Featured Image Credit: Smith Collection/Gado / Contributor via Getty
The technology behind self-driving cars has been getting better with each subsequent year, yet they are still not without their mishaps — and some are unfortunately more dangerous than others.
While you might think of Tesla leading the charge when it comes to autonomous vehicles, it's actually Google that has been dominating the space with its Waymo self-driving taxi service.
Elon Musk's Robotaxi tech has only just got off the ground and remains limited in its operations across the United States, yet Waymo currently offers rides across 10 metropolitan cities in five different states, with roughly 500,000 paid trips operated every single week.
There have been a number of alarming instances that emerge as a result of the self-driving tech, including one incident where a man became 'trapped' in the vehicle's truck, and another that prompted the cops the pull over a car without a driver, yet perhaps the strangest one yet just took place in Atlanta.
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As reported by WSB-TV, one neighborhood in northwest Atlanta was faced with an unnerving and almost spooky incident across the last few weeks as dozens of completely empty Waymo cars have been cruising around the streets without stopping.
They might not be presenting any danger – outside of their ominous presence in otherwise peaceful neighborhoods – but residents are rightfully concerned and want the issue to be resolved.
One resident interviewed by the local station revealed that there were around 50 cars driving up and down the street outside her house between the hours of six and seven in the morning, which can obviously be incredibly disruptive to your daily routine.
Some residents even went as far to create fake children out of cardboard as a means of blocking the Waymo cars from entering their street, and while thankfully none of the vehicles ran the pseudo-child down, it instead caused a commotion nearby with a convoy of cars confused about what to do next.
"We're families, we have small kids, we have animals and pets," one resident pleaded, expressing her fear that the roaming cars could cause an accident.
"We've got kids getting on the bus in the mornings, and it just doesn't feel safe to have that traffic," she continued.
Any attempts to contact Waymo have been met with a dead end as the company has issued no response, leaving residents feeling helpless and confused as to what the next steps should be.
"We would just like to see them stay on main traffic roads," the resident illustrated, noting that she doesn't believe there's "any reason for them to be on small residential cul-de-sacs if they're not picking up somebody."
