Waymo hits 100,000 weekly trips amid honking problem

Robotaxi company Waymo is providing way more trips of late – 100,000 per week, which the company said is twice the amount as in May of this year, according to CNBC.

Waymo told the outlet that it has completed over 14.8 million rider-only miles driven. However, the company is still navigating a honking problem that's irritating San Francisco residents. More on that later.

"We're building a safer future one ride at a time, and I'm thrilled to share that we've just surpassed 100k paid trips per week!" posted Co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana on LinkedIn.

Waymo's parent company, Alphabet, which is also the owner of Google, told CNBC that the most trips are taken in San Francisco. Waymo also provides rides in Phoenix and Los Angeles and has a waitlist for interested riders in Austin.

In the San Francisco area, the company expanded this month into Daly City, Broadmoor and Colma, California. Waymo's Los Angeles service area has also grown to include Marina del Rey, Mar Vista, Playa Vista, and more of Hollywood, Chinatown and Westwood. Alphabet said last month it plans to invest an additional $5 billion in Waymo.

Waymo is also working on its "generation 6" robotaxi technology, which is equipped to handle a wider range of weather conditions and requires fewer cameras (from 29 to 13) and fewer sensors (from five to four lidar sensors) to operate, reported CNBC. The generation 6 technology will be integrated into Waymo's Geely Zeekr EVs.

Robocars don't need 5G

Waymo guides the vehicle using data analytics from its car sensors and technology, including machine learning. As Light Reading has reported, the company's self-driving vehicles are not reliant on 5G or any continuous wireless connection for safe operation, nor do they use vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications.

Instead, Waymo also uses lidar, or Light Detection and Ranging, technology to map a 3D picture of the car's surroundings, plus cameras and radar for navigating the roads. "Continuous advancements in sensor technologies, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are driving improvements in the capabilities of these types of vehicles," according to Fortune Business Insights.

"The Waymo Driver takes the information it gathers in real time, as well as the experience it has built up over its 20+ million miles of real world driving and 20+ billion miles in simulation, to anticipate what other road users might do," according to the company.

While Waymo is currently the only robotaxi on the roads, Tesla plans to launch its autonomous taxi, the CyberCab, on October 10, according to CNBC.

According to Fortune Business Insights, the global autonomous vehicle market was valued at $1.5 billion in 2022 and is forecast to exceed $13 billion by 2030, with a CAGR of 32.3% during the forecast period. The Asia-Pacific region led the autonomous vehicle industry in 2022 with over 50% market share.

Waymo's noise pollution problem

Despite its meteoric rise in rides, Waymo garnered some unwanted attention earlier this month when San Francisco residents complained that the robotaxis were honking at all hours of the night.

Software engineer Sophie Tung lives near a parking lot Waymo rented to "house" its vehicles at night. However, the cars honk at each other as they navigate the parking lot, waking up residents, reported The Verge. Waymo issued several software updates to address the issue, but residents are still reporting honking during early hours of the morning, according to NBC.

"We like having them there, they're really fun to look at. We'd just like them to stop honking," Tung told NBC.