A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge on Monday granted the City of Santa Monica's request for a preliminary injunction barring Waymo from running its Broadway autonomous vehicle charging facilities overnight, delivering a legal win to residents who have complained for more than a year about noise, light and traffic from the sites.
The order, issued July 27, prohibits Waymo from operating its charging lots at 1222 and 1310 Broadway between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. while the underlying public nuisance case proceeds toward trial.
In granting the injunction, the court found the city had established a reasonable probability of prevailing on its public nuisance claim, determining that the ongoing noise, lights and traffic generated by overnight operations at the two sites interfere with nearby residents' ability to comfortably enjoy their homes. The court also found that the harm to residents outweighs any harm to Waymo from the restriction, noting the company can continue offering overnight ride service in Santa Monica using vehicles charged and serviced during daytime hours.
Mayor Caroline Torosis said the ruling validates concerns residents have raised for more than a year.
"Our residents' ability to sleep peacefully in their own homes is not negotiable," Torosis said. "This ruling affirms what our neighbors have been telling us for more than a year, and it delivers relief while the case moves forward. I'm grateful to the residents who came forward, and to our City Attorney's Office for its steadfast work on behalf of the community."
The city was represented by the City Attorney's Office, with Chief Deputy City Attorney Romy Ganschow leading the case under City Attorney Heidi von Tongeln.
The dispute dates to November 2024, when Waymo began using the two lots — operated by charging company Voltera Power on property owned by SMF Property Holdings LLC — to charge autonomous vehicles serving greater Los Angeles. Residents soon began reporting reverse-beeping, humming, workers talking at night, flashing lights and traffic congestion in a nearby alley.
The Santa Monica City Council voted 6-0 in November 2025 to order overnight operations shut down between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., declaring the facilities a public nuisance. Waymo did not comply, arguing the city had misunderstood its permitted use, and sued the city Dec. 17, 2025, seeking a ruling that its operations were lawful and could not be shut down. The city countersued a week later, asking the court to declare the lots a nuisance and to enjoin overnight operations — the claim on which Monday's injunction was based.
Waymo has argued that its October 2023 permits explicitly authorized 24-hour charging operations and that state law limiting local interference with electric vehicle charging infrastructure applies to its facilities. The company has said it made extensive efforts to mitigate neighbors' concerns, including software updates that reduced reverse-beeping noise, landscaping and barriers to block light and sound, restrictions on vehicle vacuuming during overnight hours, changes to traffic flow and a software update disabling lights during charging.
The city has maintained that overnight operations substantially interfere with residents' sleep and quality of life in violation of municipal and state nuisance law, and that it repeatedly proposed operational changes short of a full shutdown that Waymo declined to adopt.
In its statement following the ruling, the city emphasized that the case was never about whether autonomous vehicles belong in Santa Monica.
"Santa Monica welcomes the future of transportation, and autonomous vehicles and the infrastructure that supports them have an important place here," Torosis said. "This outcome reflects what we've said from the beginning: new technologies thrive in Santa Monica when they're designed to operate compatibly with the neighborhoods around them. We remain ready to work with Waymo on solutions that let their operations and our residents' quality of life coexist."
The city said Waymo vehicles continue to serve tens of thousands of riders in the city and region each month, and that Santa Monica has adopted a regulatory framework intended to guide how fleet charging facilities can operate alongside residential neighborhoods.
The court has scheduled a status conference for Oct. 23 to review potential remediation measures at the Broadway sites. The preliminary injunction will remain in effect pending trial, at which the city's public nuisance claims will be fully adjudicated.