Waymo robotaxis are making their way to more American cities, but they’re not always winning the hearts and minds of the people who live there.
The autonomous cars have been spotted blundering the wrong way down a street and causing traffic jams, and residents have quickly grown fed up with their obnoxious back-up noise.
They’re also, apparently, haunting random locations like a conspicuous stalker. Just ask one Los Angeles couple, Lisa Delgin and Zach Tucker, who claim that ever since a Waymo cab dropped them off at their home after a New Year’s Eve party, the company’s robotaxis have come back to park in that exact same and totally arbitrary spot — sometimes for hours at a time, the Verge reports.
“It would always come back here, like a beacon,” Delgin told the outlet. “Like it knew there was a spot here that it could take.”
This isn’t the only parking idiosyncrasy we’ve seen from Waymo’s cabs. In San Francisco, bleary-eyed locals complained that the cars were gathering in tightly-packed parking lots and honking all night as they tried to bumble past each other.
Delgin and Tucker’s birdwatching-like investigation of the robotaxis’ behavior has revealed curious quirks. One, they confirmed by looking at the plates that it’s actually several Waymos that keep coming back. The cars also use one of two highly specific locations to unwind: either right in front of their home or on the property line they share with a neighbor.
“The Waymo is home!” Morgan, the couple’s 10-year-old daughter, says when a cab returns.
If both spots are taken, Delgin added in David Attenborough-esque narration, a Waymo driving by will slow down but won’t attempt to stop or park anywhere else nearby. Nope: only the Delgin’s property will do.
The family can take comfort in the fact that they’re not alone. Another LA resident said that a Waymo frequently parks on her street and always in front of the same apartment building. The Verge said it’s observed this behavior, too, and complaints from residents in different parts of LA can be found on apps like Nextdoor.
Waymo says that its vehicles will seek out places to idle as part of its programming. This way, they avoid clogging traffic, the thinking goes.
“Our vehicles will find appropriate parking spots to wait for short periods between trips, either in Waymo’s parking facilities or on-street parking locations,” Vishay Nihalani, Waymo director of product management, told the Verge.
But why they’re so intent on choosing certain spots is as mystifying as the bizarre rituals of an exotic animal. Waymo, in fact, is participating in a study led by researchers from UC Berkeley and UC Irvine analyzing its robotaxis’ parking quirks and how it impacts stuff like road congestion, the Verge noted.
Or maybe it’s not so mysterious after all, suggests Phil Koopman, a professor from Carnegie Mellon and an autonomous vehicle expert.
“A computer just doing exactly the same thing the same way every time should not be a surprise to anyone,” Koopman told the Verge. “That’s how computers are.”
It’s also, Koopman notes, a pretty convenient line for Waymo to be taking. “Companies like to use, ‘Well, the computer just did what it did, we don’t know,’ as an excuse for shirking accountability for decisions that might be somewhat harmful,” he added.
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