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Get in, Loser—We’re Chasing a Waymo Into the Future
Tailing a robotaxi for hours and hours is weird. And revelatory. And jealousy-inducing. But a driverless world is coming for all of us. So shut the door and buckle up.
And autonomous rideshare cars are in various earlier stages of testing in Las Vegas, Houston, Detroit, Seattle, and at least seven other cities in China; also in Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, South Korea, the UK, Sweden, and Singapore. When we ask Waymo’s chief product officer, Saswat Panigrahi, about all the empty robot-shuffling, he calls it “rebalancing the fleet.” During slow periods, he says, cars will automatically distribute themselves into an ideal position to meet an expected peak demand later on; they’ll also pick the optimal time to go recharge. Andrew Boone, one of the analysts from JMP, says that in a survey of junior bankers in San Francisco, his team found a strong preference for the sleek, white, driverless Waymo Jaguars—despite what riders reported as higher prices, lengthier waits, and longer walks from drop-offs and to pickups.
Or read this on Wired
