June 27, 2024 • 20 mins
Waymo has been working on autonomous vehicles since it began as the Google Self Driving Car project at Google X in 2009. Spun out from it’s parent, and renamed Waymo in 2016, the iterations have developed. So today, June 2024, 15 years later, Waymo opened up it’s waitlist, and made it’s autonomous ride-hailing service up to anyone in San Francisco. It just so happens that I cleared the waitlist and took my first Waymo ride just a few days ago. And I recorded the experience.
In this exciting episode of "Turn the Lens," take a ride with me across San Francisco, from the Dogpatch to City Hall, On the ride, we’ll review some of the developments I’ve experienced first hand, autonomous transportation in general, and the experience of riding today’s start of the art autonomous vehicle.
The future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed. You can get a taste for yourself. Download the app, and take an autonomous ride. If for some reason, that’s not in the short term future, share this ride with me.
Waymo One: Autonomous, Future, Comfortable, Available | Turn the Lens podcast with Jeff Frick Ep33
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
Hey, welcome back everybody.Jeff Frick here
coming to you from the home studiofor another episode of ‘Turn the Lens’
Some big news over thelast couple days,
Waymo announced, Waymo, the, spin out of Google Alphabet self-driving car,
basically wiped out the,the wait list in San Francisco.
So now, if you want to ride in a Waymoself-driving taxi in San Francisco,
(00:32):
just put the app on your phoneand you're ready to go.
Ironically I finally got to take my first ride
in a Waymo autonomous vehiclejust a couple days ago,
I was in the city.
Opportunity presented itself.
I think I must have been the last personto get cleared off the waitlist,
and so I was able to jump in, get my Waymo and ride it across town.
So I recorded it
(00:52):
Wanted to share that video with you here.
so you can kind of see what it was likefrom the back of the,
from the back ofthe Waymo taxi.
So it was interesting.
And now it's availableto everybody and
certainly something you should check it out.
Try it out.
The future is here.
It's just not evenly distributed.
So without further ado, my ride with Waymoin San Francisco just a couple days ago.
(01:15):
Okay,
So I am in the future.
(Waymo Car Speaking) - Hello from Waymo
(Waymo Car Speaking) As we get going, just give us one minute to cover a few writing tips.
(Waymo Car) This experience may feel futuristic,
(Waymo Car) but the need to buckle up is the same as always.
(Waymo Car) So keep your seatbelt fastened please
(Waymo Car) If you'retraveling with little ones.
(01:54):
(Waymo Car) The microphones are only unlockedwhen you're connected to rider support.
(Waymo Car) So sing your heart out.
(Waymo Car) We can't hear you.
(Waymo Car) You can also use the app or passenger screen
(Waymo Car) to speak to a rider supportagent at any time.
(Waymo Car) In the rare case of an emergency,please keep your seatbelt fastened
(Waymo Car) and remain in the carunless there's an urgent need to exit.
(02:19):
(Waymo Car) Rider support will connect with youand provide assistance.
(Waymo Car) Finally, relaxand thank you for riding with us.
Okay, so I'm riding in the future here.
I just got my first ever Waymoautonomous vehicle.
And of course, I'm leaving a GenAI show.
I walked to earlier,but my dogs are tired, so I'm gonna
(02:42):
take the Waymo back across San Francisco,
basically from Dogpatchto City Hall
a couple miles
I’m using my director cut (camera feature)
to both simultaneously.
See the front.
So we already had a left handturn that went pretty smooth,
we’re in the nice Jaguar, which I don't get to drive Jaguars very much
(03:05):
Shout out to,
L-- P--------
He’s a Jaguar fan.
They selected the musicfor me I guess
It's very pleasant.
Going up 3rd towards Oracle (Park, home of San Francisco Giants) and
(03:29):
at Oracle there's a Giants game tonight.The Cubs are in town.
So I think we’re going to route around thatbecause it's probably a mess.
Got my little map down here
Telling me we're going.
