This is the Waymo 2

Yesterday I gushed about how autonomous Waymo cars is the way to go for ride-hailing. The only downside at the moment is the cost, and that the service is only available in limited cities. But time alone will solve those problems. Waymo - and other autonomous taxis - will continue to get better and cheaper. Once it reaches service and cost parity with UBER and Lyft, it’s game over.

The existential crisis of A.I. eliminating jobs in a massively hurtful scale remains to be seen. However, the example of robots replacing ride-share drivers is not an exaggeration. There’s zero reason to pay a live person to drive the car if the robots can do it for the same price, if not cheaper. In the near future I can see the taxi driver profession - whether it’s a classic yellow cab or a private car - get completely eliminated.

And if a car can drive itself, then it’s just a matter of scaling (says the guy who simply types and don’t hold any engineering degree) up towards larger vehicles. Bus drivers: your days are numbered as well! (Tongue somewhat in cheek.)

I think it can be a legit concern if A.I. obviates entire categories of jobs in rapid fashion. A bunch of people losing their jobs overnight is not a good thing. Pivoting towards another profession takes time and effort. In the meantime you’re going to have downstream consequences such as credit defaults and decreased tax revenue.

If autonomous taxi is destined to replace the driver, the current slow rollout of the technology will provide ample warning and time for people to adjust. UBER drivers operating in cities with Waymo might start to see a decreasing revenue trend-line as Waymo grab an increasing market share. At some point the math will no longer math, and they will have to go do something else. That’s a heck of a more palatable option than an abrupt termination.

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Make wheels silver again.

This is the Waymo

Last week I took a Waymo - an autonomous taxi - for the very first time. And I have to say: goodbye, Uber and Lyft. If a driverless taxi is available, I am picking that over the other options.

Of course, the elephant in the room is costs. But that’s only going to get cheaper as the technology matures and the autonomous cars proliferate. There aren’t drivers operating the cars who are going to (rightly) demand periodic incoming increases. I quite like that I did not have to tip the robot. The price shown on the app is truly the price to be paid. It’s magical.

The only minor flaw I’ve seen riding a Waymo is that the car follows the speed limit right to the signage number. You and I both know that human drivers go above the speed limit all the time, in a very safe manner of course. At least there isn’t road rage towards the Waymo going the speed limit: what’s the point in getting mad at a robot? Unless you’re truly in a hurry, Waymo obeying the speed limits religiously is not a problem.

Other than that, the autonomous taxi behaves much like the human driver. It will speed through a yellow turning into a red. It will inch forward into the intersection on a left turn, even though I’m pretty sure the rule says you’re not suppose to. It will make that left turn right after the walking pedestrians have left behind a big enough space, even though the rules states you’re suppose to wait until pedestrians have finished crossing.

The best feature of a Waymo is of course the lack of anybody else in the car. No smells, no conversations, no stranger danger. Other than cost (for now), why would anyone choose a human taxi over the robot? I am team Waymo all the way from now on, where applicable.

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Ride along.

Must protect number one

I’ve noticed amongst people I know from out of town that when they visit San Francisco, they are eager to take a Waymo autonomous taxis. It’s almost a tourist attraction in it of itself. That is, until it proliferates into other cities and regions. I myself have yet to hail a Waymo ride, just like I’ve yet to take a ferry to visit Alcatraz island.

As a person of introverted proclivity, I am on paper a big fan of autonomous taxis. To not have another stranger (the driver) there at all - never mind interacting with them - is serene music to my ears. But as with everything in life, there are tradeoffs.

Robots may be predictable, but humans are definitely not. On public roads there are multitudes of negative potentialities you must account for. And I don’t see how a driver-less taxi is capable of handling those situations. For example: what if a gang of dudes walks over to your stopped Waymo in a menacing fashion? If I were driving, the law gives me protection to mash the gas and get the hell out of there by harmful means.

Would a robot do the same? Has Waymo put into code calculations of when it is appropriate to run people over? There’s got to be a hierarchy of which life is more valuable, right? Perhaps the person paying for the autonomous ride should be supreme. If the outside world is threatening the occupant(s) inside a Waymo car, stopping and locking the doors cannot be the only option!

You can bet that I too would run over a gang of bikers in my Range Rover, if so provoked. Would an autonomous car do the same? I would like to know the answer before getting into one.

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The late night filings.

You son of a beach, I'm in

I am officially in on the Waymo app. I can now hail a fully autonomous car to take me anywhere (?) in San Francisco. Bad news for me is unlike the early invitees, rides are no longer free. But, I am excited to see what it is all about. Hopefully there won’t be any crashing into emergency vehicles. There definitely will not be any sex.

Can we trust computers fully? This morning, my Apple Watch did its hourly thing of reminding me to stand up. Problem is: I was already standing for the past 20 minutes! Kind of disappointed it wasn’t completely foolproof to detect that. I guess the Apple Watch doesn’t use a proximity sensor to gauge how far it is from the floor? That makes sense, actually. Otherwise, you can fake standing by sitting on a bar stool.

Pilots trust autopilot programs on airplanes, and by transitive properly, so do we as passengers. Obviously, there are way less airplanes in the sky compared to cars on the road. Also, there aren’t pedestrians and other objects to potentially run into.

I think the so called robotaxis are perfect for the introverts like myself. I almost never (want to) talk to the UBER driver, and always sit in the back passenger space. (Are there UBER drivers out there using two-door coupes?) With robotaxis, even the subtle pressure of making conversation with the driver will be gone! It is a completely silent car ride - there’s nobody else but me. I would totally watch a Youtube video during a Waymo ride, if I weren’t prone to carsickness.

Will I get annoyed at how strictly a Waymo ride follows the rules of the road? Example: everybody’s going 10 above, while the robotaxi is pegged to the speed limit. Unlike a human driver taxi, there isn’t (yet?) a financial incentive for a robotaxi to get to the destination as quickly as possible.

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The glow up.