Waymo exec. joins livestream, apologizes to SF residents for robotaxi honking mess
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- This is the latest chapter in a very San Francisco story. After multiple videos surfaced of Waymo vehicles honking at each other in late hours of the night, the AV company issued a statement and deployed two changes to their software that stopped the honking for a while.
Waymo also offered residents ice cream following the incidents and on Monday, they spoke directly to the community via the livestream that oversees the parking lot where the Waymos were caught honking at each other.
After multiple sleepless nights, San Francisco resident Sophia Tung took matters into her own hands.
It started with posting a video and livestream of Waymo vehicles honking at each other at 4 a.m. in the parking lot directly below her building.
Videos of the consistent honking went viral and many like Sophia kept documenting it.
VIDEO: Waymo cars honk at each other throughout the night, disturbing SF neighbors
"2 a.m. or 5 a.m. or so, the cars would come back or go to charge, and they would get congested on the lot and start honking," said Sophia Tung.
As the noise kept increasing, so did the views and attention to this issue. So much so that Waymo noticed.
"I didn't expect for something to come from it but clearly something has," said Tung, "They actually came into the livestream chat and sort of chatted with the people in the livestream. Which I thought was very unusual."
Waymo agreed to explain to Sophia, her neighbors and everyone else invested in this why their vehicles were acting this way.
All via the same livestream that brought attention to it.
RELATED: Waymo shares new details on honking robotaxis in SF after ABC7 News report
"My neighbors have greatly contributed to this entire effort," said Tung.
With hundreds watching, Vishay Nihalani, Waymo's director of product and operations joined the livestream with Tung, and said:
"Waymo has every intention of being a great member of the community in the communities in which we operate. Just want to apologize for the honking. We are aware of the disturbance."
Nihalani went on to explain why the AVs were honking at each other in their parking lot for hours.
"In an effort to continue to pursue reduction in collision rates even when they are not at fault collision, we came up with this feature to honk and get the attention of other users and obviously you can see how that makes sense on public roads. Where we didn't it had an unintended effect was in these parking lots," said Nihalani.
MORE: Heads up! Waymo's driverless vehicles expected to be deployed on SF freeways this week
UC Berkeley AV researcher Steven Shladover provides technical advice to the DMV on their work overseeing AV activity.
"We should expect the technology is still in its childhood. It's gradually maturing, it's not yet fully matured, and it will be improving over the years - but everybody is still coming up on a learning curb right now in understand what the challenges are and understanding how to solve them," said Shladover.
Emily Chang lives in the other side of the building so the noise hasn't kept her up, but she was proud of how her neighbors have come together for change.
"It's very much in the spirit of San Francisco. I have lived here for 20 years so whenever there is something people kind of take it upon themselves to figure out a solution, so I think it's great - It's good that the company wants to talk directly with the people that are actually affected," said Chang.
Waymo said they are focused on safety and as the technology advances would love to have a feature that identifies other Waymo vehicles.
As to the noise, Tung said there was no honking Sunday night.
