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My first Waymo ride in San Francisco: Got a driver-less Jaguar I-Pace

13th November 2024, 14:12 by Kanad Kalasur

If you’re comfortable with a machine doing the driving, there’s not much difference between riding in a Waymo and a regular Uber or Lyft.

BHPian A777R recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

For some context, Waymo started as Google’s self-driving car project and is now a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. They’re one of the leaders in autonomous driving and currently run robotaxi services in cities like Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. As of October 2024, they’re offering 150,000 paid rides per week, with more than 1 million miles driven every week.

Here’s what stood out to me on my first Waymo ride in San Francisco:

1. The booking process is almost identical to using Uber or Lyft. But one cool feature is that when you're tracking your ride, the app shows whether the car is waiting at a traffic light or moving. It gives you a little more transparency about where the car is in real-time.

2. When the car arrives, you unlock it through the app. The vehicle was a Jaguar I-PACE EV, which was actually my first time seeing a Jaguar used as a taxi in the U.S. It felt pretty premium for a robotaxi. Although all the LIDAR and camera equipment makes the car looks like something that is still a prototype and not a finished product.

3. Once you’re in, the rear passenger screen reminds you to buckle up and keeps pinging until you do. The screens also show your estimated arrival time, and you can switch up the music if you’re not a fan of what’s playing. There’s also a "Pull Over" button in case you need to stop the ride early.

4. For someone who enjoys a quiet ride, the lack of a driver was definitely a perk. The car accelerated smoothly, and it felt like it was navigating through traffic just like a human driver would—without any jerky movements or hesitation. It was surprisingly natural, even in the narrow lanes and crowded streets of San Francisco.

5. The pricing was comparable to Uber and Lyft. Despite Waymo being in SF for a while, I still saw a bunch of people filming the driverless car when it pulled up. It seems like there’s still a lot of fascination around self-driving technology.

6. I was really excited to try it, but the experience ended up being pretty straightforward. If you’re comfortable with a machine doing the driving, there’s not much difference between riding in a Waymo and a regular Uber or Lyft. Honestly, that says a lot about how much progress has been made in autonomous driving tech. Waymo’s engineering makes the whole thing feel pretty seamless.