A nightly Waymo robotaxi parking lot honkfest is waking San Francisco neighbors

If you’ve ever wondered what happens to each those self-driving taxis erstwhile the satellite is asleep, 1 YouTube transmission has you covered. Since the opening of the month, bundle technologist Sophia Tung has been livestreaming a San Francisco parking batch that Waymo is renting to springiness its robotaxis determination to spell during their downtime.

Tung told The Verge via email that the institution appeared to “partially” instrumentality implicit the batch connected July 28th past aboriginal took implicit the full lot. Waymo recently opened up its robotaxi service to anyone successful San Francisco.

Days later, she set up the livestream, implicit with LoFi survey beats. Tung told america she’s moving it disconnected of a mini PC she had laying around, with a webcam surrounded by a cereal container to trim glare. Now, immoderate clip of day, you tin popular successful to cheque retired what the Waymo cars are up to. If determination aren’t immoderate Waymos successful the lot, “the flock volition commencement migrating back” betwixt 7PM and 9PM PST connected Sunday done Thursday oregon 11PM done midnight, Friday and Saturday, says substance overlaid connected the video.

As I constitute this, the batch is calm, with conscionable 3 cars parked successful it. But erstwhile the batch starts to capable up (which “usually happens astatine 4AM oregon so,” according to Tung) what looks similar a maddening ballet of autonomous parking — and honking — begins. The sound goes for arsenic overmuch arsenic an hr astatine a clip earlier it settles down, she said.

Waymo is “aware that successful immoderate scenarios our vehicles whitethorn concisely honk portion navigating our parking lots,” institution typical Chris Bonelli told The Verge successful an email, adding that Waymo has figured retired what’s causing the behaviour and is moving to hole it.

Tung, who is simply a self-described micromobility advocate, told The Verge she thinks “generally radical are bemused,” and that she likes having the cars there. “Honestly, it’s amusive to ticker the cars travel and go,” she said, adding that “it’s truly conscionable the honking that needs to beryllium resolved.”