If you have been in central London of late, you’ll not have failed to spot them: white Jaguar I-Paces which have sprouted weird excrescences, none more obvious than what appears at first to be something not unlike a conning tower growing out of their roofs. And the always well-informed Ti subscriber will know exactly what they’re looking at: the autonomous ride company Waymo is trialling in the capital, with the aim of transforming personal intra-urban transport in the same way it is already starting to do across 15 American cities from San Francisco to Miami.
And transformative it appears to be. Everyone I’ve spoken to who’s used the service would recommend it in a heartbeat. One San Francisco-dwelling friend said, ‘I never take Ubers any more. Waymo or walking!’ But why? I could see the advantages for Waymo of not having to pay drivers once sufficient scale is reached to offset the surely mammoth set up costs, but for the passenger? Well there’s doubtless great novelty value in being driven by a car with no driver, but beyond that? Ride for ride, Waymo is around 13 per cent more expensive than Uber and if, one minute into the ride, you realise you’ve accidentally left your briefcase behind, you can’t ask Waymo to nip back and get it. So I thought I’d better find out for myself.
I think the first thing to say is that in some regards, it was a distinctly sub-optimal experience. I wanted it to take me from close to the Golden Gate Bridge to the airport, a journey that should take 20 minutes in ideal conditions and no more than 35 at rush hour peak. But mine not only couldn’t take me to the airport – presumably because Waymo had not yet reached an agreement with the authorities – but the journey to the closest accessible point (a Marriott hotel) was scheduled for 1hr 20mins because right now in San Francisco, Waymos are not using the freeway. I’m told it’s something to do with the latest software, is only a glitch and they’ll be bowling along at 65mph like everyone else very soon. But I’d deliberately left a stack of time so, for me and on this occasion, it was no deal at all; if I’d been late for my flight it could have been a very big deal indeed.
