Waymo’s Got It Right , But Self-Driving Cars Feel A Little Spooky To Me

Last night, one of my friends called a Waymo when we were out. Waymo rolled out their self-driving car technology in Los Angeles in 2023. After experiencing the ride last night, I’d say, I think they got it right.

The experience was effortless, comfortable, and relaxing. The car came minutes after ordering it from the app. The exterior of the vehicle looks techie, covered with sensors, but inside, you find the class, comfort, and luxury, courtesy of Jaguar.

You can program personal music playlists from the app or from within the car, and they have a customer support number that you can call directly from the car, which we did. Our call was quickly answered by a live person, not a bot, nor were we put on hold or stepped through a phone menu. It was refreshing.

The tiniest wrinkle was the reason for our call: We were dropped off a short distance from our destination in a manned parking lot — which wasn’t a problem for us, but might’ve been for the car exiting the lot — because the car couldn’t negotiate a spot at our drop-off location that perhaps a human driver could. The trade-off was a quiet, peaceful ride, which I was happy for. You have the option to pullover, and it uses the same technology to find a location.

The best — and spookiest — part of the ride was watching the driver’s wheel turn in front of an empty driver’s seat. See the video below. It felt like being on a haunted house ride with a so-called ghost at the wheel, except the Waymo ghost was driving live, in real-time, on the streets of Los Angeles — and, safely, I might add.

All in all, it was a positive experience. I haven’t been this excited about technology since the iPhone. For comparison, the seven minute ride in LA around midnight on a Saturday night ran $21.

Here are more details about the car.

https://www.wired.com/story/waymos-self-driving-jaguars-arrive-new-homegrown-tech/