Waymo: Self-driving cars collect more than 600 parking tickets

Waymo's 300 or so driverless cars on the road in San Francisco collected 589 parking tickets in San Francisco alone in 2024. The company had to pay a total of 65,065 US dollars in fines. This was reported by the Washington Post on Thursday. According to the report, a total of 1.2 million parking tickets amounting to almost 119 million dollars were issued to parking offenders in the city of San Francisco. In Los Angeles, where Waymo's autonomous vehicles are also on the road, 75 parking tickets totaling 543 dollars were issued to autonomous vehicles.

The authorities are taking parking violations seriously in both cities. In San Francisco in particular, parking tickets are being handed out in large numbers. There is a reason for this, as these vehicles can obstruct the flow of traffic by parking incorrectly and, in the worst case, cause accidents. In contrast to other incidents involving Waymo's autonomous vehicles, such as collisions with other vehicles, people and objects that result in damage and injury, parking violations do not have to be reported to the California Department of Motor Vehicles. However, accidents are not always reported.

Waymo vows to make improvements

Waymo now wants to address the matter. The violations will of course be paid for, says Waymo spokesman Ethan Teichert , according to the Washington Post. The vehicles are trained to take the safest measures available for parking at that moment in the short time they are picking up or dropping off passengers, he said. Most of the parking tickets were issued during these periods, says Teichert.

The vehicles also take into account how far the passenger still has to walk to their destination when they are dropped off. In case of doubt, the vehicle stops on a congested main road. The vehicles can also park in a commercial loading zone, for example. In general, vehicles may "park briefly" between individual journeys if they are not close to Waymo facilities.

Finding a safe parking space in a crowded city is already a difficult task for human drivers – even more so for robot cars. They would first have to learn the social norms of the road. Waymo vows to do better here and wants to expand the capabilities of its autonomous vehicles. After all, the company has no interest in its cars breaking parking rules.

Local authorities and the police currently punish parking violations by driverless vehicles in the same way as those by conventionally powered vehicles. In fact, autonomous vehicles cannot be issued with parking violations, as summonses can only be issued to the driver. According to a law passed in 2024, police officers will only be able to issue so-called "notices of non-compliance by autonomous vehicles" to robot cars from July 2026. When it comes to parking rules, however, the same parking rules apply to driverless cars as to vehicles with drivers.

(olb)