Residents in a northwest Atlanta neighborhood are raising concerns over Waymo vehicles crowding their streets.
ABC News affiliate WSB-TV first reported about the self-driving vehicles flooding residential streets. Residents say empty Waymos are found circling their neighborhood located on Battleview Drive.
“It’s almost every little cul-de-sac in our area, so I think it’s a problem,” a resident told WSB-TV.
Andrea Brown Milheizler via Storyful – PHOTO: Footage obtained by Storyful shows multiple Waymos driving down a street in an Atlanta neighborhood, circling a cul-de-sac and driving back up the street.
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Another resident added, “I think yesterday morning, we had 50 cars that came through between 6 and 7.”
Residents say they first saw Waymos about two months ago, but in the past few weeks, groups of the autonomous, driverless cars and large numbers of them, have been found circling in and out of the residential neighborhood, WSB-TV reports.
Storyful – PHOTO: Footage obtained by Storyful shows multiple Waymos driving down a street in an Atlanta neighborhood, circling a cul-de-sac and driving back up the street.
One resident tried taking matters into their own hands by putting up a Step2Kid sign — a neon figure with a flag — to block the vehicles from entering a cul-de-sac, but it created a traffic jam of Waymo vehicles trying to figure out how to turn around, according to WSB-TV.
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Now, some residents are raising concerns over safety, saying the number of cars is excessive and dangerous.
“We’re families, we have small animals and pets, got kids getting on the bus in the morning and it just doesn’t feel safe to have that traffic,” one resident told WSB-TV.
Another resident told WSB-TV, “We would like to just see them stay on main traffic roads. I don’t think there’s any reason for them to be on small residential cul-de-sacs if they’re not picking up somebody.”
Residents told WSB-TV that they’ve reached out to Waymo but haven’t received a response from the company. They said they also contacted local and state officials.
In a statement to ABC News, Waymo said it is “committed to being good neighbors” and “we take community feedback seriously and have already worked with our fleet partner to address 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,” Waymo added. “We value our relationship with Atlanta residents and remain focused on providing a seamless, respectful, and safe experience for riders and residents alike.”
