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Residents say Waymo robotaxis are driving them mad

CNN

24 minutes ago

CNN

Residents say Waymo robotaxis are driving them mad

It's nearing midnight as the young man scurries through a dark alley. He wears a mask and overalls and is armed with a roll of duct tape. As he nears his target – a driverless robot taxi – he tears off some tape to disable the futuristic car's sensors. 'We just want the Waymos to stop beeping at night,' he says. 'They're really disturbing us. They're disturbing our neighbors.' The man and others call themselves 'stackers,' and most nights you'll find them, faces masked from security cameras, on a mission. They stand in the way of robotaxis, so the cars are forced to line up in a stack in an alley and can't access two charging lots near downtown Santa Monica that Waymo opened in January, with little fanfare and apparently zero prior public awareness. 'We'll try lasering the next one,' one stacker says to another. 'We're just running some routine experiments to see what it takes to properly stack a Waymo.' Waymo — owned by Google's parent company Alphabet — now has about 300 robotaxis roaming the streets of Los Angeles County. They've become very popular with riders, but very unpopular with some residents who say human beings are kept awake at night by the robots' honking, flashing lights and back-up beeps, as well as the general hubbub generated by the robots' human attendants, who plug them in to charge and vacuum them between rides. 'When they began operating the lots, it was by complete surprise and all of us stopped sleeping,' says the original stacker, who goes by the handle Stacker One. He asked us not to use his real name. 'Beep, beep, beep all night long,' says Stacker One, who says he now hears the back-up noises in his head even when he's far away from his Santa Monica home. 'Like some of the other neighbors reported, I've had like phantom beeps during my drowsy days.' Waymo has tried, and so far failed, to get a restraining order against Stacker One. The stacking continues. Santa Monica officials say the back-up beeping isn't loud enough to violate the city's noise ordinance. But Stacker One points to another local law saying there can be no 'business support operations' between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. within 100 feet of a residence. 'And there's no mention of an exception that says if you get a robot to yell for you, you're allowed to do that at night,' he says. In the face of complaints, Waymo says it has bought quieter vacuums for the humans who clean the robotaxis, limited the speed they drive in the alleys to 10 mph and limited the late-night use of the lot that was drawing the most complaints. The company has also planted some bamboo, hoping to muffle the noise of both the robotaxis and their human attendants. 'We strive to be good neighbors,' a Waymo spokesperson told CNN. 'We are in ongoing conversation with the city's Department of Transportation and are actively working with the agency as we explore and implement mitigations that address neighbors' concerns.' But the lots continue to operate, and the robots continue to beep when they back up. 'They've not done enough,' says Nancy Taylor, a long-time local who likens the nighttime disturbance to a Las Vegas light show. 'In fact, last night it was worse.' She now sleeps with a white noise machine, and behind newly installed blackout drapes. This Waymo war in Santa Monica is an example of how humans are still trying to figure out how to live alongside and legislate technology in this nascent age of artificial intelligence. The first issue: who regulates what when it comes to new, revolutionary inventions like motor vehicles that aren't driven by humans? A spokesperson for Santa Monica told me: 'The city has no jurisdiction to regulate Waymo's operations, as autonomous vehicle/robotaxi services are exclusively permitted in California by the California Public Utilities Commission and the Department of Motor Vehicles.' The Public Utilities Commission say they only handle