Would you trust your life to a computer?
That’s the question you need to ask yourself when you need a ride in Los Angeles (or San Francisco or Austin), because the concept of self-driving, fully-autonomous vehicles are no longer theoretical but driving around.
Waymo, which began as the Google self-driving car project before being spun-off into its own standalone business, is operating a real-world trial of the technology and we couldn’t resist the chance to get a first-hand experience of the ‘future’ of cars.
It’s impossible to miss the Waymo One. For starters, you don’t see too many Jaguar I-Paces on the road, but Waymo already has 1500 specially modified versions running around the US on its trial service. Recently the company announced plans to buy 2000 more Jaguars as it expands the program.
The other reason it’s hard to miss is the huge array of technology Waymo bolts to the outside of the Jags to make self-driving cars a reality.
While some other brands (cough, Tesla, cough) try to convince the world that it can be done with existing in-car technology, the Waymo One makes it clear that in order for a computer to drive it needs a lot of information.
That’s why the Waymo One is fitted not only with cameras but also radar (radio detection and ranging) and LiDAR (light detection and ranging), which gives it an awkward outward appearance but some amazing computing power underneath.
I’ll be honest, I’ve always had a big problem with the idea of fully-autonomous cars. I figure there’s already a highly developed computer capable of making millions of micro-decisions and safely operating a vehicle – a human being. But it seems the technology industry is determined to make it happen, with Waymo, Tesla and others on the case.
Waymo has been testing its cars in the real-world since 2016, but it wasn’t until 2020 that it let the public inside the vehicles, when the company was confident the technology could safely navigate its way around the initial trail area in Phoenix, Arizona. Since then the project has expanded, including Los Angeles, where I found myself this week.
Seeing dozens of Waymo Jaguars driving around the streets, with no-one behind the wheel initially shocked me. It just seems like madness, watching people happily jump in the passenger seat and let a car with no driver whisk them off into LA traffic. However, as I saw more and more of them, even drove alongside them, the shock turned into curiosity and I downloaded the Waymo One app to get a ride.
It’s literally just like hailing an Uber – you open the app, pop in your destination and get an ETA on your car’s arrival. The only major difference is the Waymo One app needs your Bluetooth permission because that allows you to unlock the car’s doors when it arrives.
Jumping aboard, into the front passenger seat, is a surreal experience. The infotainment system gives you a quick rundown on the rules – the most important being, don’t touch the steering wheel – and then you’re away without any human intervention.
As a self-driving car skeptic, seeing the Waymo One carefully find a gap in traffic to pull out, then indicate and navigate a tight bend, avoid someone standing next to their car, and scurry through a rat run in the back streets of Venice was something remarkable.
It can clearly navigate its way through tricky situations and has no trouble keeping up with traffic on the quicker roads. It even swung wide to give itself more room to take our final corner with some dynamic ability (although if anyone tries to start an autonomous racing series again I’ll be the first one to call BS).
With my ride over, I jump out, the Waymo One sits there for a moment looking for its next ride (just like a human Uber driver would) and then races off into traffic to keep working.
For now, the Waymo One project is limited to five cities in the USA, and then to a specific area within those cities, so the idea of autonomous cars on every street corner remains a long way off.
But having previously felt it was a dangerous pipe dream, after experiencing Waymo One in the real-world, in traffic, at speed, I find myself becoming less of a skeptic and more of a believer.
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