Waymo’s driverless taxis were supposed to glide quietly through the streets of Santa Monica, a showcase for clean transportation and cutting edge software. Instead, the company and the coastal city are now locked in a legal fight over noise, late night traffic and whether a charging depot for autonomous cars can be treated as a “public nuisance.” The courtroom clash will help define how far local governments can go in reining in robotaxis that state regulators have already cleared to operate.
At the center of the dispute is a pair of electric vehicle charging hubs tucked into residential blocks, where Waymo’s all electric fleet lines up overnight to refuel and recalibrate. Neighbors say the constant flow of cars, beeping and flashing sensors has turned their streets into an industrial zone, while Waymo argues the city is illegally targeting a permitted clean energy facility. I see this as a test case for how communities like Santa Monica will coexist with autonomous vehicles that never sleep.
How a charging depot became a neighborhood flashpoint
The conflict traces back to Waymo’s decision to base part of its Southern California robotaxi fleet in Santa Monica, using two charging stations embedded in residential and mixed use areas. The company framed the hubs as essential infrastructure for a service that had already provided over 50,000 rides that began or ended in Santa Monica during November 2025 alone, a figure it cites to argue that the service has quickly become part of the city’s mobility network. From Waymo’s perspective, the charging depots are the unseen backbone that keeps those rides running, similar to a bus yard or a depot for ride hail drivers, but with electric cables instead of gas pumps.
For residents living near the stations, the reality has felt very different. Reports describe a steady stream of driverless vehicles queuing late into the night, with neighbors complaining about noise, bright lights and the unnerving sight of empty cars creeping through narrow streets. One account notes that after the site opened, it “started to irritate people in nearby homes with apparent noise and flashing lights,” turning what had been a quiet block into a staging ground for a high tech fleet that never fully shuts down, a pattern detailed in coverage of the charging site complaints. That friction between a 24 hour mobility service and residents’ expectation of nighttime calm set the stage for the city’s next move.
Santa Monica’s crackdown and the “public nuisance” label
Responding to months of neighborhood pressure, Santa Monica officials ordered Waymo to halt overnight operations at the two charging facilities, effectively banning the company from running its refueling and staging activities during the hours when residents said the disruption was worst. The directive required Waymo to stop charging its autonomous fleet of electric cars overnight at the stations, a decision that neighbors celebrated as overdue relief from the constant hum of vehicles and equipment, according to accounts of the noisy overnight operations. City leaders framed the move as a targeted response to specific harms, not a blanket rejection of autonomous vehicles…