My First Robo-Car Ride !

[Jim Cassedy]

I took my first driverless taxi (WAYMO) ride home from work the other afternoon. This was
definitely a memorable milestone that reminds me of how excited I was to take my first
airline trip I took when I was a kid. It is, at first, very disconcerting to get into the back
seat of a car and take a ride with nobody at the wheel. The video I've linked was taken less
than a minute into my ride. I've taken 3 more rides since then, & I'm starting to get used
to not having anyone in the driver's seat. To navigate, the car uses GPS and Google Map
info, and sophisticated imaging and ranging systems, that include not only multiple video
cameras, but also radar & LIDAR. (and a crapload of computer code, I'd imagine!)

I sincerely believe that at some point in the future, all cars will have an option to pilot
themselves. Once all these cars are "networked", every car will know exactly where it is in
relation to all the other cars around it, and will able to take corrective action if any one of
those cars wants to change lanes or turn at an intersection or needs to swerve into your
lane for some reason. Vehicle collisions could be almost eliminated. And, now that we're
all location tracked by the GPS capabilities of our cell phones and smart watches, it might
even be possible to avoid most pedestrian injuries, if someday that data was networked
and integrated into the navigation systems of all the nearby vehicles. I think that one day
self-driving cars (with the option of driving manually) will be as common as automatic
transmissions are today.

Here's some pix:

The car greeted me by voice and video screen, and confirmed my destination.
I took a deep breath, and pushed the START RIDE button. The the doors locked,
I was advised to buckle my seat belt ( the car won't move if you're not buckled in)
- - and the next thing I knew I was on my way.
WaymoStart.jpg

This short video was taken about 30sec after my ride started:
https://tinyurl.com/ycydccmw


Hands off the wheel! I didn't notice if there were brake & accelerator pedals.
I read somewhere that future models won't even have a steering wheel. ( ! )
WaymoWheel.jpg

No, we're not heading into oncoming traffic! This is "Crossover Drive, " A 'Y'
intersection in Golden Gate Park, & a spot where there are frequent accidents.
WaymoGGP_1.jpg

Here's a graphical representation of that intersection as seen on the screen
in the back seat. As you can see, we're stopped at a traffic light. The passenger
can control music, air conditioning, or unlock the doors, etc from the touch
screen, or directly from the WAYMO phone app.
WaymoGGP_2.jpg

When we reached my house, the car reminded me to check that I had my phone
and other belongings, and wished me a nice afternoon- -and, without thinking
I said "Thank You" as I shut the door and realized I was talking to a car.

The waiting time was about the same as would have been if I had taken an UBER,
and the cost was a few dollars lower - - and of course there's no driver to tip.

[Ryan Gallagher]

They are everywhere in Austin. They had a pretty rough start but seem to be improving, no longer causing traffic snarls amongst themselves, or honking at other driverless vehicles in a parking lot. I commute on foot or on two wheels, and I've grown slowly to trust them slightly more than I do human drivers (though I've still not taken a ride in one). All my close calls are with human drivers it seems.

BUT, they still do stupid things. Austin has a lot of mounted police and state troopers downtown lately, and just yesterday we saw one become quite unsure of how to pass two horses in the adjacent lane, it ended up just pacing them for two blocks before something clicked and it moved ahead. Probably had to "phone a human friend" in some data center to make a decision.

I have serious doubts about the validity of the concept in general, I mean a car is a car (driver or not), and what urban areas actually need is a lot less cars (at least in the US). But while we are still so car bound it does seem to have found a niche being priced below ride shares or actual taxis. I'd much prefer public transit improvements, but perhaps there is room for these things as a connecting service to outlying areas that don't reach the transit spokes.

I just wonder what happens when someone takes one home from the bar having drank too much and makes a mess inside. At least with ride shares there is a human to judge if they need to pull over early, or clean up after. But on the flip side a lot of sus things happen to the ladies attempting to get a safe ride home, perhaps it is better without a human to interact with?

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

So Jaguar makes the basic taxi? Having owned one in the early 90's, I can only say it was problematic. Not an every day driver. But fun to drive...

[Mike Blakesley]

I just wonder what happens when someone takes one home from the bar having drank too much and makes a mess inside.

Well, you know that's going to happen. I expect there is video being recorded of the passengers at all times and relayed to the Home Planet. If they see anything uncouth, the car might just pull over and tell you to get out!

I also expect there might be a function you could access called "There's a problem with my ride" and they would send you a replacement car.

[Jim Cassedy]

I just wonder what happens when someone takes one home from
the bar having drank too much and makes a mess inside. At least
with ride shares there is a human to judge if they need to pull over early,
or clean up after.

