Anika Begay
If you’ve ever wondered what happens to all those self-driving taxis when the world sleeps, a YouTube channel has you covered. Since earlier this month, software engineer Sophia Tung has been livestreaming a San Francisco parking lot that Waymo is renting out to give its robotaxis a place to go during their downtime.
Tung said The limit via email that the company appeared to have taken “partial” delivery of the batch on July 28, before later taking the entire batch. Waymo recently opened its robotaxi service to anyone in San Francisco.
Days later, he’s set up the livestream, complete with LoFi studio beats. Tung tells us he’s running it from a mini PC he has lying around, with a webcam surrounded by a cereal box to reduce glare. Now, at any time of day, you can drop in to see what Waymo cars are up to. If there are no Waymos in the parking lot, “the herd will begin to migrate again” between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. PST Sunday through Thursday or 11 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday, text overlaid on the video says.
As I write this, the lot is quiet, with only three cars parked. But when the lot starts to fill up (which “usually happens at 4 a.m. or so,” according to Tung) it begins what seems like an infuriating dance of self-parking and horns. The noise can last for up to an hour at a time before it dies down, he said.
Waymo is “aware that in some scenarios our vehicles may briefly honk while navigating our parking lots,” company representative Chris Bonelli said. The limit in an email, adding that Waymo has figured out what is causing this behavior and is working to fix it.
Tung, who calls himself a micromobility advocate, said The limit She thinks that “people are generally puzzled” and that she likes having the cars there. “Honestly, it’s fun to watch the cars come and go,” she said, adding that “it’s just the horn that needs to be fixed.”
