Richmond neighbors in San Francisco place cones to deter Waymo's driverless cars from a cul-de-sac, citing nightly noise; the company has limited drop-offs.
© Waymo
San Francisco is seeing another clash between residents and Waymo’s driverless fleet. As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, starting October 5 people in the Richmond neighborhood began placing traffic cones and bright signs at the entrance to a dead-end street, with a message reading NO WAYMO 20:00–08:00. What used to be a quiet residential corner has turned into a round-the-clock turnaround zone for autonomous cars, keeping people awake with sensor beeps, engine noise, and headlights.
Locals say Waymo vehicles can show up as many as seven times an hour overnight, and that numerous complaints to the company and conversations with its engineers have brought no change. They even wrote instructions for human drivers: if you enter the street, please put the cone back so the improvised barrier continues to deter the driverless cars. It’s a low-tech workaround against a high-tech visitor, born of sheer fatigue.
This isn’t the first time Waymo’s robotaxis have tested neighbors’ patience. Last year, in one city neighborhood, the cars spent nearly three weeks honking through the night. Similar accounts appear on Reddit, where users say vehicles often get stuck in cul-de-sacs across different parts of the city—and that this has been happening for more than a year.
Amid the grassroots pushback, the company unexpectedly narrowed operations in the trouble spot: as of October 16, Waymo barred its autonomous vehicles from dropping off passengers in that cul-de-sac. There has been no official comment from the company on why it made this change.