Boring 7 Minutes In A Waymo One

A few weeks ago the world’s first commercial operation of a robotaxi fleet started, and now we see the first video of a full ride. We can see the ride from the perspective of the passenger in a Waymo One, sitting in the back with a monitors for the passenger and the safety-driver, as well as parts of the fron window visible.

And I spare you the excitement: the drive is probably the most boring seven minutes of car driving that you can imagine. Seven minutes that you can spend on something other than driving a car, because you know that you’ll arrive safely and without scary experiences at your destination.

The safety driver keeps the car for the first 20 seconds  under his control (without nay need actually), then the car drives on its own. Please observe the rendering on the display of the streets, the path marked in green color, the visualization of other vehicles and of traffic lights, some acoustic notification, and the good bye. All of that will be exciting in your first ride, but then it will become boring pretty quick.

And that boredom is exactly what we expect from autonomous vehicles. Here, now it’s your turn to bore yourself to death with that video.

This article was also published in German.