rides in robotaxis without a human at the wheel in several US cities; in San Francisco, the service is already available without a waiting list.
In recent years, some city authorities and transport companies have complained that the vehicles sometimes block the streets, but generally the vehicles travel without problems.