Don't have the app open on the phonebecause I got the camera open.
So anyway I talk a lot about autonomy andhow autonomy is going to change the game.
And this is a little bit of the futureright here.
(03:53):
There's been some issueswith some of the autonomous vehicles.
The (GM’s) Cruise oneshad their license revoked, I think
in San Francisco or their permit,whatever it was to operate.
But Waymo's still going strongthere also in Phoenix.
And they've been doing thisfor a little while.
I have to dig up the detailsin the post, but pretty,
(04:14):
pretty wild.
And it's something that we've knownis coming for a long, long time.
it was interesting.
On my walk, I saw one that was waiting for
its rider to get in.
Can you please turn the music down?
(my bad, microphones aren’t activated)
Yielding to an emergency vehicle
I’m just going toturn the music off.
I’ll turn it down.
(04:34):
There we go.
and it was weird, this
The Waymo was waiting for the.
It was a younger kid getting into it,
and it was waiting for himacross the street,
and it was blocking a drivewaythat somebody was trying to get into.
So it just picks a safe place and
the kid ran over and got inand person got in the driveway.
But, you know, there'sstill a little kinks here and there.
(04:56):
There's always going to be edgecases, but,
It's all about experience.
And it's also a lot aboutthe 80% solution
or 90% solution for most of the timewhen you don't have those edge cases.
Remember I interviewed the PhantomAuto guys who could take control
of autonomous vehicles from a centrallocation to get them out of,
(05:23):
kind of stuck situations, but the marketwasn't even ready for them, I don’t
I think they may have even shut down, unfortunately,
because they were justway ahead of the market.
So we're cruisingnow past the medical center,
cutting across town.
Underneath the 101.(280 actually)
And, doing pretty good on the green lights to.
(05:50):
So far pretty smooth.
I don't know, maybe it's
there’s not much to saybecause it's all going pretty smooth.
I do like this cool director viewin the Samsung.
It's kind of like, BeReal,but I can run it the whole time.
So we just completely avoided the
(06:11):
the Giants game. Go, Giants.
Hopefully they beat the Cubs.
They just got beat up on bythe Cardinals I believe.
Pretty bright sunlightcoming down, and there’s no
Indicators thatI can see as
to what the car sees beyond,
(06:31):
you know, kind of thestandard map view
It’s got a support thing.
It's got a pullover.
I got 15 minutes to get across town,
maybe I’ll call support just to say hello.
Car is super clean, of course.
(06:53):
Can I see how much gas it's got?
Haven’t had any really challenging,
pedestrian situations yet?
My arm’s getting tired
from holding my phone.
(07:18):
So I'm just cruising.
Comes to a full stop.
It's kind of a zigzag,so it must be kind of
Google Maps like,in that it
kind of routes the way thatI wouldn't necessarily
(07:39):
drive as the straightest route,but it knows,
I guess, the ways to avoid the trafficbecause we haven't hit any of it yet.
It's kind of odd.
I think maybe they should have a talking driver
use a ChatGPT that it can
have a conversation, ask questionswhile they're driving.
(08:02):
Again, the really cool thingabout autonomous vehicles
is they can actually see every way at the same time
where we can'tas people, right?
You gotta turn your head left, turnyour head right, but they can actually,
Here we go, those guys are, like,challenging, jumping out in front of it
to see if they could freeze us, and they backed off.
(08:22):
So there isthat is a thing.
People try to confuse the cars.
They standin the sidewalk.
They do all kinds of things,which at the end of the day,
just becomes part of the learning dataset.
and now I see the,
the view down below had those pedestrians
jumping out into the, into the crosswalk,but then they backed off.
(08:52):
Yeah, full stops.
We haven't had a really complicated intersection.
Yeah, but we're certainly drivingstraight into the sun.
So if you had, optical issues,
this would be a problem.
If you're in a hurry, it'snot like some of the wild,
(09:13):
the wild Uber drivers that you getsometimes that are just
screaming across the city.
