Waymo cool! What it's like taking a driverless taxi - Famous Hotel Information and News

The future is here — and on the streets of some major American cities. San Francisco has been allowing autonomous vehicles on its streets for years now, but fully driverless rides are a fairly new phenomenon. So I was eager to try out the driverless taxi service from the best-established company, Waymo One, on a recent trip to the City by the Bay.

When the Hyatt Regency Downtown SOMA offered me 25% off my first two rides just for downloading the Waymo One app, it was a no-brainer.

In short, it was fantastic. I highly recommend trying it next time you’re in one of the few U.S. cities where driverless cars are already available.

What is Waymo One?

Waymo One is currently the market leader in driverless taxis, also known as autonomous vehicles or robotaxis. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, owns it.

Various companies have been testing driverless cars for years in places like Las Vegas, Toronto, Pittsburgh and multiple California cities. However, the development and rollout have been plagued with accidents and some spectacular failures. Most recently, Cruise — a company that’s majority owned by General Motors and was also offering rides in San Francisco — exited the business after a few horrific accidents. In October 2023, one of its robotaxis struck and injured a pedestrian.

Waymo is having better luck, though. It recently announced a major expansion in Los Angeles, with the service now available all over the city. It is also set to begin testing Waymos on LA-area freeways. Waymo also now serves a 315-square-mile area of Phoenix (including trips to the airport), and it’s available in parts of Austin as well.

In San Francisco, the Jaguar Waymo vehicles are everywhere. In fact, that’s why I first became curious about them. I couldn’t believe how many were on the streets of the city: They’ve become tourist attractions in their own right.

Using the Waymo One app

The Waymo One app is fairly easy to use: You input your destination and confirm your current location just like you would on the Uber or Lyft app. Note that in the Bay Area, Waymo is only available in San Francisco and Daly City. You cannot yet take it to the airport.

I traveled from the Grand Hyatt in San Francisco’s Union Square to the Castro neighborhood. On the way back, I came from near Mission Dolores Park back to Union Square.

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Using the Waymo One app. WAYMO

It was a fairly straightforward process, but if you are in a hurry, you are better off taking a traditional ride-hailing service; the Waymos are very careful and can be a bit slow (safety first).

It’s also not cheap. Even with the 25% discount, one ride was $17.50 and the other was more than $23. The good news? Since there is no driver, you definitely won’t be tipping.

My rides on Waymo One

My Waymo One rides were like something out of a science fiction movie from my childhood. It is so fun to take a ride in a car that has no one sitting in the front. The door unlocked automatically, and when getting inside, I could see a large screen in the back seat prompting me to push the “Start ride” button.

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