Waymo’s self-driving cars can be seen all over the streets of Atlanta, giving rideshare trips through Uber. So what happens when they’re empty? In one northwest Atlanta neighborhood, the residents say dozens of Waymo cars ended up circling their cul-de-sac. Waymo after Waymo, estimated to be around 50 cars, came through between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. disrupting the normal silence of the quiet area. When one resident put a sign up in the street, it blocked all of the Waymos from entering the cul-de-sac, which left the driverless cars trying to figure out how to turn around. The residents said they reached out to Waymo but got no response, so they contacted their city council members, representatives, and the Georgia Department of Transportation. Waymo didn’t clarify what specific routing behavior caused their vehicle fleet to target Battleview Drive or how many total vehicles were impacted by the routing error, but says its working with its rideshare partners to make sure this type of behavior doesn’t happen in the future.
