Empty Waymo Robotaxis Swarm Atlanta Street, Freaking Out Neighborhood

Northwest Atlanta residents complain of up to 50 empty Waymo robotaxis circling a dead-end street hourly around 6-7 a.m., prompting Waymo to fix routing with its fleet partner. This latest glitch follows a May 11 San José airport fiasco where a Waymo drove off with passenger Di Jin's suitcase—initially offering two free rides before paying shipping—and May 14 developments: Waymo VP Srikanth Thirumalai defending its full-stack AV approach amid 1,000+ Bay Area robotaxis and a 3,800-vehicle recall, plus Uber slamming the pure AV strategy for ~8,000 underserved US cities. Incidents underscore Waymo's scaling risks for Alphabet investors.