'Lost Waymo test car keeps waking us up'
"I knew it was Waymo instantly from that hideous siren and reversing noise. I just thought, 'Oh God here we go again'," says Chris Lloyd, who has been repeatedly woken by a private hire test car getting lost in the cul-de-sac where he lives.
Lloyd said a Waymo car had repeatedly driven into and then reversed out of Elder Street in Spitalfields, east London, in the early hours of the morning since the start of May.
As part of a test for driverless private hire cars in the capital, Waymo vehicles are mapping London's streets while being operated by a safety driver.
After the issue was first raised to Waymo by BBC London, the company apologised, but the issue persisted.
Waymo has apologised again to Elder Street residents, adding "we will continue to monitor our driving".
The US company said it planned to operate its self-driving fleet in London by September.
A spokesperson for Waymo said after the issue was raised in May, the company blocked vehicles from entering Elder Street, but they were able to use another connecting road, which also had a dead-end.
They said due to this, drivers had to "initiate multipoint turns to exit". The company said it had expanded the number of blocked roads in the area, "to prevent future traversals" on Elder Street.
Lloyd, who has lived on the street for 16 years, said that because the road was within a conservation area, most homes did not have double-glazing and were more exposed to noise.
The 56-year-old said: "At 05:30 BST last week, another [Waymo] car came down the street, stopped about halfway down, tried to reverse, tried to turn around, couldn't, and reversed all the way down the street again. A nice wake-up call for everyone."
Lloyd said he and his neighbours were "disappointed" it had happened again.
On Tuesday, the London Assembly Transport Committee heard expert evidence on how autonomous vehicles could impact Londoners.
Dr Nick Reed, founder of Reed Mobility and member of the Department for Transport's science advisory council, said the public had a high expectations of the vehicles' safety.
"The evidence from US cities, we're seeing an 80 to 90% reduction in crashes compared to human drivers," he said. "But London is very different to US cities so you have to be careful about comparisons."
Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association, agreed that London's roads - and their users - were very different from the US's.
"[London is] a mish-mash of medieval villages that joined together," he said.
"Jaywalking in this city is a national sport. In a lot of places in the world, you get fined by the police if you jaywalk."
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