Waymo’s ongoing issue with its robotaxis honking incessantly in a San Francisco parking lot has been addressed once more after a temporary fix proved insufficient. The problem, which became widely known as the “Waymo honk-a-thon,” involved the company’s autonomous vehicles honking for up to an hour at around 4 a.m. as they gathered in close quarters.
The situation came to light when software engineer Sophia Tung set up a livestream capturing the robotaxis’ nightly honking routine. In response, Waymo issued a software patch last week to prevent the vehicles from honking at each other. However, on Saturday morning, the livestream revealed that the honking had resumed.
In a recent interview between Tung and Waymo’s Director of Product and Operations, Vishay Nihalani, it was revealed that a new software patch has now been deployed to resolve the issue. Nihalani acknowledged that while honking is a necessary safety feature on public roads, the mass honking in the parking lot was an unintended side effect of the vehicles’ programming.
With this latest update, Waymo hopes to put an end to the nightly honk-a-thon for good.