It's a comfortable,
very stress free ride so far.
Kind of cruising
through the neighborhood here.
Lots of stop signs.
(09:33):
It's not lots of traffic, which is good.
And my feet are feeling very happynot to be walking.
Okay, here's another one coming this way.
I believe.
Yeah, there's another one, so.
Or no, that's somebody else's autonomous vehicle.
So that's part of living in SanFrancisco is not only do you have
production vehicleslike this one for Waymo.
(09:56):
Oh that's a xxxxx one
Oh that was a little bitof a complicated one.
People kind of stopped and started.
but you alsohave all these startups
that are constantly driving around.
So you'll see cars, oftenwith all kinds of bolted on things,
bolted on sensors and lidars
and cameras and, and things which are
(10:20):
that was just kind of tricky
around this little island thing that are,
You know,so many companies
are trying to solve this puzzle,
and ultimatelythey'll be safer than people.
Not because people can't drive well,but unfortunately,
many people drive distracted
and they are texting,or they're thinking about an issue
(10:44):
they had at home with the kidsor with the spouse or with the job.
And it's really about distracted driving,which is the huge advantage that
autonomous vehicles have.
They certainly have differentchallenges, but,
you know, there will come a day,I believe,
in the not so distant future that,you know, people aren't going to drive.
I mean, you already see it a little bitin terms of the the priority for people
(11:06):
for kids in gettingtheir driver's license.
It's not quite.
When I was 16, it represented freedom.
Now kids have their phonesnow, that's how they travel the world
and talk to their friendsand meet, this and that, so.
The car doesn't quite representthe freedom, that it used to.
It was a nice clean lane change.
(11:27):
Are we going up 6th (street)?
No, we’re not going to go up 6th (street).
We’ll probably gethave people throw shit at us
I assume.
6th street, if you don't know,
if you're not from San Francisco,is, don't go there.
Sixth, just south of Market.
Unless you're looking for
drugs or trouble.
(11:47):
it's best not to go to 6th (street)in San Francisco.
Those two blocks off of Market.
So we’re making their way across Harrison Street
We’re going up 9th (street)which is good.
I wonder if it's programed to avoid 6th.
(12:08):
You know, part of the beauty of software is
you can constantly update itbased on new information.
And, I would imagine,hopefully some computer programer
has been on 6th
and knows to route around it.
As we cruise up towards City Hall,
(12:28):
must admit
the time is seven minutes to go.
I can't rememberwhat the price of this ride was
like $17 or something.
Not super cheap.
There's price surge pricing right nowbecause, the Giants game
so many people,
I think they just got backfrom a road trip as well.
So people are excited.
(12:56):
There you go.
Now you can see on the display,the active showing of all the other cars
and what's going on.
That was a motorcycle there on the right.
I'm always thinking on my Onewheel,it’s my obligation on my Onewheel
to train these things to deal with EUCs.
I can't see the pedals.
(13:17):
I don't know if the pedals are moving
the Phantom Auto guys liked using Fords.
And I think Jaguar is owned by Ford
It might beto,
because they had
API connections to the controls.
So the gas, brakes,turning, etc.
had easy access so all their demo cars were
(13:38):
were Fords, if I recall.
We start coming up to Market Street.
I hope this video comes out.
I don't think I've ever donea director's cut.
Coming up on the back of Bill Graham (Civic Auditorium).
Which way is he going to go, or she, it?
Do Waymo's have names?
(14:00):
Do they each have a name?
They should give them a name.
That should be another thing.
Give them a name.
Or maybe you can choose a name to talk to it.
but I think that would add
to the experience.
Here you can see even pedestrians on the sidewalk are tracked.
See if it sees that bikerover there on the corner.
(14:23):
He's off on this bike now
I don't thinkit got it
So we're coming up towards the Van Ness.
I’m sorry I’m wearingthe glasses.
As you can see, it's extremely bright
and you just don't want to seemy squinty face.
That's not very entertaining.
All right, so it's going to go round.
