In San Francisco, dozens of parked Waymo driverless cars are waking up South of Market residents in the early hours of the morning with continuous honking.
For the last two weeks, Randol White has been startled awake multiple times before sunrise by the white autonomous vehicles sounding their horns in a parking lot below his high-rise condominium.
“Last night I was woken up at 2 a.m. and 4 a.m.,” White said Tuesday. He moved into his condo near the 2nd Street lot in March. “I think it’s when the parking lot gets to 35 to 40 cars, there is so much activity that when cars start backing up, the other cars start honking.”
White said the honking comes in spurts, but can last up to 20 seconds.
“I really don’t hold anything against the company. I just want it resolved,’’ White said. “What is super frustrating is when the honking is happening, I can’t just go downstairs and have a conversation with someone behind the wheel because there is no one behind the wheel.”
Various neighbors contacted Waymo about the jarring honking and the company responded in a statement, saying “we are expecting the situation to improve soon.”
Waymo did not immediately respond to a request for comment from this news organization.
Russell Pofsky lives in a neighboring building and said he, too, has been jarred awake by horns blaring.
“In the last two weeks, from noise in the parking lot, I’ve been woken up more times than in the 20 years I lived here combined,” Pofsky said.
He said the sleep deprivation is starting to impact him during the daytime.
“I was really cranky yesterday.” he said. “I wasn’t sure if it was just a Monday or if it was from all the activity down below.”
Over the years, the sprawling parking lot has been used for Giants game day parking and by tech workers in the financial district.
“They were doing work in the lot and we heard that Waymo was going to be taking over. In theory, it seemed like a good idea because it’s for resting stations,’’ Pofsky said. “A few little cars popped up but when they really started coming in, we started to realize what the problem was.”
And it’s not only the honking that is troublesome.
“The honking is one thing, but there are other residents in the lower units that are affected by (the cars) backing up because they make that beeping sound,” Pofsky said. “It’s not super, super loud — the honking is much louder — but it has impacted them.”
White said he initially made videos of the honking to show the homeowners’ association, but when he posted them to Facebook and the media latched onto the story, his phone “blew up.”
On Tuesday he did an interview with “Inside Edition” while fielding a call from “Good Morning America.”
“Initially, I thought it was funny,’’ White said. “”But it’s not so funny when you’re not sleeping.”