The great nightly Waymo honk-a-thon — in which the company’s robotaxis erupted into a chorus of honking as they settled into their respective spaces in a parking lot in San Francisco — was resolved. And then, well, it wasn’t. But now it is again.
The quick backstory: Software engineer Sophia Tung set up a livestream of a parking lot in San Francisco where Waymo robotaxis go when they’re not giving driverless rides. The livestream captured the robotaxis streaming in to park — and honk — for up to an hour around 4 a.m.
Waymo issued a software patch across its fleet to ensure that once the robotaxis entered the lot and began parking — often in close quarters — they would not honk at each other. But then at 4 a.m. Saturday morning, the livestream captured a cacophony of honking from robotaxis in the alleyway near the lot.
Another software patch has been issued, according to an interview between Tung and Waymo Director of Product and Operations Vishay Nihalani on her livestream Monday. Nihalani explained that while it makes a lot of sense for Waymos to honk on public roads, the group honking was an unintended consequence.