Last week Waymo said they are driving 100,000 miles per week in San Francisco. That figure is just bonkers. SF MTA only operates about 450,000 miles per week, and that was before COVID-19 shut them down. When one is on the streets of San Francisco does a Waymo Jaguar just drive by every couple of minutes? I honestly haven't been over there in a few months.
Anecdata, but watching the Waymo cars compared to Cruise (preban) was night and day. Before Cruise was banned in SF, I would often see them violate traffic laws and fail to navigate basic intersections. Waymo isn't perfect, but its better than Cruise and the average SF driver, which is good enough for me.
No source, but I was walking in SF a few months ago and passed a small parking lot with only Waymo cars parked, so likely they have locations scattered around.
Then I’m afraid you’re unclear because the cities Waymo operates in all have different characteristics and don’t have “similar style of roads”. Driving in SF is very different from driving in Phoenix.
Unfortunately Waymo still wont operate on freeways or at SFO. But I long for the day when I can take a Waymo between SF and Berkley or to SFO, those are my most frequent reasons to call a Lyft.
As someone that has taken quite a few Waymo trips now since October 2023, I am continually impressed with how it handles the crazy here in San Francisco from odd/narrow streets, bad drivers doing stupid things, and overall safety with pedestrians doing all sorts of non-standard behaviors from crossing randomly to pausing at odd points in crosswalks, etc. Also, I've been in a bunch of situations in a Waymo where other drivers are messing with position to try and freak the Waymo out, and every time, it did a great job. I've never been in a Cruise, but I can't deny Waymo has been a great experience for me in SF and up around 20 or so trips.
Here is a video of Waymo going through the Broadway Tunnel in SF back in Oct 2023 to give you a sense of it. >> https://mer.gy/broadwaytunnelwaymo
reply