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This Is How It Feels to Ride in a Driverless Waymo Car

Waymo has been working on its driverless cars for years and, despite several lags with the initial estimates, it seems to have made real progress in terms of testing them on the street, in real-life scenarios.
Reporter takes a ride in a completely driverless Waymo car in Phoenix, Arizona 6 photos
Photo: YouTube / TechCrunch
Waymo Chrysler Pacifica HybridWaymo Chrysler Pacifica HybridWaymo Chrysler Pacifica HybridWaymo Chrysler Pacifica HybridWaymo Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid
Its Early Rider testing program is now underway in Chandler, a Phoenix suburb, Arizona. Waymo wouldn’t say how many members it includes or how many of them have enjoyed fully driverless rides, but it will say this: the members can request a driverless ride and one will be provided to them if one is available nearby.

The cars, Chrysler Pacifica minivans, are meant to be part of a ride-sharing service, where users can hail rides by means of the Waymo app. This is the ride-share service that Waymo initially promised to the public by the end of 2018, and which is still in closed testing phase. TechCrunch reporter Ed Niedermeyer is the first reporter to try out the technology now being used in this phase of the program.

Niedermeyer notes the “brief human touch” of having an operator address him directly at the beginning of the ride, to inform him that he can always ask for help or stop the ride if he’s uncomfortable. He barely has time for that: the 10-minute ride from a park to a coffee shop is uneventful and quick, with the car reaching speeds of 45 mph and handling itself almost as if there was a human operator at the wheel.

There is something unsettling about not seeing a driver in the driver’s seat, though, Niedermeyer concedes. “The sensation is akin to one of those dreams where everything is the picture of normalcy except for that one detail – the clock with a human face or the cat dressed in boots and walking with a cane,” he says.

Yet, had he not been paying attention to traffic and the way the computer operated the car, he would not have noticed the tell-tale signs that revealed the lack of a human driver. Waymo may have taken a lot of time to bring driverless cars to reality, but it seems to have done a great job at it. So far.

“There were moments where the self-driving system’s driving impressed, like the way it caught an unprotected left turn just as the traffic signal turned yellow or how its acceleration matched surrounding traffic. The vehicle seemed to even have mastered the more human-like driving skill of crawling forward at a stop sign to signal its intent,” Niedermeyer says.

“Only a few typical quirks, like moments of overly cautious traffic spacing and overactive path planning, betrayed the fact that a computer was in control.”

The amazing experience aside, Waymo is still a long way from bringing the ride-sharing driverless service to the public, and its reluctance to offer more specific data on it hints to that. Or maybe Waymo is just overly cautious, not wanting to spoil a good thing before it’s certain of it.

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About the author: Elena Gorgan
Elena Gorgan profile photo

Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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