In theory, the machines should be able to drive down the residential roads and using the arm, pick up the garbage containers.  The system does not work that well.  I was able to take these photographs while the man operating this machine was away making the waste containers accessible to the machine.  This machine has an arm; others in this same fleet have a hook and the operator must get out of the truck at each location and attach the hook to the metal bars which are embedded into the containers.
The arm, grabbing two waste containers at one time is a rare and beautiful sight.
<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:CarolSpears" title="User:CarolSpears">carol</a>
CC BY-SA 3.0
<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:CarolSpears" title="User:CarolSpears">carol</a> and Mountain View Waste Management personnel