This month, some San Francisco residents are running on fumes. It’s not because they’re working extra hours or caring for infants overnight (IYKYK). Interestingly, it’s because of a particular sound that should seem typical inside city limits: honking. However, the noise is practically unbearable due to the time of day and sheer number of horn honks. For weeks now, rows of Waymo self-driving cars have been “confusing” each other. As a result, they keep inadvertently instigating honk battles at odd hours, like 4 am.

“I think it’s coming from the Waymo cars.”

Residential buildings surround a lot where the autonomous vehicles park when not in use. A few days ago, a resident told ABC7 that the honking woke them up once, then again…and again. They ultimately tracked the noise down to the parking lot full of Waymo cars next to their condo building.

Another resident lamented to ABC7, “Over the past two weeks, I’ve been woken up more times overnight than I have combined over 20 years.” As a mom of two youngsters, I’m a bit hard-pressed to pity the guy, but truth be told, sleep deprivation is nothing to shrug off.

According to the Institute of Medicine Committee on Sleep Medicine and Research, sleep deprivation takes a toll on just about every indicator of public health. This includes mortality, morbidity, performance, accidents and injuries, functioning and quality of life, family well-being, and health care utilization.

In response, Waymo sent the following statement to ABC7:

“We are aware that in some scenarios our vehicles may briefly honk at while navigating our parking lots…We have identified the cause and are in the process of implementing a fix.”

Indeed, one of the residents shared that the issue with Waymo is already improving. Hopefully these folks start catching some quality snooze here shortly.