And it's a little tricky around herewhere you can turn left, where you cannot.
(14:46):
Excuse me where you can turn left.
Where you cannot turn left.
And how you approachthe destination.
So it looks like it's going to come infrom Franklin and actually
drop me off across the street,which will be just fine, because I think
part of the programingis trying to find the safe,
drop off and pick up
it listed 777 Tennesseeon my pick up
(15:07):
but it moved a little bit, away from that.
But It waited for me.
And then as soon as I got close,I could unlock the door and jump in.
You know, it's funny.
The motorcycles look like,
those are two scooters.
They look like scooters.
(15:29):
I guess because you can see the body, maybe.
There they are over there.
Okay, so here we go.
Civic Center.
Coming around the back of
Davies Symphony Hall.
Very close to the, the portal.
(15:51):
Tommaso (Trionfi) and his portal are close to here,
another futuristic product.(Shared Studios Portal)
Step into the future.
And again, it's only appropriatedoing this after going to
a DataStax AI conversation
Okay, we're almost there.
Don't forget your phone,keys, or bag.
Okay, good, I won’tI’ll try not to do that
(16:11):
(Waymo Car) For your safety, the doors will remain locked when we arrive.
Okay.
(Waymo Car) Pull the handle twice to exit.
(Waymo Car) The first pull unlocksthe second opens the door.
Okay, so if it's unsafe situation.
Your doors are notunlocked when you get there.
Good to know.
There's our destination up ahead
on the back of City Hall.
(16:33):
Where’s it taking me?
Oh, I’ve never.
I’ve come
I’ve been coming to this locationfor more years than I can count.
And I've never stopped or picked up here.
All right, sois this the spot?
All right?
This is the spot.
(Waymo Car) You are here
(Waymo Car) Please make sure it's clear before exiting
So I do the double.
(16:56):
Do it once, twice.
All right. Thank you very much Waymo.
All right, so there was my
There was my Waymo ride.
My Waymo autonomous vehicle ride.
Put me into the fence I guess.
That's it.
Is it going to drive offor the waiting for me in the,
ended on the app.
(17:16):
I better jump over to the app and check.
Oop, it just locked.
There it goes.
Thanks for the ride Waymo
All right.
So that was an interesting experience.
First time ever.
Thank you Waymo.
And if you're in San FranciscoI think they're also operating in Phoenix.
(17:39):
Maybe another city.
Check it out.
A little taste of the futureJeff Frick signing off.
Take care.Bye bye,
So that was it.
It was pretty wild.
And, you know, in watching that videoafter the fact to see the
estimated time of arrival changed quite a bit.
the path that it took was not somethingthat I would have taken.
(17:59):
As I mentioned, there was a Giants game.
they had just come back.
It was actually Willie Mays night,which I didn't realize at the time.
And the Cubs are in town.
So there was a lot of traffic around,Oracle Park, so it routed around there
and came in a way that I've never cometo a location that I've stopped at
hundreds of times, over the yearsso it was a really interesting experience.
(18:19):
So, get the Waymo appif you're in San Francisco.
Try it out.
It's not super fastbecause it stops at every stop sign.
And it feels pretty safe.
And it's not racingto get you to your destination.
But it takes his timeand it gets you there safely.
So kind of a full circle momentbecause the Waymo hive we used to call it
(18:39):
is not that far from my house, wherethey were doing a lot of the development.
We've seen the the vehicles, evolveover time from these little round ones
to, little SUVs to minivans to,I think the latest version
is a version of the of aof a Jaguar small SUV.
But it's a pretty wild experience.
And now it's available to all.
(19:00):
So I just wanted to share this videosince I finally got to have my ride.
And, who knew I was the last one
to get off the waitlistbefore they opened up to everyone?
So, check it out.
Just by chance
I happened to go to a book party
at our local bookstore, Kepler's, and see Ray Kurzweil and his daughter Amy
as they release their new book,which is called The Singularity Is Nearer.
