Had the opportunity to test out Waymo driverless cars in Phoenix, Arizona last weekend and here are my first impressions. I had heard positive feedback from those who tried it regularly in SF, but I have mostly had negative experiences which I will highlight below:
1. As we were waiting to enter the Waymo car, you would think the design would be similar to Uber, except you have the read the top of the retrofitted Jaguar Cars for your first and last initials. The app design was not as clear as Lyft or Uber. It’s not clear which one is your actual car that comes for pickup and they give you 4 minutes to board - otherwise the car will leave without picking you up - the ordeal was very stressful. The person trying to leave the car had trouble opening the trunk, which delayed us by half an hour followed by trying to talk to customer service from the car itself, which was also frustrating as a first time experience.
2. The car drives super slow because it follows speed limits to the dot. It was also not allowed to drive on highways, so took us more than double the time that Google Maps was telling us it would take.
3. When the car saw ambulance on the other side of the road, it made a right turn to leave the route only to make a U Turn to get back on the same road. Frustrating software glitches without the accommodations you would expect if you were talking to a human who is from the neighborhood.
4. I just missed the interaction of local taxi drivers which I appreciated even more with recommendations during my Lyft ride on the same trip. My strong preference is the human connections.
5. The driver seats are still taking up space and should have been redesigned to be actually more futuristic.
On the plus side:
1. It was cheaper and no reason to pay tips.
2. I can see it might take care of low population density areas that are currently not served by car drivers. You actually no longer need a designated driver and we might be able to optimize how many cars are actually on the road burning fossil fuels.
Final thoughts
I don’t see New Yorkers liking these automated cars. We are craving more and more human connectedness just as I personally hate self serving checkouts and those machines used for ordering food. There is something very unnatural and sad about not engaging in conversations and the customer service from other humans. Hope we don’t keep giving away our agencies to these alien intelligences.