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Dozens of empty Waymos invade neighborhood in Atlanta leaving neighbors baffled
(www.the-independent.com)
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this post was submitted on 17 May 2026
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I work across the street from a Waymo station and they just circle the parking lot aimlessly 24/7. They had to hire someone to monitor access because they were getting stuck and blocking the commercial vehicles from accessing the dock.
Not Just Bikes predicted this months ago. They can't be bothered to pay for sufficient parking space, so they just drive around in circles when they're not actively in use.
That seems like a giant waste of battery/fuel.
Bet they use that as their "more than a bazillion miles rides without accidents*" statistic
Why, when they can just make shit up?
Because now they have actual "proof" in hands.
Everything these techbros come up with is a giant waste of energy. It doesn't concern them at all, despite out planet literally burning.
Parking is expensive.
Around here this is an actionable offense. Misuse of public streets.
(They will have to do lots of reprogramming before they can try their luck outside of their own lawless country)
They're already starting up in the UK.
https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/waymo-self-driving-car-wakes-london-street-5HjdYx5_2/
The UK is US-lite these days, and probably going to be worse once reform come to power :(
But they want back into the EU. 👹
Chinese pony.ai is also starting this with Verne in Croatia.
I actually posted a Reddit a few years ago.
But, I deleted my account and posts a while back too
Huh?
The idea they would end up doing this to avoid parking fees
Well, the general concept is no different from what regular taxis already do. What makes this stand out is that they are robotically going to the same otherwise little utilized areas...
"Regular taxis" find somewhere to park. They are not interested in burning fuel for no reason.
Waymos do try to find somewhere to park too which has also been the subject of stories like this when the place they choose seems unusual. Neither types of taxis can always be parked since they may be in areas with little legal parking space available. Since there are incentives for drivers to be in busy areas where they might pick up customers it isn't very uncommon for taxis in general.
Waymo behavior just stands out because the system isn't concerned about how things look and there is more coordination/consistency. A human driver might choose a less efficient way to circle around in the area using congested roads etc. and every driver makes their independent and almost always different decisions. Waymos on the other hand can get allocated to the same area in anticipation of demand and then go to the same streets because the system deems those to be the best option available at the time.
There's no parking involved in this story.
like this issue they will fix it in minutes dear luddite
what do you think normal taxis do?
Its been happening for 3 months...