Residents frustrated by 'disturbing' alarm as driver-less car wakes street at 4am after taking dead-end route

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Chris Lloyd, who has lived in Shoreditch for 20 years, took to social media to complain that a vehicle from the American firm’s fleet of pilot cars had jolted him awake at 4.15am after turning into the narrow street and attempting to reverse back out.

He posted footage showing the white SUV-style car mounting the kerb on the cobbled road as it cautiously tried to reverse the length of the street.

Recalling the incident, he told LBC: "I'm used to living in Shoreditch and it's a noisy part of London, but four o'clock in the morning and you just [hear] a really weird warning siren sound."

He said ideally the car would learn not to drive down the dead-end street, but said it has happened on numerous occasions at various times of the day.

He called on Waymo to flag that the street is not for reversing down, especially in the early hours of the morning.

Despite the disturbances, he said he is in favour of the rollout of the driverless vehicles.

He said: "I'm all for them, but again, that's another thing. Like if someone calls a taxi in the street, is it going to drive all the way down the street and then wake everyone up to get out of the street?

"Well, it would obviously be better to stop the other side of the barrier. So you would hope that when it does go live that it does work that out. Hopefully."

Read more: Waymo self-driving car wakes London street at 4am after taking dead end route three times in a week

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Another resident, Jenny Black, told LBC she was busy writing when she was disturbed by the noise outside.

She said: "I heard this familiar noise which I'd only heard in the middle of the night up until then, and my heart sank and I thought it couldn't possibly be, could it?

"And I stuck my head out of the window, and it was, and it was so loud, and it was sort of ricocheting off the buildings off this very narrow street, predominantly residential."

She described the instances as "incredibly frustrating [and] really disturbing".

"It feels like a huge thoughtless imposition on a quiet residential street," she said.

"And when it happens at night, it's been happening in the middle of the night, at three o' clock in the morning, at four o' clock in the morning. It's not just sort of, you know, the evening way past what the highway code would say was acceptable for noise."

Waymo is currently testing its fleet of distinctive white Jaguar vehicles in the capital ahead of plans for a fully autonomous taxi service.

The firm, which already runs driverless services in US cities including San Francisco, Miami and Atlanta, announced in January that 24 vehicles would be deployed in London for testing and street-mapping.

However, the vehicles have come under scrutiny since hitting London’s streets - the latest disturbance being just one in a string of errors during the pilot scheme.

Last month, a "driverless" taxi was spotted driving into a crime scene in west London while it was on a test run in the capital.

Officers investigating a double stabbing in Harlesden were shocked to see a Waymo vehicle ride crash through their police cordon in late April.

The fully autonomous white car was seemingly unaware of the police car lights and sirens as it careered through the "Do Not Cross" tape stretched across Harlesden High Street.

Waymo says it hopes to launch its robotaxi service in London as early as September, although the Government is yet to set an official date for when driverless taxi regulations will change.

The US firm began a pilot in April, with its vehicles initially driven by safety drivers as they map London’s streets.

Transport minister Lilian Greenwood said the Government was backing Waymo and other firms through passenger pilots and “pro-innovation” rules to bring self-driving cars to British roads.

She said autonomous vehicles could make roads safer because they do not get tired, distracted or drive under the influence, but added they would still have to meet strict safety standards, including protection against hacking and cyber threats.

Waymo, whose vehicles have been used for more than 10 million paid rides in the US, said its cars will “navigate London’s unique streets, understand complex layouts and traffic patterns”.

The US company also said its cars are involved in five times fewer injury-causing crashes compared with those with human drivers.

LBC has contacted Waymo for comment.