Waymo Test Ride: first impressions from a Londoner
My ride later that day
Introduction
I've been recently to San Francisco and went for a run to the Golden Gate Bridge to get some exercise. It was getting darker and I decided to take a Waymo back. Below are my first impressions of that futuristic experience.
Running to the Golden Gate Bridge - the perfect excuse to try autonomous transportation
The Ride
The first challenge was that Waymo could not pick me up at the Golden Gate Bridge Welcome Center. A bit disappointing given a huge parking and Uber drivers picking people up.
I walked about 100 meters (sorry I think in metric), the car was already there. App counting down the grace period. Pressed "unlock" in the app, and the door in the white Jaguar I-PACE with constantly spinning LIDARs opens up.
Some nice relaxing music welcomed me with a pleasant voice explaining the basics. Buckle up and go.
What you notice first: there's no driver (obviously) and a large screen showing details of your ride, a bit more about the screen later.
Google maps on steroids
The ride is very smooth and predictable. It navigated the streets with precision and assertiveness. I was impressed.
The screen was interesting. It showed the map, time to destination and surrounding cars and pedestrians (in yellow). Waymos were singled out in white colour, the other vehicles were dim blue.
Coming from London and sitting on what in my car should be the driving seat I was comparing the driving and observations. It was very late evening and naturally pedestrians are not as noticeable to the human eye, whereas Waymo saw everything around it. Hope it results in good safety record.
The bread and butter of driving in London is to navigate narrow streets with two way traffic but with space for just one car to pass. Humans rely on the eye contact, hand gestures and high beams - an etiquette taught even before you get your driving license. I was thoroughly impressed Waymo can get away without all of this in a similar situation.
When Waymo sees a traffic light it promptly shows it on the screen. I like the spirit of interpretability here.
Autonomous driving interpretability
It was getting a bit warm, so I've adjusted the temperature, 70F down to 65F by spinning the knob. Annoyingly it re-adjusted back within a few seconds. After fighting with the machine for a couple of minutes and realizing that I'm losing I called for help, literally. There's a button to call support that dials in to what it seems like a call center. I was gently illuminated by a light, I think I was watched as we spoke. The main temperature control is on the screen (silly me), knob is just an archaic appendix that will die off it seems.
The knob I was fighting with
There was a pull over button, but I decided not to try this one as I was approaching the Market Street.
It was time to leave the car and I was already thinking about my next driverless ride. Luckily Londoners will have the pleasure of Waymo rides in 2026.
Waymos and friends
Zoox (from Amazon) is nearby and the traffic made of Waymos, our future