The early morning honking from driverless Waymo cars at a San Francisco parking lot has finally stopped. Now, the company is working to explain and mend fences.
San Francisco resident Sophia Tung has been running a live stream of the Waymo parking lot outside her home since July. That's when the company's autonomous car started waking her and other residents up early each morning as they honked at each other going into and out of a nearby parking lot.
But on Monday afternoon, the live stream was interrupted as Tung could have a conversation with one of Waymo’s executives.
Vishay Nihalani, director of products and operations at Waymo, agreed to answer questions from Tung about the way the cars work and why the annoying honking was happening. What she was getting at with these questions is why the cars were honking at each other so early in the morning.
The company said the answer essentially is that each car didn't realize it was another Waymo next to it. and was honking to tell the car next to it that it was there. Just like it would if there was a human driver.
According to Waymo, the company has now rolled out a couple of software fixes that prevent the cars from honking at each other in and around this lot.
"For now, Tung and some of the other residents in the building that's right next to this lot say, the honking has stopped and that's what's most important.
The complaints have been rolling in since July with some online and others through Waymo's support page.
But Tung and other residents said the company only responded after people launched their live video streams of the cars in the lot and started talking to news outlets about it.
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"We sort of collectively made so big of a media kerfuffle that, then it warranted a response from them, which, props to them for fixing it so quick after we did get a response,” she said.
NBC Bay Area reached out to Waymo for a comment on this issue on Monday. A spokesperson actually directed NBC Bay Area to the live stream for their response.
To be clear, while NBC Bay Area’s Sergio Quintana watched the live stream while it was happening in Tung's home, he did not see any of her questions for the company before the event.
Tung said that she wishes the company was a little more open about the way their cars work, but also said she's still a fan of the service.
For now, the hope is things will be a bit quieter in the neighborhood from now on.
