Waymo Fortune Cookies

The increase in Waymo advertising and robotaxis cannot be overlooked in San Francisco. Advertisements can be found on billboards and on tables at food trucks. The robotaxis also draw attention to themselves through their presence. But now Waymo has taken the cake with a typical San Francisco advertising campaign.

Waymo employee Harish Nutakki posted a picture of a Chinese fortune cookie which, contrary to the usual irrelevant but nevertheless auspicious messages, contained something different. Namely the future.

At least that’s what the text on the strip from the cookie claimed, which featured a Waymo vehicle with a QR code and the text “The future is here“. Here is the proof:

Why is this so typical of San Francisco? Chinese fortune cookies are not even known in China, they were invented in San Francisco (or Los Angeles or California in general) by Chinese immigrants inspired by Japan and served for the first time in Golden Gate Park around 1900. Typically, the cookie contains a small piece of paper with a rather vague prediction about the luck of the person eating it.

However, Harish Nutakki from Waymo wrote the following:

Diners at dozens of San Francisco’s Chinese restaurants found something unexpected in their fortune cookies this week: an ad for Waymo, the self-driving-vehicle company. “The future is here,” the paper slip pronounces, with a QR code linking to the Waymo One autonomous ride-hailing app. A tech company promo showing up in a fortune cookie struck some as an only-in-SF moment.

This article was also published in German.