Idling Waymo Robotaxis Catch The Attention Of Houston Police

Waymo's self-driving taxis have been spreading to more U.S. cities, but the rollout has not been without issues. For example, its taxis have been observed behaving erratically in San Francisco, including making illegal U-turns. Similarly, Houston residents have spotted some strange behavior since Waymo arrived in the city in late 2025 — like taxis allegedly idling on residential streets for days on end. "I just want to know why they are parked here," one concerned citizen told Eyewitness News after claiming to have seen a Waymo sit around on her street for five days. While the Waymo left, it eventually returned a week later.

The reported behavior is not only strange but illegal. According to Houston's ordinance, vehicles can't be left parked on a public street for more than 24 hours, and those that do can be fined (just $30, but still). When Eyewitness News reached out to Waymo to ask about the neighborhood idling, a representative told them Waymo uses publicly available parking spaces between its trips to avoid congesting the streets. For now, the Waymo taxis are still out there, lurking, but the city of Houston is going to start monitoring the neighborhoods where the vehicles keep parking.

One of the reasons that residents are wary about Waymo taxis idling in neighborhoods is due to the abundance of cameras on the vehicles. ABC 13 Houston's YouTube video about the Waymos is flooded with comments about the vehicles "spying" on the streets or using its cameras as "surveillance." The newest Waymo models utilize lidar, long-range cameras, radars, and perimeter and peripheral vision systems to navigate the roads and obstacles around them. There are a total of 29 cameras on the Jaguar I-PACE Waymo models.

The number of cameras on Waymo taxis has made a lot of residents throughout the United States paranoid. It's public knowledge that Waymo records everything around it, even providing that footage to the police when further evidence is needed about crimes the vehicles may have "witnessed." But some citizens wonder how long that footage is saved and what is done with it. Speaking to ABC 15 Arizona, Waymo's Nick Smith said that the firm "captures data that's relevant for training our technology, not to identify individuals," adding that, "As a general matter, we require law enforcement agencies ... to follow valid legal processes in making such requests, including securing and presenting a valid warrant." While Waymo claims it's not out spying on people, it's still up for debate if the constant recording infringes on people's privacy or not.