Four Minutes Ride in a Driverless Waymo One [VIDEO]

No sooner did Waymo announce the opening of its robo taxi service Waymo One in Phoenix to the general public than the first videos of first rides in a completely driverless vehicle appeared.

Reddit user shawn88az posted a first video from inside a four-minute ride in the evening over a two-mile (3.2 kilometer) distance. Note the separation between the passengers and the driver’s seat using plexiglass panels, as well as the indicators on the display and the vehicle’s voice output explaining the current situation to the passengers.

Here is what the original poster said

I learned today with everyone else that they were opening up Waymo One riders to full driverless vehicles. We decided to take a short (under two mile) trip to see if we could get one. I paid for the trip and this was a destination of our own choosing. Apologies for blur in the early parts of the video. There is also a loud thud around 3 minute, 22 seconds. I think the phone caught a dumpster lid closing, because I’m not sure where that came from. This was our first trip in a driverless Waymo and our first trip in Waymo One at all since January. There was additional wind noise as windows were down (they ask to open windows as part of COVID protocol).

Here is the video:

The Waymo One steering wheels have the following labels attached:

Please keep your hands off the wheel. The Waymo Driver is in control at all times.

Yep, we specialize in zero intervention driving. Check out our steering wheel labels. 🚘🤖🚀 pic.twitter.com/WpYopuS3SW

— Waymo (@Waymo) October 8, 2020

And here one more short video from this morning:

Man, there's almost nothing more satisfying. It's good to be back. #WaymoOne pic.twitter.com/Vb6Q0QKRWg

— Joel Johnson (@jjricks_) October 9, 2020

This article was also posted in German.