(19:23):
And there's somereally interesting concepts,
on longevity escape velocity and some other things.
He's a pretty thoughtful, and deep thinker.
Hope you enjoyedthat video.
Hope you get a chance to ride in a Waymonext time you're in San Francisco.
I would definitely encourage youto give it a try.
Like we always say,
The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed.
(19:43):
Thanks for watching.Thanks for listening on the podcast.
Be sure to like, subscribeand share with a friend.
Take care. Jeff Frick signing off. Bye bye.
Hey, welcome back everybody.Jeff Frick here
coming to you from the home studiofor another episode of ‘Turn the Lens’
Some big news over thelast couple days,
Waymo announced, Waymo, the, spin out of Google Alphabet self-driving car,
basically wiped out the,the wait list in San Francisco.
So now, if you want to ride in a Waymoself-driving taxi in San Francisco,
(00:32):
just put the app on your phoneand you're ready to go.
Ironically I finally got to take my first ride
in a Waymo autonomous vehiclejust a couple days ago,
I was in the city.
Opportunity presented itself.
I think I must have been the last personto get cleared off the waitlist,
and so I was able to jump in, get my Waymo and ride it across town.
So I recorded it
(00:52):
Wanted to share that video with you here.
so you can kind of see what it was likefrom the back of the,
from the back ofthe Waymo taxi.
So it was interesting.
And now it's availableto everybody and
certainly something you should check it out.
Try it out.
The future is here.
It's just not evenly distributed.
So without further ado, my ride with Waymoin San Francisco just a couple days ago.
(01:15):
Okay,
So I am in the future.
(Waymo Car Speaking) - Hello from Waymo
(Waymo Car Speaking) As we get going, just give us one minute to cover a few writing tips.
(Waymo Car) This experience may feel futuristic,
(Waymo Car) but the need to buckle up is the same as always.
(Waymo Car) So keep your seatbelt fastened please
(Waymo Car) If you'retraveling with little ones.
(01:54):
(Waymo Car) The microphones are only unlockedwhen you're connected to rider support.
(Waymo Car) So sing your heart out.
(Waymo Car) We can't hear you.
(Waymo Car) You can also use the app or passenger screen
(Waymo Car) to speak to a rider supportagent at any time.
(Waymo Car) In the rare case of an emergency,please keep your seatbelt fastened
(Waymo Car) and remain in the carunless there's an urgent need to exit.
(02:19):
(Waymo Car) Rider support will connect with youand provide assistance.
(Waymo Car) Finally, relaxand thank you for riding with us.
Okay, so I'm riding in the future here.
I just got my first ever Waymoautonomous vehicle.
And of course, I'm leaving a GenAI show.
I walked to earlier,but my dogs are tired, so I'm gonna
(02:42):
take the Waymo back across San Francisco,
basically from Dogpatchto City Hall
a couple miles
I’m using my director cut (camera feature)
to both simultaneously.
See the front.
So we already had a left handturn that went pretty smooth,
we’re in the nice Jaguar, which I don't get to drive Jaguars very much
(03:05):
Shout out to,
L-- P--------
He’s a Jaguar fan.
They selected the musicfor me I guess
It's very pleasant.
Going up 3rd towards Oracle (Park, home of San Francisco Giants) and
(03:29):
at Oracle there's a Giants game tonight.The Cubs are in town.
So I think we’re going to route around thatbecause it's probably a mess.
Got my little map down here
Telling me we're going.
Don't have the app open on the phonebecause I got the camera open.
So anyway I talk a lot about autonomy andhow autonomy is going to change the game.
And this is a little bit of the futureright here.
(03:53):
There's been some issueswith some of the autonomous vehicles.
The (GM’s) Cruise oneshad their license revoked, I think
in San Francisco or their permit,whatever it was to operate.
But Waymo's still going strongthere also in Phoenix.
And they've been doing thisfor a little while.
I have to dig up the detailsin the post, but pretty,
(04:14):
pretty wild.
