Honking robotaxis are keeping residents awake at night

There are lots of noises to keep you awake at night when you live in a big city. Think busy traffic, police sirens, barking dogs, driverless cars. Wait … driverless cars?!?

Well, for folks in the San Francisco neighborhood of South of Market, autonomous cars do indeed appear to be a problem. Or, more specifically, autonomous cars’ honking.

The noisy vehicles are operated by Waymo, a leader in the field of self-driving vehicles that has been testing its robocars in the city for many years. More recently, it has been offering ridesharing services to customers as part of a trial service.

According to residents who spoke to a local news outlet, the problem started a few weeks ago when Waymo started using a parking lot in South of Market for its driverless cars.

“We started out with a couple of honks here and there, and then as more and more cars started to arrive, the situation got worse, ” local resident Christopher Cherry told NBC Bay Area News.

Cherry said the noise level varies through the night, but added that the honking is usually at its worst at around 4 a.m. and during evening rush hour times.

“It’s very distracting during the workday, but most importantly, it wakes you up at four in the morning,” Cherry said.

According to videos taken by residents in the neighborhood, the honking seems to start when a Waymo car arrives at the lot and reverses into a parking spot. It’s this maneuver that seems to trigger nearby Waymo cars to start honking, but it’s not clear why.

Cherry described the incessant honking as “absurd” as the vehicles are essentially robots on wheels and there’s no one inside any of them.

Another described the situation as “frustrating” as there was no one around to report the problem to, though Cherry said he had contacted Waymo to inform them of the nuisance honking.

The Alphabet-owned company said that it is aware that “in some scenarios” its robocars “may briefly honk while navigating our parking lots,” adding that it has “identified the cause and is in the process of implementing a fix.”

Now if only someone could sort out the busy traffic, police sirens, and barking dogs, too.