I was wondering about that too on my ride home the other night. According to
info I found on the WAYMO website, there are cameras in the car that are used
to monitor guest behavior, and 'check for cleanliness' after every ride. I did notice
that there IS at least one camera directly above the rear seat last night that I hadn't
noticed on my first ride the other day. They say that there are microphones in the
car, but that they are not active unless the passenger presses the "HELP" button
to talk to customer service.

[Marcel Birgelen]

If you buy a taxi, you're already constantly monitored.

My current car (not a Tesla) has a camera pointed at me all times to wacht if I don't do crazy stuff behind the wheel. It also determines how attentive I am.

I don't have too much problems with those systems, as long as they increase safety and respect my privacy. Those images don't belong on your cloud or in your logfiles, especially not without my explicit consent. Apparently, several car manufacturers have silently been leaking sensitive driver data towards insurance companies...

[Allan Young]

WaymoStart.jpg

That's begging to have "This car will self-destruct in five seconds" added.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Is there a screen in the front passenger seat too? Riding up front would be a perk compared to most ride-shares/taxis.

(and honestly, I think I'd rather be in an air-bag protected seat (if they even have them).

[Jim Cassedy]

Is there a screen in the front passenger seat too? Riding up
front would be a perk compared to most ride-shares/taxis.
(and honestly, I think I'd rather be in an air-bag protected seat
(if they even have them).

> Yes- a passenger can ride in the front seat, but they must be over 8 years old
(and must be accompanied by an 'adult" in the rear seat) There is a screen up front,
which each time I've taken a robo-ride displayed displayed a "welcome" message
that was mirrored on the rear display until the ride started, and them it switched
to the navigation/map mode, no matter what I did on the rear touch-screen.

If you look closely at my photo of the steering wheel, you'll see it's marked as
having an air-bag, despite no driver there. Being that California micro-manages
and regulates everything, I'm sure there are air bags in both front & and back,
and, it's a Jaguar, so I wouldn't be surprised if it had side-bags too.

[Ed Gordon]

If anything can go wrong it will go wrong.

This phrase is known as Murphy's Law, which suggests that if something has the potential to go wrong, it likely will, especially at the worst possible time.

TV journalist documents wild ride inside Waymo self-driving car in San Francisco

Waymo cars honk at each other throughout the night, disturbing SF neighbors

[Leo Enticknap]

This from the El Segundo Times (Jim will get that joke even if no-one else on F-T does!):

Waymo recalls more than 1,200 automated vehicles after minor crashes

By Caroline Petrow-Cohen
May 14, 2025 1:30 PM PT

Waymo, the autonomous ride-hailing company that launched its services in Los Angeles late last year, is recalling more than 1,200 vehicles due to a software defect, the National Highway Traffic Safety Assn. said Wednesday.

The recall comes after a series of minor crashes with gates, chains and other obstacles in the road that did not result in any injuries, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company said in a filing with the NHTSA. The recall applies to 1,212 driverless vehicles operating on Waymo’s fifth-generation automated driving software.

Waymo released a software update to resolve the issue, and that update has already been rolled out in all affected vehicles, the recall notice said.

The company operates more than 1,500 vehicles across Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix and Austin. The recall does not affect any vehicles currently on the road, said Waymo spokesperson Ethan Teicher.

Self-driving vehicles have come under increased scrutiny following several issues with Tesla’s autonomous technology and a 2023 incident in which a pedestrian was seriously injured by a Cruise vehicle.

The NHTSA opened an investigation into Waymo in May 2024 after receiving reports of 22 incidents involving the fifth-generation software. The agency said several incidents under investigation “involved collisions with clearly visible objects that a competent driver would be expected to avoid.” The investigation remains open.

In February 2024, Waymo recalled 444 vehicles after two minor collisions in Arizona. Although incidents involving Waymo vehicles generate attention, the vehicles are safer than human drivers, according to data collected by insurer Swiss Re.

Based on data collected by Waymo, their driverless vehicles had 81% fewer airbag deployment crashes, 78% fewer injury-causing crashes and 62% fewer police-reported crashes than traditional vehicles driving the same distance. Waymo vehicles rely on cameras, sensors and a type of laser radar called lidar to operate autonomously.

“Waymo provides more than 250,000 paid trips every week in some of the most challenging driving environments in the U.S.,” Teicher said. “Our record of reducing injuries over tens of millions of fully autonomous miles driven shows our technology is making roads safer.”

Operated by Google’s parent company, Alphabet, Waymo put its first autonomous vehicle on the road in 2015. It launched its driverless ride-hailing service known as Waymo One in 2020, and has plans to expand to Atlanta, Miami and Washington, D.C., next year.

