From the enginnering
prowess of the Golden Gate Bridge to its earthquake resistant skyscrapers
San Francisco has always been head of the Curve shaping the future at every turn but driving around the
city can sometimes feel like an ever-changing obstacle course its complex network of winding
roads unpredictable weather next to Impossible parking it's why Bay area native James keolohi
says he gave up on owning a car altogether it's pretty inconvenient to own a car and the parking
situation throughout the city is not very good how long does it take to find parking longer than it
takes to get to places frequently but today James is about to take the ride of his life
or off oh my goodness the wheel is moving other cars approaching this is pretty trippy
an employment director at the San Francisco LGBT Center James often checks up on dozens
of clients throughout the city getting to them is half the battle but recently the center has
partnered up with Google's parent company alphabet to help test its new driverless
taxi Waymo and this morning James gets to take it on a solo spin for the first time I remember
being a child and seeing the Jetsons as a kid and so this does seem incredibly futuristic
sound like science fiction but driverless technology has accelerated in recent years waymo
is one of the first companies to deploy a fleet of fully autonomous taxis in California and in Arizona
so this is it this is it software engineer Reed Morse took us on a tour of the company's Depot
in southeast San Francisco where the cars park themselves for a quick cleaning and recharge and
how many of these cars do you have across the country we have over 700 cars we have a couple
hundred here in San Francisco these fully electric Jaguar eye Pace come with what the company calls
its waymo driver a combination of hardware and software that serve as the car's eyes and ears
how far can these cars see that's a great question um so on the very top here you see our long range
lidar that can see over three football fields over 300 meters yeah and there's a bunch of cameras
this car actually has 27 cameras as well so that's really good for seeing at night and during the day
seeing long distances as well and then The Radars here you have Radars across the car these are
really good for things like rain snow and fog you know we have Carl the fog in San Francisco
The Radars are excellent for scene through the fog you can see on the screen up there on
but it's the view inside the car that will make even the most jaded reporter do a double take
this is amazing these cars can watch for pedestrians change lanes and even make turns
on their own the company recently rolled out new features including autonomous parallel parking
during pickups and drop-offs and better navigation around double parked cars and construction so
there's nothing you need to do to make this car take over exactly you can't take over yeah in
fact if you touch the wheel the car will come to a stop and ask you to please knock it off
really yeah don't try that but yes it's hard not to be impressed the car was able to recognize red
lights and merge into traffic without a hitch it's a bit slower and more cautious than your
average driver but that Reed says is by Design do these cars ever go above the speed limit no
no no they're programmed not to speed that's illegal we don't like to speed
the road to self-driving has had more than a few speed bumps last year Ford and Volkswagen
pulled the plug on their autonomous joint venture after the cost of driverless technology ramped up
and then of course there's the question of safety city transportation officials have raised concerns
about whether these cars are ready for prime time after a waymo taxi stopped in the middle of a busy
intersection bringing traffic to a halt another driverless car made by a competitor almost ran
over a fire hose as firefighters were battling a two-alarmed blaze what do you tell people who
might be skittish about getting into a car that doesn't have that human element absolutely I
think it's totally understandable to be a little bit worried in the beginning once you're sitting
in the car you know we have the screen that shows you everything the car is seeing and we found that
once people um experience a ride in the car they quickly gain confidence in it and understand that
it's a safe and competent way to get around waymo says driverless cars are safe precisely
because they don't have a human at the wheel they don't drink get tired and they're never on their
phones with more than a million autonomous Smiles driven on public roads the company has only had
two collisions in those cases waymo says it was because their cars were rear-ended by distracted
drivers but perhaps the biggest Advantage is for those who dread small talk some people don't get
along with the driver or sometimes drivers don't want to take you where you want to go and we're
building a car that won't do that it'll go exactly where you want to go and it won't it won't ever
argue with you about that won't ever kick you out of the car waymo is now expanding its service
testing its driverless cars in Los Angeles the company is waiting on one final permit before
going fully operational in San Francisco for James his first ride was a trip into the future
one he won't forget anytime soon I am shocked by how comfortable this experience has been for me
as for San Francisco a city that's seen its share of earthquakes this is a seismic
shift in transportation one that gives new meaning to the phrase "Reinventing the Wheel"