passenger safety. And the DMV referred us back to Waymo and local law enforcement. The back-up beeping is the main issue for people who live around the lots in Santa Monica. And that is a stipulation of federal law: all autonomous electric vehicles — just like large delivery trucks — must beep when they're backing up for the safety of the pedestrians around them. One exasperated and under-slept local questioned the need: pointing out that robots can see just as clearly when they're going backwards as forwards, that they're not piloted by a human straining to look over their shoulder, and they're programmed not to hit any human who might walk in their way. With driverless cars spreading across the nation, some laws will need to be tweaked. In New York State, for example, the law says a driver must have at least one hand on the steering wheel at all times. An AI algorithm, of course, doesn't have a hand. As we were wrapping up chatting to Stacker One on a recent sunny afternoon in Santa Monica, we saw Waymos gathering, gridlocked around the gate of the already overflowing charging lot. A Santa Monica Police Department parking enforcement officer was frantically printing out parking tickets and slipping them under the robots' windshield wipers. The offence: parked in an alley without a driver behind the wheel. If there were human drivers inside, she couldn't give the cars a parking ticket. She can give them to robots. But a parking ticket is, right now, the only ticket a cop can give to a Waymo. Robots, under current California law, can't get traffic tickets. State legislators are currently mulling a bill that would, among other things, 'Require the individual car violating the law to be assessed fines and points in the same manner as a human driver.' But would a $300 ticket be as strong a disincentive to a corporation that owns a robot as it is to a human driver who is paying out of their own, much smaller pocket? 'The solution is to treat these cars like they're cars,' says Grayson Small, a musician who lives on an alley that leads to the Waymo lots. He's too far away to be bothered by the noise but worries about safety. 'You can watch it even now,' he said, pointing to a Waymo inching into a crosswalk. 'It didn't stop at all at the stop sign! It's rolling!' Helping policymakers and the public understand the challenges that are coming is the job of Hamid Ekbia, director of the Autonomous Systems Policy Institute and a professor at Syracuse University. 'The public should be involved in conversations before the fact, before these technologies are let loose,' he says. 'All AI technologies should go through this process.' Residents say public consultation has not happened. At least not in Santa Monica, at least not regarding Waymo. 'I asked if I could come to their city council meeting to ask questions,' Taylor tells CNN. 'They said, 'Oh they have a waiver, there's not going to be a city council meeting.'' And there wasn't. 'Many of us have also appealed to each relevant department of the city,' says Stacker One. 'We didn't immediately engage in protests, constitutionally protected activity. That was not our first step.' Ekbia worries that other new AI technologies are not visible, so the public can't stand in front of them to protest. 'This is just the tip of the iceberg,' he says of the Waymo standoffs. 'People could react, respond, because they can see it, and they can hear it. There are going to be systems where the effects, the impacts are not going to be visible. So we better do something before it's too late. Even if it is at the expense of slowing things down. You know, what's the rush?' 'People need to care about people,' says Stacker One. 'Government works for the people … and not for something else.' Small, the musician, says: 'Doing things that we've never been able to do in the past is great.' However, he's anxious he'll get run over by a robot when taking his trash out to the alley. 'But if it comes at the expense of humanity and human happiness and joy and being able to live life and not being inconvenienced constantly: what's the point?'

