Posted on 01/02/2026 6:55:01 AM PST by DFG
The city of Santa Monica is asking a judge to declare the two Waymo charging stations public nuisances and order that overnight operations be curtailed due to the effects of noise and lighting on nearby residents.
The city's court papers, filed Dec. 24, say those who live near the stations have used such terms as "mini-Las Vegas," "living next door to a spaceship," "a circus" and "a city that never sleeps" to describe their plight.
Residents also say they hear workers' whole conversations in normal speaking voices in the middle of the night, along with all the other sounds the Waymo cars make, which "echo off buildings along the alleys like a canyon," according to the city's court papers, which state that lights from cars and awnings are more glaring when it is dark.
The proposed injunction would stop charging operations at the two lots from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. or by ordering other "appropriate measures to abate the nighttime nuisances."
Residents voice concerns
What they're saying: In a sworn declaration, resident Paula Achter, who works from home, says she has had to adjust her sleeping habits and do her job from a different location in her apartment due to the noise from the Waymo vehicles passing by her building. She further says that humans are not the only ones being bothered.
"I used to hear birds singing in the morning from my apartment," the 69-year-old Achter says. "I've noticed I don't hear them anymore. I believe that they have nested elsewhere due to the Waymo frequency."
Victoria Benchuk, a single mother of an autistic 5-year-old son, says in her declaration that the Waymo lot near her building opened a few months after she and her boy moved into their apartment in October 2024.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxla.com ...
Yeah, but they don’t mind the filthy homeless camps that are all over Santa Monica - one of the rail lines ends in Santa Monica and a local cop told me loads of homeless get off each night when the rail line closes down after riding the rails all day. In the morning, they get back on.
People who live in Santa Monica and elsewhere on the Southern California coast often don’t have air conditioning and rarely use heating as it only get hot like 3 days a year and it only gets cold like 4 days a year. So I can see why they’re p.o.’d about this crap.
Waymo is a public nuisance. Last week I saw one make a U-turn in the middle of a street where it wasn’t allowed to do so. It surprised me but I’m not sure why I thought these things would obey the law.
No pictures at the source link, so just have to take their word for it.
Charging station? Noise of passing vehicles?
I thought electric vehicles didn’t make noise.
Charging station? Noise of passing vehicles?
I thought electric vehicles didn’t make noise.
In the middle of the night with no other ambinet sounds, the vehicles dominate the sounds of the night. The conversations will reverberate of walls etc.
In the middle of the night I will sometimes hear a train from a mile away and down a large hill. Never in the daytime.
I never heard of Waymo, until people started complaining about it. I assume that’s because there are none near my location.
New one on me too, I had to do a web search to see what a Waymo car was.
“Last week I saw one make a U-turn in the middle of a street where it wasn’t allowed to do so.”
What state?
In Texas you can uturn anywhere that there is not an explicit sign stating no u turns or across double solid yellow lines only. Across dashed lines of any color or single solid white you absolutely can u turn and people do frequently in Texas.
Waymo are running in most of Central Austin now and so is Tesla Robotaxis they both are great I use them frequently when I stay at my condo in downtown Austin for Lake fun or SXSW or ACL or just when I want to party and do live music and gastropubs or beer gardens
eV’s dont make any noise, just pissed off santa monica being sontly prigs
Same as the constant Pounding 🎵 one is subjected to in stores. Constant. Designed to wear the will down.
Communist U. S. ✖️☢️
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