Self-driving Waymo cars gather in a San Francisco neighborhood, confusing residents

2024-12-24 09:36:38 source: category:My

It was a modern mystery.

In a tiny neighborhood in San Francisco's Richmond District, self-driving Waymo cars have been converging at all hours of the day and night, mystifying neighbors, KPIX reported earlier this week. Most would drive to the dead-end on 15th Avenue, where they then had no choice but to turn around and leave, according to the outlet — and neighbors have no idea why.

"I noticed it while I was sleeping. I awoke to a strange hum that I thought there was a spacecraft outside my window," Jennifer King, a resident of the neighborhood, told the outlet.

She added later, "There's some days it can be up to 50 [cars], literally every five minutes, and we're all working from home, so this is what we hear."

The random influx of cars has been puzzling for residents. The cars aren't carting passengers to and fro, according to a Verge report. And when locals have asked the drivers why they're in the neighborhood, they reply that the cars are "programmed" and they're just "doing their job," KPIX reported.

When asked about the incident, a spokesperson for Waymo chalked up the weird happenings to traffic signs. There are one-way streets as well as Slow Streets — residential streets that drivers are discouraged from using for through traffic — in the area, the spokesperson told NPR..

"We continually adjust to dynamic San Francisco road rules," the spokesperson said. "In this case, cars traveling North of California on 15th Avenue have to take a U-turn due to the presence of Slow Streets signage on Lake. So, the Waymo Driver was obeying the same road rules that any car is required to follow." The company calls its autonomous technology Waymo Driver.

Still, explanation or no, one look at Twitter shows that the unofficial Invasion of the Self-Driving Cars has caught people's attention. One user referred to it as a "Black Mirror episode," referencing, of course, the dark dystopian Netflix series. Another joked that the "the robot revolution is not imminent."

"Waymo menace," another Twitter user wrote.

As for Tesla CEO Elon Musk, he kept his response simple: "Haha."

More:My

Recommend

Horoscopes Today, November 12, 2024

Here are the horoscopes for today, Tuesday, November 12, 2024.For full daily and monthly horoscopes

You remember Deion Sanders as an athletic freak. Now, he just wants to coach standing up.

BOULDER, Colo. – Treatment time. Three times per day, Deion Sanders stretches his left leg on the ch

Surprise encounter with mother grizzly in Montana ends with bear killed, man shot in shoulder

Two men shot an adult grizzly bear in Montana, and one of the men was shot in the back, after a surp