CNN

33 minutes ago

CNN

Residents say Waymo robotaxis are driving them mad

It's nearing midnight as the young man scurries through a dark alley. He wears a mask and overalls and is armed with a roll of duct tape. As he nears his target – a driverless robot taxi – he tears off some tape to disable the futuristic car's sensors. 'We just want the Waymos to stop beeping at night,' he says. 'They're really disturbing us. They're disturbing our neighbors.' The man and others call themselves 'stackers,' and most nights you'll find them, faces masked from security cameras, on a mission. They stand in the way of robotaxis, so the cars are forced to line up in a stack in an alley and can't access two charging lots near downtown Santa Monica that Waymo opened in January, with little fanfare and apparently zero prior public awareness. 'We'll try lasering the next one,' one stacker says to another. 'We're just running some routine experiments to see what it takes to properly stack a Waymo.' Waymo — owned by Google's parent company Alphabet — now has about 300 robotaxis roaming the streets of Los Angeles County. They've become very popular with riders, but very unpopular with some residents who say human beings are kept awake at night by the robots' honking, flashing lights and back-up beeps, as well as the general hubbub generated by the robots' human attendants, who plug them in to charge and vacuum them between rides. 'When they began operating the lots, it was by complete surprise and all of us stopped sleeping,' says the original stacker, who goes by the handle Stacker One. He asked us not to use his real name. 'Beep, beep, beep all night long,' says Stacker One, who says he now hears the back-up noises in his head even when he's far away from his Santa Monica home. 'Like some of the other neighbors reported, I've had like phantom beeps during my drowsy days.' Waymo has tried, and so far failed, to get a restraining order against Stacker One. The stacking continues. Santa Monica officials say the back-up beeping isn't loud enough to violate the city's noise ordinance. But Stacker One points to another local law saying there can be no 'business support operations' between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. within 100 feet of a residence. 'And there's no mention of an exception that says if you get a robot to yell for you, you're allowed to do that at night,' he says. In the face of complaints, Waymo says it has bought quieter vacuums for the humans who clean the robotaxis, limited the speed they drive in the alleys to 10 mph and limited the late-night use of the lot that was drawing the most complaints. The company has also planted some bamboo, hoping to muffle the noise of both the robotaxis and their human attendants. 'We strive to be good neighbors,' a Waymo spokesperson told CNN. 'We are in ongoing conversation with the city's Department of Transportation and are actively working with the agency as we explore and implement mitigations that address neighbors' concerns.' But the lots continue to operate, and the robots continue to beep when they back up. 'They've not done enough,' says Nancy Taylor, a long-time local who likens the nighttime disturbance to a Las Vegas light show. 'In fact, last night it was worse.' She now sleeps with a white noise machine, and behind newly installed blackout drapes. This Waymo war in Santa Monica is an example of how humans are still trying to figure out how to live alongside and legislate technology in this nascent age of artificial intelligence. The first issue: who regulates what when it comes to new, revolutionary inventions like motor vehicles that aren't driven by humans? A spokesperson for Santa Monica told me: 'The city has no jurisdiction to regulate Waymo's operations, as autonomous vehicle/robotaxi services are exclusively permitted in California by the California Public Utilities Commission and the Department of Motor Vehicles.' The Public Utilities Commission say they only handle passenger safety. And the DMV referred us back to Waymo and local law enforcement. The back-up beeping is the main issue for people who live around the lots in Santa Monica. And that is a stipulation of federal law: all autonomous electric vehicles — just like large delivery trucks — must beep when they're backing up for the safety of the pedestrians around them. One exasperated and under-slept local questioned the need: pointing out that robots can see just as clearly when they're going backwards as forwards, that they're not piloted by a human straining to look over their shoulder, and they're programmed not to hit any human who might walk in their way. With driverless cars spreading across the nation, some laws will need to be tweaked. In New York State, for example, the law says a driver must have at least one hand on the steering wheel at all times. An AI algorithm, of course, doesn't have a hand. As we were wrapping up chatting to Stacker One on a recent sunny afternoon in Santa Monica, we saw Waymos gathering, gridlocked around the gate of the already overflowing charging lot. A Santa Monica Police Department parking enforcement officer was frantically printing out parking tickets and slipping them under the robots' windshield wipers. The offence: parked in an alley without a driver behind the wheel. If there were human drivers inside, she couldn't give the cars a parking ticket. She can give them to robots. But a parking ticket is, right now, the only ticket a cop can give to a Waymo. Robots, under current California law, can't get traffic tickets. State legislators are currently mulling a bill that would, among other things, 'Require the individual car violating the law to be assessed fines and points in the same manner as a human driver.' But would a $300 ticket be as strong a disincentive to a corporation that owns a robot as it is to a human driver who is paying out of their own, much smaller pocket? 'The solution is to treat these cars like they're cars,' says Grayson Small, a musician who lives on an alley that leads to the Waymo lots. He's too far away to be bothered by the noise but worries about safety. 'You can watch it even now,' he said, pointing to a Waymo inching into a crosswalk. 'It didn't stop at all at the stop sign! It's rolling!' Helping policymakers and the public understand the challenges that are coming is the job of Hamid Ekbia, director of the Autonomous Systems Policy Institute and a professor at Syracuse University. 'The public should be involved in conversations before the fact, before these technologies are let loose,' he says. 'All AI technologies should go through this process.' Residents say public consultation has not happened. At least not in Santa Monica, at least not regarding Waymo. 'I asked if I could come to their city council meeting to ask questions,' Taylor tells CNN. 'They said, 'Oh they have a waiver, there's not going to be a city council meeting.'' And there wasn't. 'Many of us have also appealed to each relevant department of the city,' says Stacker One. 'We didn't immediately engage in protests, constitutionally protected activity. That was not our first step.' Ekbia worries that other new AI technologies are not visible, so the public can't stand in front of them to protest. 'This is just the tip of the iceberg,' he says of the Waymo standoffs. 'People could react, respond, because they can see it, and they can hear it. There are going to be systems where the effects, the impacts are not going to be visible. So we better do something before it's too late. Even if it is at the expense of slowing things down. You know, what's the rush?' 'People need to care about people,' says Stacker One. 'Government works for the people … and not for something else.' Small, the musician, says: 'Doing things that we've never been able to do in the past is great.' However, he's anxious he'll get run over by a robot when taking his trash out to the alley. 'But if it comes at the expense of humanity and human happiness and joy and being able to live life and not being inconvenienced constantly: what's the point?'

