Funky Friday: Driverless Cars

Everyone I mentioned the driverless taxi to, thought I was crazy to try it. I thought I would be crazy not to try it.  

The cars are operated by Waymo, you download an app on your phone.  I did that before I left home.  The app didn't let me set up an account, until I was in the service area, currently Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.  You enter credit card information in your profile.  

When you are ready to travel, you open the app, and tell it where you want to go.  The search function quicky populated destinations.  You click on where you want to go.  And it tells you the nearest location where the car can get out of traffic to safely pick you up, when it will be there, how long it will take to get to your destination and how much the charge will be.  If the schedule does not fit your needs, the app will offer alternatives.  When you are happy, you click book ride.  You can follow the car on a map as it drives to you. When it arrives you click on the app to unlock the doors (the door handles pop-out for you to open the door.) You get in, buckle your seatbelt, the car won't start moving until you do. And press start ride on the display screen in the front or back of the car.  Up to four people can ride, three in the back, and one in the passenger seat in the front.  The car won't move if you sit in the driver's seat.  

The Museum I was returning from was about 2 miles from the hotel I was staying in.  I walked about half of that, it was about 80 degrees (f) and very dry.  I decided I had walked enough and I had promised myself I would try the autonomous taxi.  The app couldn't been easier to use, the car took about 8 minutes to arrive where I was.  I was a little confused on the pick up location, and walked a block in the wrong direction, then looked at the map and realized the pick up was across the street from where I had started out. I was in an unfamiliar location and it was my first time using the service.  When the car pulled up, I clicked the unlock doors button on my phone and climbed in the back seat.  The car will wait up to two minutes for you.  I buckled the seat belt and clicked start ride on the display screen between the seats.  The ride was gentle. The radars on the car tracked the cars around me, and pedestrians. While waiting at a traffic light the door of the truck next to me opened and a person got out and walked across traffic to the sidewalk.  I watched all of that on the radar screen. The car slowed or changed course for traffic and pedestrians around us. The screen updates with time remaining to destination. When the car stopped in front of the hotel, the doors unlocked. It was the best taxi ride of the trip. 

I realize that as I get older there will come a time when I will, or at least should, stop driving.  I sincerely hope that a service like this is available when that time comes. I mentored a law student a few years ago that do to physical limitations will never drive a traditional car.  When we talked about autonomous cars, she said she couldn't wait. A car like this would give her freedom she has never known.  The greatest need for transportation is in rural areas.  If the tech-bros currently in government want to impress us, quit interrupting the function of government and engineer autonomous cars in America's heartland. 

Thinking about autonomous cars from a purely engineering point of view, to be as safe as possible every car needs to be connected to a network that tracks movement.  I talked with a guy on an airline flight one evening who was on his way home from a job interview.  He was working on sensors for self driving cars, and they were entering the decision phase of if the choice is hitting the baby stroller or the wheelchair and there is no other option, what do you do. He was thinking about changing jobs so he didn't have to think about that programing choice. 

I enjoyed the ride, I will do this again, I hope this service comes to DC soon.