The woman who filmed Waymo’s honking robotaxis got an apology promo—then spent all day using it

Sophia Tung set up a livestream this past summer, showing self-driving Waymo cars honking from the San Francisco parking lot near her apartment at all hours of the night.

As a kind of apology for the nuisance, Waymo threw an ice cream party in Tung’s building and gave Tung, a software engineer, some promo codes redeemable for free rides.

The outfit may have underestimated her. After giving a few friends some codes, Tung – realizing the codes weren’t capped in value – determined she’d use her last one to ride in a Waymo for 24 hours, visiting tourist destinations like Golden Gate Park, Chinatown, and Twin Peaks. Alas, 83 miles and 6.5 hours later, her Waymo ended the ride with 20 miles left, cutting short her plans.

It was seemingly for the best.  Said Tung as she tried to regain feeling in her legs after the long ride, which ended back in her neighborhood: “Six hours and 30 minutes; I’m never doing that again.”