The Issue with Waymo Robotaxis Honking Excessively has Finally Been Fixed

The infamous nighttime phenomenon of Waymo’s cacophony of honks in a parking lot in San Francisco — where its autonomous vehicles engaged in a loud honking ritual as the day ended — was seemingly fixed, then reoccurred, and now has been addressed once more.

The origin of this event: Sophia Tung, a software engineer, broadcasted a live feed showcasing the parking lot as the autonomous vehicles returned to rest and inexplicably began honking, creating noise for as long as an hour around 4 a.m.

In response, Waymo recently deployed a software update aimed at preventing the close-proximity vehicles from honking at one another. Despite these efforts, a similar incident of honking was recorded by the live feed early Saturday morning at 4 a.m.

Following this, an additional update was implemented, as discussed in a Monday interview on Tung’s livestream with Vishay Nihalani, Waymo’s Director of Product and Operations. Nihalani mentioned that although honking on public roads by the Waymos is logical, the collective honking in this context was an unplanned occurrence.