Darius Boorn didn't mind at first when Waymo set up charging stations for its driverless electric vehicles in a parking lot next to his California home. "I thought it was cool," he said, "and then those freaking noises started." In January, the company opened two stations for more than 50 vehicles in Santa Monica without telling city officials or neighbors. Once that beeping started, neighbors say, it hasn't stopped. The vehicles beep as they back up while angling into their spots, the Los Angeles Times reports, then beep when they back out of the charging spots. They beep in the morning when they hit the road to pick up the day's first passengers, and they beep late at night when they come back for a charge.
Complaints to the company and city haven't done much. Waymo apologized and said it will do something about the noise. Santa Monica officials checked the sound levels and reported they're within the city's noise limits. So certain unidentified neighbors have been known to put orange traffic cones, other cars, and sometimes their bodies in the way of Waymos, which forces the vehicles to stop before getting into the parking lot. Residents call it "stacking the Waymos." One neighbor was so effective that parking lot employees called the police on him a half-dozen times, and the company tried—but failed—to get a restraining order against him from a judge.
A Waymo spokesperson said steps the company has taken to limit the noise include cutting the hours when employees work in the parking lots, buying quieter vacuums for cleaning the vehicles, and adding bamboo stands to absorb noise. The city's mayor pro tem said one reason the noise is difficult to reduce is that state and federal regulations require some of the beeping—such as when the cars back up, much like delivery trucks, per the Times. "We strive to be good neighbors," a Waymo spokesperson said.
- KCAL has video of a Waymo slamming on the brakes to avoid hitting a dog that had gotten loose in Santa Monica here.
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