I wasn't sure how different the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 would really be — but then I saw these leaked renders

Tom's Guide

41 minutes ago

Tom's Guide

I wasn't sure how different the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 would really be — but then I saw these leaked renders

We're hoping to see the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 launch in just a couple of weeks. But while we wait, we can see the design in clear detail thanks to renders published by Evan "Evleaks" Blass. Enough detail to help me finally understand how big a difference this generational leap will be. The renders come in three colors — silver, blue and black, and show the alleged Z Fold 7 from a variety of angles. While the new phone naturally has a similar design to the Galaxy Z Fold 6, we can still see a few differences. For one, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 appears to be quite a bit thinner, as rumored. We can also see the internal screen has a camera punch-hole rather than a concealed under-display camera like previous models. There appears to be slightly different texture to the rear cameras' surrounds too, to help differentiate the new Z Fold further from the older models. Galaxy Z Series: free $50 credit @ SamsungGet a free $50 Samsung credit when you register your interest in one of Samsung's new Galaxy Z phone launches. The site doesn't mention the Z Fold 7 or Z Flip 7 by name, but all signs point to this being what gets announced on July 9. Additionally, you'll get an enhanced trade-in credit when you trade-in your old phone. This offer is valid through July 8. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 should also see other alleged changes we can't see in simple images like this. Rumored upgrades like an increase in screen size, a 200MP main camera, a more powerful chipset and whatever else Samsung has done to make its foldable "ultra," as its repeated teasers seem to be suggesting. If you need further proof of the Galaxy Z Fold 7's colors, a leak via Samsung's local Irish website (via Android Authority) has seemingly accidentally revealed the names of the hues we see above. The screenshot from this page claims the official names for the colors are Jet Black, Blue Shadow, and Silver Shadow. Interestingly, it also reveals a previously unknown Green Mint color exclusive to Samsung's online store. This leak also tells us the colors for the Galaxy Z Flip 7 will be Coral Red, Jet Black and Blue Shadow, again with Green Mint as a Samsung exclusive. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. On top of the colors, the screenshots also show the memory variants Samsung will offer the new phones in. Fitting with last year's model, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 should come with either 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of storage, with a pre-order bonus of doubling a buyer's storage for free. The Galaxy Z Flip 7 meanwhile is offered with 256GB or 512GB, ditching the previous standard storage of 128GB apparently without increasing the basic price. Samsung announced a Galaxy Unpacked event for July 9, and precedent suggests this will be the time and place we see the new Galaxy foldables launch. We'll keep up with all the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 rumors and keep our hubs updated to give you all the details we have, as well as for the other products tipped to launch at this event, the Galaxy Watch 8, Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 and new Galaxy Buds.

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Residents say Waymo robotaxis are driving them mad

Residents say Waymo robotaxis are driving them mad

I wasn't sure how different the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 would really be — but then I saw these leaked renders

I actually prefer budget phones to flagships — but there's one thing phone makers need to fix

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Residents say Waymo robotaxis are driving them mad

Residents say Waymo robotaxis are driving them mad

I wasn't sure how different the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 would really be — but then I saw these leaked renders

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