Waymo vehicles drew 8,300 parking tickets in 19 months, most for parking in stands

Yes, robotaxis park illegally in San Francisco, and now there is a number on it: more than 8,300 parking tickets in 19 months.

Gazetteer SF reported Tuesday on SFMTA records it obtained covering Waymo vehicles. The count runs 4,178 tickets in 2025 plus 4,131 through July 19 of this year, with fines of $957,008. That is a different scale from 2024, when Waymo drew 589 tickets and $65,065 in fines, per a Washington Post analysis. The fleet grew with the tickets: Waymo says it now runs more than 1,200 vehicles in the Bay Area, up from 800-plus a year ago.

The most common violation is specific. Waymo vehicles were cited 2,038 times for parking in stands, the marked spaces reserved for tour buses, taxis and other specific vehicles. Prohibited parking, obstructing traffic, double parking and blocking bike lanes round out the top five. The single hottest corner is 85 North Point Street near Pier 39, where Waymos were cited 577 times, with 369 more two blocks away at 150 Beach Street.

Two details in the reporting matter for anyone watching enforcement. First, Waymo pays through SFMTA's Fleet Program, which the company says consolidates invoices and does not allow participants to protest citations. Second, the state's enforcement toolbox changed on July 1: regulators can now issue notices of noncompliance for moving violations, where before parking enforcement was the only lever. The notices are tracked by the DMV and can feed permit decisions. Critics argue the practical bite is small, since the tickets cost Waymo little relative to its operation.

The 311 record shows the complaint side of the same story cooling. San Franciscans filed eight autonomous vehicle complaints in the seven days through September 1, down from 44 in the prior three weeks. Parking enforcement requests overall remain the second-busiest line in the city's 311 file at 4,070 in the same week. The two files measure different things: tickets are enforcement output, 311 requests are resident input. Neither file says whether the behavior is improving.

One honesty note: the plate-level match behind the 8,300 count comes from SFMTA data that Gazetteer SF obtained and published. Filed did not independently replicate the vehicle-by-vehicle match, because no public file tags tickets to an operator. The totals above are the outlet's analysis, linked and dated, and the 2024 baseline is the Post's.

What you can do: report an obstructing or double-parked vehicle, robotaxi or not, through 311 with the plate and street, and contest your own citation through SFMTA's online process. The record now shows where the fleet's problem corners are. North Point and Beach Streets are a good place to start looking.