Waymo driverless car keeps waking Londoners at 4am by getting stuck in dead-end street

Living in east London can be noisy. Ravers, students, screaming foxes and police sirens but as technology improves a new nusiance is terrorising one street.

A Waymo driverless taxi has been wreaking havoc on Elder Street, in Shoreditch a residential road blocked with a metal gate

But the loud beeping and whirring as the futuristic taxi tries to navigate its way back after realising its mistake has been waking the neighbourhood.

In footage the white Jaguar SUV gets stuck doing an excruciating three-point turn in the road.

The occupant gets out at one stage and checks he hasn’t caused any damage to the homes.

And neighbours have had enough.

‘That’s three times this week you’ve driven a car with a driver in it down the end of a dead end street then reversed and woken up everyone in the street,’ local Chris said in a post on X.

Another clip sees two neighbours shouting at the passenger inside another stuck Waymo which had been blocking the road for some time.

A spokesperson for Waymo said: ‘As we prepare for fully autonomous operations in London, we want to validate our technology on roads across the city.

‘However, we’ve now limited vehicles’ ability to drive on this street in response to this feedback.’

Waymo has already started testing in London to understand the capital’s quirks using a fleet of around 24 cars, each kitted with cameras, radar and light detection sensors.

When can London passengers use Waymo?

At the moment, Waymo’s vehicles are whizzing across London as part of tests to learn the nuances of the city like zebra crossings.

Not all of the Waymo cars are fully controlled by AI just yet, however – the majority still have human safety drivers.

Sky News found that within the ‘past few weeks’, the company started letting the cars take control.

The futuristic cars claim to be involved in 92% fewer crashes that cause ‘serious or fatal injuries’ compared to human drivers, but not everyone is so keen on the idea.

You might be able to order a Waymo robotaxi using an app by September if things go to plan for the tech firm.

How safe are robotaxis?

As many other firms try out computer-aided driving, especially in the US, the number of self-driving vehicle incidents has begun to increase.

Tesla, owned by Elon Musk, has been testing cars powered by self-driving software since 2015. To date, 59 people have died in crashes involving the vehicle, monitoring groups say.

From July to December 2023, the number of crashes in the US averaged about 17 per month, according to official figures.

But the tally has been rising since, now averaging at 59 incidents a month, peaking in May last year with 110.

Analysts say that the increase isn’t a verdict of the safety of the self-driving cars but just the result of more being on the road.

Have there been any accidents with Waymo?

Last October, the unofficial mayor of a busy San Francisco street died after being struck by one of Waymo’s self-driving cars.

KitKat, the beloved pet cat at Randa’s Market, was run over by an automated car on October 27. He was rushed to a hospital by a bartender working nearby, but was pronounced dead.

Anger in the community has increased after it was revealed that on the same day KitKat was killed, Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said she thought society is ‘ready to accept deaths’ caused by automated cars.

But KitKat’s owner pointed out that next time, the death could be that of a child, not just a beloved pet.

Waymo said in a statement: ‘We reviewed this, and while our vehicle was stopped to pick up passengers, a nearby cat darted under our vehicle as it was pulling away.

‘We send our deepest sympathies to the cat’s owner and the community who knew and loved him, and we have made a donati

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