And it's something that we've knownis coming for a long, long time.
it was interesting.
On my walk, I saw one that was waiting for
its rider to get in.
Can you please turn the music down?
(my bad, microphones aren’t activated)
Yielding to an emergency vehicle
I’m just going toturn the music off.
I’ll turn it down.
(04:34):
There we go.
and it was weird, this
The Waymo was waiting for the.
It was a younger kid getting into it,
and it was waiting for himacross the street,
and it was blocking a drivewaythat somebody was trying to get into.
So it just picks a safe place and
the kid ran over and got inand person got in the driveway.
But, you know, there'sstill a little kinks here and there.
(04:56):
There's always going to be edgecases, but,
It's all about experience.
And it's also a lot aboutthe 80% solution
or 90% solution for most of the timewhen you don't have those edge cases.
Remember I interviewed the PhantomAuto guys who could take control
of autonomous vehicles from a centrallocation to get them out of,
(05:23):
kind of stuck situations, but the marketwasn't even ready for them, I don’t
I think they may have even shut down, unfortunately,
because they were justway ahead of the market.
So we're cruisingnow past the medical center,
cutting across town.
Underneath the 101.(280 actually)
And, doing pretty good on the green lights to.
(05:50):
So far pretty smooth.
I don't know, maybe it's
there’s not much to saybecause it's all going pretty smooth.
I do like this cool director viewin the Samsung.
It's kind of like, BeReal,but I can run it the whole time.
So we just completely avoided the
(06:11):
the Giants game. Go, Giants.
Hopefully they beat the Cubs.
They just got beat up on bythe Cardinals I believe.
Pretty bright sunlightcoming down, and there’s no
Indicators thatI can see as
to what the car sees beyond,
(06:31):
you know, kind of thestandard map view
It’s got a support thing.
It's got a pullover.
I got 15 minutes to get across town,
maybe I’ll call support just to say hello.
Car is super clean, of course.
(06:53):
Can I see how much gas it's got?
Haven’t had any really challenging,
pedestrian situations yet?
My arm’s getting tired
from holding my phone.
(07:18):
So I'm just cruising.
Comes to a full stop.
It's kind of a zigzag,so it must be kind of
Google Maps like,in that it
kind of routes the way thatI wouldn't necessarily
(07:39):
drive as the straightest route,but it knows,
I guess, the ways to avoid the trafficbecause we haven't hit any of it yet.
It's kind of odd.
I think maybe they should have a talking driver
use a ChatGPT that it can
have a conversation, ask questionswhile they're driving.
(08:02):
Again, the really cool thingabout autonomous vehicles
is they can actually see every way at the same time
where we can'tas people, right?
You gotta turn your head left, turnyour head right, but they can actually,
Here we go, those guys are, like,challenging, jumping out in front of it
to see if they could freeze us, and they backed off.
(08:22):
So there isthat is a thing.
People try to confuse the cars.
They standin the sidewalk.
They do all kinds of things,which at the end of the day,
just becomes part of the learning dataset.
and now I see the,
the view down below had those pedestrians
jumping out into the, into the crosswalk,but then they backed off.
(08:52):
Yeah, full stops.
We haven't had a really complicated intersection.
Yeah, but we're certainly drivingstraight into the sun.
So if you had, optical issues,
this would be a problem.
If you're in a hurry, it'snot like some of the wild,
(09:13):
the wild Uber drivers that you getsometimes that are just
screaming across the city.
It's a comfortable,
very stress free ride so far.
Kind of cruising
through the neighborhood here.
Lots of stop signs.
(09:33):
It's not lots of traffic, which is good.
And my feet are feeling very happynot to be walking.
Okay, here's another one coming this way.
I believe.
Yeah, there's another one, so.
Or no, that's somebody else's autonomous vehicle.
So that's part of living in SanFrancisco is not only do you have
production vehicleslike this one for Waymo.
(09:56):
Oh that's a xxxxx one
Oh that was a little bitof a complicated one.
