AIBRIEF
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge granted a preliminary injunction restricting Waymo's robotaxi charging depots to daytime hours after the city argued constant backing beeps, headlights, and alley traffic amounted to a public nuisance for a nearby
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge granted Santa Monica a preliminary injunction barring Waymo from running overnight operations at the robotaxi operator's two Broadway charging lots. The order, signed by Judge Bradley S. Phillips on July 27 and followed by the city's press release on July 28, keeps the depots at 12th and Euclid Streets dark between 11 pm and 6 am.
The city had asked the court to treat the lots as a public nuisance, citing the constant arrival and departure of autonomous vehicles and the reversing "beep beep beep" alarms, headlights sweeping apartments, and alley congestion around a private school directly across Broadway. Residents had complained for more than a year. After a November 2025 administrative order failed to stop the noise, Santa Monica sued, and Waymo filed its own preemptive suit in late December 2025 to try to control the venue.
The minute order is preliminary, not a final judgment on the merits, and the case continues. Waymo continues service in the city during the day. Ars Technica covered the court's ruling on August 1.