Driverless cars stationed in a San Francisco parking lot created a traffic jam at 4:00 a.m. and began honking at each other, waking up local residents. Many report the pre-dawn traffic snarl is a regular occurrence for the driverless cars.
A resident of San Francisco, California, filmed the driverless vehicles as they honked in the middle of the night in a nearby parking lot, according to a report by BBC News.
The video shows more than 30 driverless cars — some of which were slowly moving, appearing to be stuck in traffic jams — as they began to honk.
"The cars are robotic and they are honking at each other [at 4am]."
— Mukul Kumar (@mukulneetika) August 14, 2024
Waymo's are honking at each other at San Francisco. I hope they get a firmware upgrade soon. pic.twitter.com/GVSTbmOfN0
Waymo, Google’s self-driving car project, reportedly said that the honking was the result of a feature meant to prevent the driverless vehicles from getting into crashes.
The company told CBS News that it has since updated the software that causes the vehicles to honk.
“Our electric vehicles should keep the noise down for our neighbors moving forward,” Waymo said.
This is not the first time a driverless Waymo vehicle has caused a stir.
As Breitbart News reported, a driverless Waymo vehicle in Phoenix, Arizona, was pulled over by police in June after it was seen going “haywire” in traffic. This moment was also caught on camera.
Waymo blamed the incident on construction in the city, saying the construction signage has been inconsistent, and claimed the vehicle impeded oncoming traffic because the officer had blocked the driverless car.
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