- [Xavier] Here it comes now.
(Xavier walking)
Thought it'd be a little closer.
(Xavier walking)
Good morning.
(Door sliding open)
- Good morning, Xavier.
This car is all yours with no one up front.
- [Xavier] Yeah, I'm not much of a cameraman.
So yeah, we got nice clean car.
No one up front.
A lot of options on how to start it.
You could even start in the app, but I just use the screen
'cause I don't mind. - Heading to Walgreens.
Please make sure your seatbelt is fastened-
- Just all to myself - ...any questions, press the help button
to speak with a rider support agent.
- [Xavier] Yeah, the first time I got in one
that was completely autonomous, I, not gonna lie,
I was pretty scared.
I just didn't think it would happen that soon.
I thought it takes a little bit longer to get one
but I had only been using it for a couple months.
And they was like, hey, no you're gonna have this one
all to yourself.
You know, heart rate up, I was like, okay.
I didn't know it was there yet.
I didn't know that technology was there yet
but got in one, and I have to say, it's true,
you've probably heard this before,
but it became regular instantly.
Like it became like I wasn't scared at all
after being in there for like a minute.
I was like, oh, okay.
That's just how it is now.
Sometimes I'll pretend that I'm steering it too
with my mind.
But yeah.
You got a cool view of what it's thinking too.
You could see how it scans people.
I don't know if that's radar or LIDAR,
but you see what it sees.
You could see it seeing other vehicles as well,
whether or not they're parked or moving.
And you've got help.
It's also got physical buttons here in case the screens down.
You can zoom out or in
or if you'd rather see the map view,
see exactly what the route it's taking,
you can see that too.
And you could give it live feedback.
So if you thought it took a turn really well
or you thought it could have
done something better you can...
I assume they get some sort of timestamp
for when you enter that in
so they can see what was going through the code
when you rated it poorly or highly.
Really nice out today.
See the scenery here.
I think Waymo is a very comfortable ride,
like 90% of the time.
10% of the time things are a bit jerky.
You can understand why though,
if there's like an obstruction in the road,
or something unexpected happens, like I've had
a classic kid with a sports ball
running in front of the car in a parking lot.
I've had that, but you know,
and so it kind of jerks to a stop,
but I would rather it have a quick response
than a comfortable response.
Sometimes it'll get stuck, but they're usually quick
at getting you back on the road,
whether or not a trained driver needs to take over.
But it's all 'cause of caution.
It's all just, if it doesn't have 100% of the variables
that's when it would just pull over.
It doesn't make a lot of left turns but...
it's cool seeing it do it
'cause it's impressive.
I'm not the best at left turns.
So the computer can do it, that's cool.
Sometimes I look out for people's reactions to like
if there was someone waiting to cross the street.
You know, whenever you cross the street,
whenever I cross the street,
I make eye contact with the person.
Even if their car is completely stopped, I like to like look
and just make sure I can see their intent.
And there's another one.
Make sure they're see their intent
and make sure they can see me.
And I've taken a ride before where someone tried to do that
with the Waymo, and, of course,
they just saw me in the backseat
and no one in the driver's seat,
so they kind of hesitated to cross.
And the Waymo was completely still,
like it was like, come on.
And they crossed.
It's fun seeing other people's reactions
or when we're stopped at an intersection by a red light
and someone looks over at the car,
notices no one's in it,
and they look at me and they're giving me a look.
They give me like a aren't-you-scared look.
But now I've been riding around in these for awhile.
- Arriving shortly at Walgreens.
Please keep your seatbelt fastened-
- Almost to work. - Reach your destination
and remember to take all your belongings.
- [Xavier] The getting dropped off
like in a busy parking lot is a bit tricky with Waymo.
But the cool thing about Waymo is you can tell them
exactly where you wanna be dropped off.
So if you wanna avoid the hassle,
tell them to drop you off a little bit a ways
from the entrance.
With my work, I just have it drop me off
a little bit away from it.
We're not too busy this early in the morning, so it's fine.
But it's usually pretty fine.
The problem is that people try to cross the street
or they try to get to their car
or like the crosswalk and the Waymo will let them go.
But a lot of people are too polite
and they wanna let the Waymo go,
so the Waymo kind of just gets confused
and starts like kind of jerking around a little bit.
But everyone's safe.
It's not gonna go full speed when someone's in the road.
So that's fine.
Just gets stuck sometimes.
And we have arrived safely at work.
Thank you for indulging me.
Have a great rest of your morning.
- Please check your surroundings
before exiting the vehicle.
And remember to close the door after you-
(car door closes)