A usually quiet Atlanta neighborhood has abruptly discovered itself flooded with site visitors early within the mornings. It’s not vacationers. It’s not new neighbors. The truth is, it’s not individuals in any respect—however an amazing quantity of driverless vehicles.
The vehicles are from robotaxi firm Waymo, which has been working in Atlanta since June of 2025. The corporate has a fleet of about 100 vehicles within the metropolis—and once they’re not being known as to supply rides, a few of these Waymos have mysteriously determined to spend their free time circling just a few residential streets.
One of many neighborhood’s residents defined the state of affairs to local news channel WSB-TV, saying that she and her neighbors first began seeing Waymos within the space round two months in the past, with bigger teams of the vehicles coming en masse up to now couple weeks.
“It’s virtually each cul-de-sac round our space, so I believe it’s an actual downside,” the resident mentioned. “I believe yesterday morning we had 50 vehicles that got here by way of between 6 and seven.”
Residents have even tried utilizing a small plastic “child-at-play” cutout to dam the highway and hold the Waymos out, solely to create an enormous site visitors jam of driverless automobiles within the course of. “We had, at one level, eight Waymos that had been caught, making an attempt to determine the right way to flip round,” the resident mentioned.
The elevated site visitors is annoying (and greater than slightly creepy), however past any inconveniences, residents are frightened that the automobiles might pose a hazard to youngsters within the space.
“We’ve got households. We’ve got small youngsters. We’ve got animals and pets. We’ve bought youngsters getting on the bus within the morning. And it simply doesn’t really feel protected to have that site visitors,” the resident mentioned. “We simply want to see them keep on fundamental site visitors roads. I don’t suppose there’s any motive to be on small residential cul-de-sacs in the event that they’re not selecting up any individual.”
Waymo weighs in
When information of the Waymos’ favourite hangout spot made it to social media, customers shortly had a subject day poking enjoyable on the absurdity of the state of affairs and theorizing the potential causes behind it.
Some customers joked that the vehicles had been creating their very own tradition. “Oh, so it’s mistaken for vehicles to invent faith??” one user asked.
“God forbid a robotic have a pastime,” quipped another.
Others thought the vehicles’ weird patterns had been an indication of one thing extra sinister. “They only surveilling the town. Little doubt about it,” one user theorized.
“That is such an ideal allegory for what AI is doing to society,” pointed out another.
Although Waymo itself has but to chime in on the discourse on social media, a Waymo spokesperson mentioned that the corporate has “already addressed this routing conduct” in an announcement to Quick Firm.
“At Waymo, we’re dedicated to being good neighbors. We take group suggestions critically,” the assertion reads. “With over 500,000 weekly journeys throughout the nation, our service is confirmed to considerably cut back site visitors accidents and enhance highway security. We worth our relationship with Atlanta residents and stay centered on offering a seamless, respectful, and protected expertise for riders and residents alike.”
The place ought to vehicles spend their downtime?
The Waymos’ behavior of circling cul-de-sacs could have been a glitch of their programming, nevertheless it raises a query regardless: Once they’re not driving passengers round Atlanta, the place are the Waymos supposed to be?
The corporate does have parking depots for its automobiles the place they’re cleaned and serviced, however Waymos are additionally programmed to hunt out road parking once they’re in between rides.
In an announcement to The Verge final August, Waymo’s director of product administration, Vishay Nihalani, mentioned the corporate’s automobiles “will discover applicable parking spots to attend for brief durations between journeys, both in Waymo’s parking services or on-street parking areas.”
“When Waymo automobiles are idle and don’t have charging or upkeep wants, they select between parking in close by spots or driving to areas of excessive demand,” Nihalani defined. “This permits us to finest match ride-hailing demand and automobile provide, whereas conserving power and decreasing site visitors congestion.”
However a quiet residential space in northwest Atlanta doesn’t sound like an “space of excessive demand”—so for now, what drew the Waymos there within the first place stays a thriller.
