Sophia Tung stood at her living room window in San Francisco’s SoMa neighbourhood, gazing down at the parking lot she has livestreamed for more than a month. There, far below her 13th floor condo, lives a fleet of Waymo electric robotaxis. Since they first arrived in late July, neighbours like Tung have enjoyed watching the boxy white cars shuttle themselves on and off Second Street.
But for a 2 1/2-week stretch last month, the Waymos became a tech nightmare, honking at each other for hours every night. "The future showed up where I live," Tung said. "It wasn’t always fun.
" Since then, what started as an attempt to make light of the frustrating situation – dozens of noisy Waymos waking up Tung and her South of Market neighbours in the wee hours – has become something much bigger. Three-plus weeks after Tung’s viral livestream helped pressure Waymo into getting its vehicles to stop their infernal racket, thousands of people spanning the globe still visit her 24/7 feed daily to watch the autonomous cars manoeuvre. At any given moment, that livestream might have spectators from three or four continents vibing out to soft hip-hop beats while they chat about artificial intelligence, the future of self-driving cars and the feed’s funniest Waymo moments.
In a sense, Tung’s livestream offers visitors a bird’s-eye view of modern tech’s growing pains. Perhaps more importantly, Tung, 28, has fostered an online community for robotaxi enthusiasts who don’t have the lux.