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Waymo One (formerly the Google self-driving car project) offers self-driving taxi service in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and the Phoenix metro area, and is ramping up in Austin, Texas. Previously there was a wait list in San Francisco, but as of 6/25/24, it's open to all riders, so I decided to give it a try when attending a recent event at Civic Kitchen.
Waymo One App
After downloading the Waymo One App, I set up my payment card; all major credit cards and Apple Pay are accepted.
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There are accessibility options for passengers who require a wheelchair accessible vehicle with a driver and/or descriptive audio, or to minimize walking time. In retrospect, I'm curious where I'd have been dropped off if I'd selected the “minimize walking time” option. More on that later.
Waymo One Waiting Time
As you might expect, since Waymo One is now available to anyone in San Francisco, there can be longer wait times during rush hour and peak periods. Perhaps because of my short ride and timing, I only had to wait six minutes for a ride requested at 4:44pm on a Wednesday, and five minutes for a ride requested at 9:18pm that evening.
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Waymo One Unlocking and Ride
Once your Waymo One vehicle arrives, an “unlock” button appears in the app, and once you tap it, the car's doors unlock and the handles protrude.
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I settled into the front passenger seat. A voice welcomed me on my first ride and reminded me to wear a seat belt. Once I touched the screen to begin the ride, the car smoothly and quietly moved up the street.
Waymo One uses all electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles that can accommodate a maximum of four passengers, if three sit in the back (you'll have to push up the cup holder and seat someone in the middle seat). Note that no one is permitted to sit in the driver's seat.
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It was a little eerie on my first ride not having anyone in the driver's seat, but as the driving is better than the vast majority of taxis and Ubers I've been in, it was soon a non-issue.
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The one sudden stop we made was at one of San Francisco's “slow streets” which were created during the pandemic as a largely pedestrianized street, and retained even post-pandemic for walkers and cyclists. Because it's a “slow street” cyclists generally don't stop at the intersections, and sure enough, a cyclist with two kids in tow sailed on through, causing the Waymo to stop fairly suddenly. We weren't going too fast, since this is a residential area.
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What did surprise me was that the Waymo didn't drop me off where I expected; it let me off at a place that was a 4-minute walk from my actual destination.
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I suspect that it may have done this because Civic Kitchen is located on Mission Street, and because of parked vehicles the Waymo would end up blocking traffic while letting me out. That probably wouldn't faze a human taxi or Uber driver, but Waymo seemingly was more considerate of traffic/other drivers. A 4 minute walk was fine for me, but I would have been far less keen on it if it had been a more dangerous neighborhood at night or if I had mobility issues, so consider selecting the “minimize walking time” option in the Accessibility menu if this is an issue for you.
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Here's our Waymo One video review:
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Waymo One Cost
Waymo states that there's a minimum price charged for all trips (at least in San Francisco, I believe it's at least $10, no matter how short the trip), and that other factors include the trip distance and time, whether you change your destination during the trip, the time of day, level of ridership demand, and whether you cancel the ride or dirty/damage the vehicle.
You can get an estimate of the pricing by entering in your pickup and dropoff destinations. As an example, a recent estimate for a pickup at Tartine Bakery in the Mission, with a dropoff at the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, estimated trip pricing of $27 for this ~22 minute ride.
I didn't take the above trip, but an 8-minute, 1.6 mile trip a little before 5pm on a weekday came to $17.56, while the same trip home at 9:30pm cost $21.30.
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The Verdict
As someone who hates being in a car, especially when I'm not driving it, my Waymo was surprisingly good. Most of the things I hate about being in a taxi or Uber were eliminated: there was no pumping the brakes, no risky driving maneuvers, no smoky or weird smells or cloying car air fresheners trying to cover up said smells, and I didn't have to request that the driver turn down his music, since I could play my own. There was the one sudden stop, but at no point did I feel unsafe. The main problem was being dropped off a four-minute walk from my destination; a taxi or Uber would have dropped me off at the destination. Nevertheless, overall my Waymo rides were good and convenient experiences, and could be especially useful for passengers who shy away from Ubers and other rideshares due to safety concerns, since no driver is involved.
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