People kind of stopped and started.
but you alsohave all these startups
that are constantly driving around.
So you'll see cars, oftenwith all kinds of bolted on things,
bolted on sensors and lidars
and cameras and, and things which are
(10:20):
that was just kind of tricky
around this little island thing that are,
You know,so many companies
are trying to solve this puzzle,
and ultimatelythey'll be safer than people.
Not because people can't drive well,but unfortunately,
many people drive distracted
and they are texting,or they're thinking about an issue
(10:44):
they had at home with the kidsor with the spouse or with the job.
And it's really about distracted driving,which is the huge advantage that
autonomous vehicles have.
They certainly have differentchallenges, but,
you know, there will come a day,I believe,
in the not so distant future that,you know, people aren't going to drive.
I mean, you already see it a little bitin terms of the the priority for people
(11:06):
for kids in gettingtheir driver's license.
It's not quite.
When I was 16, it represented freedom.
Now kids have their phonesnow, that's how they travel the world
and talk to their friendsand meet, this and that, so.
The car doesn't quite representthe freedom, that it used to.
It was a nice clean lane change.
(11:27):
Are we going up 6th (street)?
No, we’re not going to go up 6th (street).
We’ll probably gethave people throw shit at us
I assume.
6th street, if you don't know,
if you're not from San Francisco,is, don't go there.
Sixth, just south of Market.
Unless you're looking for
drugs or trouble.
(11:47):
it's best not to go to 6th (street)in San Francisco.
Those two blocks off of Market.
So we’re making their way across Harrison Street
We’re going up 9th (street)which is good.
I wonder if it's programed to avoid 6th.
(12:08):
You know, part of the beauty of software is
you can constantly update itbased on new information.
And, I would imagine,hopefully some computer programer
has been on 6th
and knows to route around it.
As we cruise up towards City Hall,
(12:28):
must admit
the time is seven minutes to go.
I can't rememberwhat the price of this ride was
like $17 or something.
Not super cheap.
There's price surge pricing right nowbecause, the Giants game
so many people,
I think they just got backfrom a road trip as well.
So people are excited.
(12:56):
There you go.
Now you can see on the display,the active showing of all the other cars
and what's going on.
That was a motorcycle there on the right.
I'm always thinking on my Onewheel,it’s my obligation on my Onewheel
to train these things to deal with EUCs.
I can't see the pedals.
(13:17):
I don't know if the pedals are moving
the Phantom Auto guys liked using Fords.
And I think Jaguar is owned by Ford
It might beto,
because they had
API connections to the controls.
So the gas, brakes,turning, etc.
had easy access so all their demo cars were
(13:38):
were Fords, if I recall.
We start coming up to Market Street.
I hope this video comes out.
I don't think I've ever donea director's cut.
Coming up on the back of Bill Graham (Civic Auditorium).
Which way is he going to go, or she, it?
Do Waymo's have names?
(14:00):
Do they each have a name?
They should give them a name.
That should be another thing.
Give them a name.
Or maybe you can choose a name to talk to it.
but I think that would add
to the experience.
Here you can see even pedestrians on the sidewalk are tracked.
See if it sees that bikerover there on the corner.
(14:23):
He's off on this bike now
I don't thinkit got it
So we're coming up towards the Van Ness.
I’m sorry I’m wearingthe glasses.
As you can see, it's extremely bright
and you just don't want to seemy squinty face.
That's not very entertaining.
All right, so it's going to go round.
And it's a little tricky around herewhere you can turn left, where you cannot.
(14:46):
Excuse me where you can turn left.
Where you cannot turn left.
And how you approachthe destination.
So it looks like it's going to come infrom Franklin and actually
drop me off across the street,which will be just fine, because I think
part of the programingis trying to find the safe,
drop off and pick up
it listed 777 Tennesseeon my pick up
(15:07):
but it moved a little bit, away from that.
But It waited for me.
And then as soon as I got close,I could unlock the door and jump in.