I'm normally skeptical about PR spin, but am inclined to believe Waymo about this one. My only experience of Waymo is of interacting with their cars as a human driver on the streets of LA, and it's been a completely positive one. They leave a safe distance behind me, signal in good time before changing lanes or turning, actually stop at stop signs rather than do the infamous "California stop" (which causes thousands of minor accidents that drive all our insurance premiums up), and move at a sensible speed. The fact that they are taking part of their fleet off the road to fix this software bug gives me added confidence that they are developing this technology cautiously and properly.

I sincerely believe that at some point in the future, all cars will have an option to pilot themselves.

Me too. Level 5 autonomous driving has been shown to be possible as a prototype, and the potential market is large enough to justify pretty much unlimited R & D investment capital at scaling it up. For me, personally, it would be a game changer. If I have to do a service call in LA, Hollywood, Mid-City, or the West Side, and the customer requires a call time that makes it impossible to avoid the rush hour(s), I will spend around six hours behind the wheel that day. If I could use that time to work remote support cases and do other desk work, my overall productivity would increase by somewhere between 50% and double.

The likely drawbacks are more social than technological. A lot of professional drivers will likely be put out of work. I read an article a couple of weeks ago about how self-driving big rigs are already shuttling between Dallas and Houston. They can now do the freeway run totally autonomously, with a human driver needed only for the first and last miles between the origin and destination warehouses and a staging lot next to the freeway. I also read an article claiming that last year, only 17% of 10th graders in California's public schools were performing at grade in math, and 24% in English. If that's the case, we're going to need a lot of jobs for low and intermediate skilled workers, just as automation and AI starts to take those jobs away. During the original industrial revolution, the result of those changes was half a century of social unrest, as represented by the Luddites.

[Mike Blakesley]

I wonder if the fully autonomous vehicles will ever work well on snowcovered roads, where the surface is slippery and the vehicle's cameras can't see well due to blowing snow, sensors getting covered by mud, etc. Are they impacted at all by heavy rain?

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I wonder if they have AI, and they learn to recognize frequent riders. If there were a number of these lined up picking people up, and they are all white, it could call out your name.... "Mr Cassidy.. I am over here waiting for you...."

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I wonder if the fully autonomous vehicles will ever work well on snowcovered roads, where the surface is slippery and the vehicle's cameras can't see well due to blowing snow, sensors getting covered by mud, etc. Are they impacted at all by heavy rain?

There is very little info on that. But I did find this... Click on "Blocked" to go there.

[Jim Cassedy]

I wonder if they have AI, and they learn to recognize frequent riders. If there
were a number of these lined up picking people up, and they are all white, it
could call out your name.... "

The part of the dome on top of the car which contains some of the cameras and other sensors
has an electroluminescent panel which displays your initials when the car pulls up. If, by chance
several cars arrive and you're still not sure, there's a button on the phone app which will flash the
headlights and I think give a short toot on the horn or some other noisemaker. And, I think that
the app also displays the license plate number of the car, like UBER does. I had that exact
situation you describe a couple of weeks ago one night after a late show, when several theater
employees and myself had each summoned an UBER for our respective rides home, and three
identical white Teslas arrived at almost exactly the same time.

Your initials slowly revolve around this display when the car arrives. Some of their earlier cars had
a flat panel display in the front windshield that would display your initials, but this is more visible.

(photo credit: WAYMO)

I'm really 'geeking-out' on all the amazing technology in these cars and their app! I worked an early morning
movie party today, and I was done by noon, and I grabbed another robo-ride home. I think I mentioned that
the passenger can control the air conditioning/heat and also the radio from a touch screen in the back seat
or on their app. Today, I discovered that not only could I control the radio, but I could also program personal
presets on the app, so that when the car arrives, it's already playing my favorite station. You can also do
the same with the air/heat, and save your preferred 'comfort level' - - so, in answer to to your wondering
about 'frequent riders', it seems the more you ride, the more the car 'learns' about you.

I mentioned in an earlier post that WAYMO's website mentions that there are several cameras inside the car,
to observe 'passenger behavior', as well as check for forgotten items and cleanliness after a rider exits. I was
able to easily spot two cameras today, and there may be one or more hidden in the door-posts, but I'm not sure.

There's a rear-facing camera in the roof console- above the rear view mirror that nobody is watching
.
(Driving west on Fulton St, a few blocks from the ocean. Golden Gate Park is on the right.
My apartment building is on the other side of the park) Although it's fairly flat here, and only
a few feet above sea level, the car took me on a route home today that involved several really
steep hills. (Think -"Bullitt' , only slower. . . .)

A 2nd camera is mounted directly above the rear seat