‘Mass chaos’: Residents say dozens of riderless Waymo cars circle their neighborhood daily

ATLANTA (Atlanta News First/Gray News) — Residents in Atlanta’s Buckhead community are raising concerns about Waymo’s self-driving vehicles using their neighborhood as a holding location.

Neighbors said they sometimes see several dozen Waymo cars driving down a small cul-de-sac each day.

Videos from neighbors on Battleview Drive show 13 Waymo cars driving through in the span of 10 minutes.

“I think yesterday morning, we had 50 cars that came through between 6 and 7,” one resident on Battleview Drive said Thursday.

It is a problem, the residents said, that has ramped up in the last two weeks, with the Waymo cars driving in circles, seemingly waiting for someone in the general area to call for a ride.

“Our big concern is just the excessive traffic on the street. We’re families. We have small kids. We have animals and pets. We’ve got kids getting on the bus in the mornings and it just doesn’t feel safe to have that traffic,” the Battleview Drive resident added.

Another resident said she has seen two near misses with a neighborhood cat and a dog on a leash when the cars come through.

Residents even put their own traffic signs in the road to deter the driverless cars, but that didn’t work.

“We had, at one point, eight Waymos that were stuck trying to figure out how to turn around,” the Battleview Drive resident said.

It’s not just the Battleview neighborhood. Waymo vehicles have also been on nearby Fernleaf Circle, and down the road where Deborah Childers and her dog, Hazel, live at the Glenridge Woods Townhomes, which are private property.

Childers noticed the cars coming through in the last week.

“I’m just hoping that Waymo will only come in our neighborhood when they’re called, like an Uber, not use our neighborhood as a holding area or a training ground,” Childers said. “It’s enough of them that it’s bothersome. It’s not like one. It’s like three or maybe four. They do the same loop.”

These neighbors aren’t sure what to do about the problem after reaching out to Waymo themselves.

“We never got a response. We reached out to local representatives. They kind of passed the buck to the next person,” said the Battleview Drive resident. “Then we’ve tried state representatives. Haven’t heard back from them. We tried GDOT. Haven’t heard back from them. We really just don’t know what to do about it.”

The resident said she wants to see the cars stay on main roads unless they are actually picking up a rider, especially as they already have construction happening on their street.

“When you combine the Waymo traffic and construction that’s going on, it’s just kind of mass chaos,” she said.

A Waymo spokesperson issued a statement saying, “At Waymo, we are committed to being good neighbors. We take community feedback seriously and have already addressed this routing behavior. With over 500,000 weekly trips across the country, our service is proven to significantly reduce traffic injuries and improve road safety. We value our relationship with Atlanta residents and remain focused on providing a seamless, respectful, and safe experience for riders and residents alike.”

The company spokesperson clarified that this behavior has been addressed in this neighborhood and surrounding areas.

This comes as Waymo recalled more than 3,700 vehicles over a software issue that could cause them to drive into floods. An unoccupied Waymo previously drove into a flooded road in Texas at about 40 miles per hour.

That’s what has some of these mothers concerned as well, and they are asking what else these vehicles might miss.…Read more by Sarah Hammond