Waymo’s self-driving cars no longer honk when near each other, Waymo’s Director of Product and Operations Vishay Nihalani said yesterday when he appeared on software engineer, residents living near the parking lot full of Waymo taxis reported that despite the patch going live, the taxis still honked at each other. Tung, who lived near the idling taxis, set up her live stream to capture the cacophony of honking vehicles.
No good stream is complete without a soundtrack, and Tung’s stream included lo-fi music in the vein of the ubiquitous “LoFi Girl" on YouTube. The title, “Self Driving Taxi Depot Shenanigans To Relax/Study To,” was an obvious tribute to the LoFi Girl channel. Despite a fix being pushed out, the stream captured the cars continuing to honk at 4AM this past Saturday.
Nihalani joined the stream to speak to Tung about the ongoing honking. According to the director, the cars’ honking was an intentional feature for taxis cruising on public roads to avoid collisions, but honking at each other while idling in the parking lot was never intentional. The taxis have now all been updated to. Back in San Francisco, though, you can still tune in to Tung’s chill livestream of a parking lot — just without the honking.