- Unlike other hype, self-driving taxis look like the real thing.
- You can now ride Waymo's software-powered taxis in San Francisco and Phoenix. They work just like Uber.
- Waymo's robotaxis aren't perfect, and there are very legitimate concerns about it. But also, these are really functioning self-driving taxis.
It's easy to make fun of technology. We, I do it all the time.
Sometimes it's because the technology doesn't work the way I want it to. Sometimes it's like schadenfreude when something so hyped fails. Sometimes it feels like the technology we all rely on is harming us in ways we don't understand or can't control.
But also, sometimes technology reminds us that it can be great. This is an incredible feeling some of us once had about this.
This is exactly how I felt after my last trip to San Francisco, when I took a few Waymo robotaxis.
That's partly because the technology is… amazing. You're actually getting into a car and driving around town with no one in the driver's seat. Software and sensors handle everything.
And that's partly because the technology already seems so…normal. Waymo, like Uber and Lyft, is ordered through an app. It shows up, gets in, takes you where you want to go, and gets out.
Yes, my 13-year-old son and I spent our first few minutes texting friends and family on our first Waymo. “Oh, I'm in a self-driving taxi.” Of course we documented it on social.
I also felt that slightly terrifying impatience that you get when you sit on a roller coaster for the first time and have an internal discussion. Is this safe? If it wasn't safe, they wouldn't let you do it, right? But seriously, is this safe?
But after the first few minutes of novelty, we went back to what we usually do with Ubers and Lyfts. I spent little time staring out the window while using my phone, wondering who or what was thinking. was driving us.
To me, this is truly the most amazing thing. It's here now and you can use it.
At least some people can. Waymo, owned by Google's parent company Alphabet, has hundreds of self-driving cars driving around San Francisco, where access remains limited due to waiting lists and geography. For example, you can't have Waymo pick you up at San Francisco International Airport or take you across the Bay Bridge to Oakland.
Phoenix, where Waymo first launched consumer access, has about the same number of cars but no waiting list. And now it's starting to roll out in Los Angeles and Austin.
We've been hearing about self-driving taxis for a long time, but they're only just starting to become a reality.
So even though Waymo claims to be doing tens of thousands of rides a week, even the most tech-savvy people I talk to have yet to ride one.
And it's natural to have concerns as this technology is rolled out. Waymo rival Cruise shut down its service last fall after a number of incidents, including a tragic incident in which a self-driving Cruise dragged a pedestrian and collided with a human-driven car.
Self-driving technology also poses obvious problems for people who rely on ride-hailing services for a living. (On my last trip to San Francisco, one of my Uber drivers told me he used to be a recruiter for Amazon but lost his job as part of Amazon's recent job cuts.)
To be honest, I'm not even sure I'd order Waymo every time I had the chance. For now, beyond the novelty, the big plus for me is that the electric Jaguar in the fleet is comfortable and clean. And while the cost per ride is about the same as Uber Comfort (one level above Uber X's base price), it's actually a little cheaper because you don't tip your robot driver.
But as things like this roll out more widely, there's no reason to believe the cars will remain new and prices will remain low. (Waymo doesn't disclose financial information and won't tell you whether it makes a profit on each trip. Right now, it doesn't.) Since Waymo started as Google, the project (2009 project).
Still, you can think of all sorts of uses for Waymo at this point. For example, in Phoenix he uses Uber Eats for food delivery. Perhaps it's for people who believe robots are more reliable than human drivers. At least we know Waymo can't be trusted. Watch TikTok while driving down the freeway, like I did a few years ago when a Lyft driver was in the back seat..
Or maybe it's for people who simply don't want to interact with other humans while riding in a taxi. David Margines, Waymo's director of product management, says this is the service's biggest appeal for customers right now. “It's their own space,” he says.
Waymo's self-driving cars aren't perfect
Yes, Waymo still has some issues, at least with the vehicles I've ridden recently. One is to simply figure out how to get into it. When your Waymo arrives, use your phone to unlock the door. But that's only after you drive to a very precise location that Waymo knows and you don't.
This led to several awkward slow dances between me and the robot car. When I approached it, it stopped, but wouldn't let me in because it wasn't where it was supposed to be. Then I left and it lurched toward a destination I didn't yet know. Then I stepped forward and the car stopped, but it still wouldn't let me in.
This happened to me when I traveled, especially on the narrow and winding streets of San Francisco. Waymo and I negotiated with each other and ended up blocking several cars, including a minivan driver who got irritated and started honking at us.
“Don’t honk at robots,” I told her, but it didn’t help much. “That doesn't matter.”
Meanwhile, a man passing by stopped and took out his cell phone to record the scene. “You can put a cone on it to disable it,” he told me without saying anything. Apparently so?
What was more worrying to me was that when we went to a Warriors game at the Chase Center Arena, at a busy intersection, the Waymo in front of us turned into a traffic cop trying to wave at a red light. I didn't react to it. Another Waymo then pulled up next to it, but also did not respond to officers. So now three Waymos were sitting there, blocking traffic, waiting for a signal. The traffic cop stopped trying to move us and just held his hands over his head in disgust.
I thought this was a familiar and understandable problem for Waymos. Of course, their software and sensors won't respond to humans telling them to ignore the signals. Let's think about the problems that can be caused.
But Margins told me that Waymo is actually supposed to understand human signals like a traffic cop. His Waymo PR person sent this clip from Waymo CEO Dmitri Dolgov showing Waymo doing just that.
But unlike other big new technology innovations I've seen — does anyone still have a 3D TV in their living room?—I don't think self-driving technology is going away. I think the people behind this technology understand its potential, its limitations, and where it makes sense and where it doesn't.
Meanwhile, the cruise starts up again, but this time with a human in the driver's seat. Elon Musk has promised to unveil robotaxi this summer, and doubts about Musk's statements are fully justified, but we'll never know. So I think we're going to see some version of this standard created for many of us in some form or another in the near future.
Is that amazing? I don't know. But it's really amazing.
