Waymo: Robotic taxis to host concerts

Robot Cars Drive At Each Other – Manufacturer Reacts

In San Francisco, Waymo taxis have been causing problems for residents next to a parking lot — and now Google's sister company is addressing the situation with a software update.

Posted today at 10:26 AM

Always causing trouble in San Francisco: Waymo's robot taxi.

Photo: Terry Shea (AFP)

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When Waymo’s robotic taxis took up a new parking lot in San Francisco, residents were suddenly struck by the sound of horns. An already useful feature had an unexpected side effect. The trigger was a new function in which self-driving cars would honk their horns when someone backed up at a slow speed.

This worked great in the city, but Waymo didn’t expect this situation to happen so frequently in its own parking lot, a Waymo spokesperson told tech blog The Verge. The software update will ensure peace and quiet again.

Over the past few days, a resident set up a live stream from the Waymo rental parking lot and added music to the honking sounds. They reported that some cars were returning to the parking lot from nighttime operations at 4 a.m. In their videos, you can see the direction of the self-driving robot taxis reverse as they circle the parking lot and approach the cars behind them, which are honking. The following video shows the nighttime scenes:

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Waymo offers robotaxi rides without a human at the wheel in several U.S. cities, and in San Francisco the service is already available without a waiting list. In recent years, city authorities and transit companies have complained that the vehicles sometimes clog streets, but overall the vehicles operate without any problems.

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