You know, it's funny.
The motorcycles look like,
those are two scooters.
They look like scooters.
(15:29):
I guess because you can see the body, maybe.
There they are over there.
Okay, so here we go.
Civic Center.
Coming around the back of
Davies Symphony Hall.
Very close to the, the portal.
(15:51):
Tommaso (Trionfi) and his portal are close to here,
another futuristic product.(Shared Studios Portal)
Step into the future.
And again, it's only appropriatedoing this after going to
a DataStax AI conversation
Okay, we're almost there.
Don't forget your phone,keys, or bag.
Okay, good, I won’tI’ll try not to do that
(16:11):
(Waymo Car) For your safety, the doors will remain locked when we arrive.
Okay.
(Waymo Car) Pull the handle twice to exit.
(Waymo Car) The first pull unlocksthe second opens the door.
Okay, so if it's unsafe situation.
Your doors are notunlocked when you get there.
Good to know.
There's our destination up ahead
on the back of City Hall.
(16:33):
Where’s it taking me?
Oh, I’ve never.
I’ve come
I’ve been coming to this locationfor more years than I can count.
And I've never stopped or picked up here.
All right, sois this the spot?
All right?
This is the spot.
(Waymo Car) You are here
(Waymo Car) Please make sure it's clear before exiting
So I do the double.
(16:56):
Do it once, twice.
All right. Thank you very much Waymo.
All right, so there was my
There was my Waymo ride.
My Waymo autonomous vehicle ride.
Put me into the fence I guess.
That's it.
Is it going to drive offor the waiting for me in the,
ended on the app.
(17:16):
I better jump over to the app and check.
Oop, it just locked.
There it goes.
Thanks for the ride Waymo
All right.
So that was an interesting experience.
First time ever.
Thank you Waymo.
And if you're in San FranciscoI think they're also operating in Phoenix.
(17:39):
Maybe another city.
Check it out.
A little taste of the futureJeff Frick signing off.
Take care.Bye bye,
So that was it.
It was pretty wild.
And, you know, in watching that videoafter the fact to see the
estimated time of arrival changed quite a bit.
the path that it took was not somethingthat I would have taken.
(17:59):
As I mentioned, there was a Giants game.
they had just come back.
It was actually Willie Mays night,which I didn't realize at the time.
And the Cubs are in town.
So there was a lot of traffic around,Oracle Park, so it routed around there
and came in a way that I've never cometo a location that I've stopped at
hundreds of times, over the yearsso it was a really interesting experience.
(18:19):
So, get the Waymo appif you're in San Francisco.
Try it out.
It's not super fastbecause it stops at every stop sign.
And it feels pretty safe.
And it's not racingto get you to your destination.
But it takes his timeand it gets you there safely.
So kind of a full circle momentbecause the Waymo hive we used to call it
(18:39):
is not that far from my house, wherethey were doing a lot of the development.
We've seen the the vehicles, evolveover time from these little round ones
to, little SUVs to minivans to,I think the latest version
is a version of the of aof a Jaguar small SUV.
But it's a pretty wild experience.
And now it's available to all.
(19:00):
So I just wanted to share this videosince I finally got to have my ride.
And, who knew I was the last one
to get off the waitlistbefore they opened up to everyone?
So, check it out.
Just by chance
I happened to go to a book party
at our local bookstore, Kepler's, and see Ray Kurzweil and his daughter Amy
as they release their new book,which is called The Singularity Is Nearer.
(19:23):
And there's somereally interesting concepts,
on longevity escape velocity and some other things.
He's a pretty thoughtful, and deep thinker.
Hope you enjoyedthat video.
Hope you get a chance to ride in a Waymonext time you're in San Francisco.
I would definitely encourage youto give it a try.
Like we always say,
The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed.
(19:43):
Thanks for watching.Thanks for listening on the podcast.
Be sure to like, subscribeand share with a friend.
Take care. Jeff Frick signing off. Bye bye.
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