Desperate to Stop Waymo's Dead-End Detours, a San Francisco Resident Tried an Orange Cone with a Sign

'This is an attempt to stop Waymo cars from driving into the dead end,' complains a home-made sign in San Francisco, 'where they are forced to reverse and adversely affect the lives of the residents.'

On an orange traffic post, the home-made sign declares 'NO WAYMO — 8:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m,' with an explanation for the rest of the neighborhood. 'Waymo comes at all hours of the night and up to 7 times per hour with flashing lights and screaming reverse sounds, waking people up and destroying the quality of life.'

SFGate reports that 1,400 people on Reddit upvoted a photo of the sign's text:

It delves into the bureaucratic mess — multiple requests to Waymo, conversations with engineers, and 311 [municipal services] tickets, which had all apparently gone ignored — before finally providing instructions for human drivers. 'Please move [the cones] back after you have entered so we can continue to try to block the Waymo cars from entering and disrupting the lives of residents.'

This isn't the first time Waymo's autonomous vehicles have disrupted San Francisco residents' peace. Last year, a fleet of the robotaxis created another sleepless fiasco in the city's SoMa neighborhood, honking at each other for hours throughout the night for two and a half weeks.

Other on Reddit shared the concern. 'I live at an dead end street in Noe Valley, and these Waymos always stuck there,' another commenter posted. 'It's been bad for more than a year,' agreed another comment. 'People on the Internet think you're just a hater but it's a real issue with Waymos.'

On Thursday 'the sign remained at the corner of Lake Street and Second Avenue,' notes SFGate. And yet 'something appeared to have shifted. 'Waymo vehicles weren't allowing drop-offs or pickups on the street, though whether this was due to the home-printed plea, the cone blockage, or simply updating routes remains unclear.'

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