64 Of Waymo’s 83 Austin Tickets Came From One Parking Habit

Driverless Waymo taxis tin beryllium rather impressive. Some information adjacent suggests that they’re safer than quality drivers. True oregon not, there’s 1 portion of driving they inactive can’t look to crack. Parking. Now, a caller study indicates that Waymo has racked up much than $9,300 successful parking tickets since it went unrecorded successful Austin successful 2024. As robotaxi fleets grow, these seemingly insignificant infractions are becoming progressively hard for cities to ignore.

The Ticket Tally

According to The Wall Street Journal, which obtained metropolis records done an unfastened records request, Waymo vehicles person received 83 parking citations totaling $9,325. The institution has already paid $7,433 of those fines, portion different $1,892 remained outstanding arsenic of July 15. A further breakdown exposes immoderate of the issues these robotaxis conflict with.

More: Waymo’s Self-Driving Brain Can’t Spot A Closed Freeway

The bulk of the citations, 64 successful total, were issued for parking successful tow-away zones. Another 13 tickets stemmed from unpaid parking meters, portion 9 were for treble parking. The azygous largest good came connected September 11, 2024, erstwhile 1 of Waymo’s Jaguar I-Pace robotaxis parked successful a abstraction reserved for disabled drivers, resulting successful a $519 citation.

Austin issues parking tickets to vehicles alternatively than drivers, meaning Waymo is liable for paying the fines conscionable similar immoderate different registered owner. “We bash not expect antithetic attraction [in regard] to ticketing,” a Waymo spokesperson told the publication. That’s a coagulated space for a institution seemingly struggling to hole the problem. What’s little comforting are the niche cases.

When It Gets Worse Than A Meter

You see, immoderate incidents went beyond regular parking enforcement. Police reportedly had 1 Waymo towed aft it stopped partially blocking an progressive railroad crossing successful January 2025. Another conveyance reportedly waited for a rider portion occupying a disabled parking abstraction extracurricular an simple school. Residents person besides filed complaints done Austin’s nationalist reporting system. In 1 case, a Waymo allegedly sat extracurricular a religion parking store for much than 5 minutes during Sunday services, preventing vehicles from entering oregon leaving.

At this point, the institution says it tries to person its vehicles parkland successful ineligible parking spaces erstwhile not successful usage sometimes. Clearly, the taxis prime the incorrect spot astatine times. For now, it sounds arsenic though Waymo volition conscionable proceed to wage the tickets arsenic they proceed to rotation in.

Photos: Waymo