Waymo, the self-driving car division of parent company Alphabet (Google), has become a common form of transportation in San Francisco. With a local SIM card, you can install an app and summon a robot — a self-driving Jaguar I-Pace.
Waymo, the self-driving car division of parent company Alphabet (Google), has become a common form of transportation in San Francisco. With a local SIM card, you can install an app and summon a robot — a self-driving Jaguar I-Pace.
It will be a bit more expensive than calling an Uber. Hundreds of driverless Jaguars are scurrying around the city’s disco-style streets. But is it worth it? I asked local Uber taxi drivers in San Francisco what they had to say about Waymo. And I was very surprised by what I heard.
Waymo currently offers fully autonomous rides to the general public in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin, Texas, aboard the all-electric Jaguar I-Pace. The company is expanding its partnership with Uber, launching service in Atlanta via the ride-sharing app later this year, and plans to start offering rides in Washington, D.C. and Miami starting in 2026. In April, Waymo said it would begin using its vehicles on the streets of Tokyo, making it the company’s first international outing.
The company’s fleet already includes 1,500 cars. And it plans to add another 2,000 soon.
My driver is a Chinese American. Chen. He messed up the order, but the second time he arrived at the location I indicated. He apologized.
Chen doesn’t like Waymo. Because for Chen, a DRIVERLESS Jaguar is really a threat. Maybe not now, when there are only a few hundred drones in the city, but in the near future for sure. And for Chen, working as a driver is life, it’s freedom. Like all taxi drivers, he of course says that he’s not really a taxi driver. That he worked as a financier at Visa Inc. for 20 years. But he’s tired.
— Waymo is very dangerous!
— Why?
— She can knock a person down.
A little later I learned that each city has certain standards regarding the maximum number of accidents for a taxi fleet. And if the company fits into these standards, then this is the norm. The company is not deprived of its license.
That is, Waymo can theoretically run into someone or something (just like an Uber driver, for example). And this is within the norm, if there are not so many collisions.
— Who did Waymo hit in your memory?
— She even drove into a police car once.
It should be emphasized here that Jaguars drive on the streets quite carefully. The speed is limited. And they do not yet have the right to enter the highway. Only within the city limits. Waymo carefully drives up to a narrow alley on request. But there are also fakes. I saw with my own eyes how a Jaguar got stuck on a pedestrian crossing because it did not have time to perform a maneuver.
— Waymo will not run a red light if it is flashing.
— In the sense of — broke?
— Well, yes.
— What will he do?
«He’ll just stand up. You’ll have to get out of the car.»
Autonomous taxis really add a futuristic touch to the cities where they appear. And this is truly public transport. This is not a toy. There are a lot of Jaguars on the streets and for the most part they do not create obstacles. However, they move quite slowly. I would like to have Waymo in Kyiv someday!
This column is an experiment. I thought you might be interested in reading about my user-generated hi-tech observations. If so, please write something in the comments.
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