Waymo…The Real Driverless Car Has Arrived

So I'm currently in Los Angeles. I actually got invited out here by Waymo to come check out their

driverless vehicles which are now operating in the Los Angeles area. You may have heard of Waymo

operating in San Francisco and Arizona. These are driverless vehicles that will take you from point

A to point B without a driver. Nobody sitting in the driver's seat. The application is somewhat

familiar if you've ever used any type of ride app. The difference here is there's no driver in the

driver's seat. There's a variety of sensors and components that make this possible. But anyway

I'm going to go take a ride, take you along with me, and let's see what it's like to move around LA

without a driver. I'm about to lock in a destination here. It gives me an estimated

drop-off time and it also spots my existing location. So it's now telling me that the car

will be there in 14 minutes. Car is less than a minute away now. There it is

the Waymo driverless car. Wow! What a crazy futuristic looking deal. Now this is based on

an I-Pace. We obviously have tons of cameras as well. Ready for pickup and I've got a button

that says unlock. The door handles extend. Open up. Cool

Good morning, Lewis. Good morning, Lewis. Oh, wow. So then we've got this display here

We've also got some USB ports back here. You can see the driver's seat is pushed all the way forward

because, well, you don't need room for a human driver. The vehicle is nicely appointed as well

We've got leather seats. Well, obviously it's an I-PACE. Kind of ambient sound playing, which lets you know you're about to ride into the future

So let's go ahead and start this ride. I mean, I've driven Teslas and obviously vehicles that have some version of self-driving

but to have no driver even in the car or near the steering wheel that can grab it in the event that

it's necessary that is a much different experience so the interface is giving me some information

here it's showing me my drop off in nine minutes i have a button that lets me pull over if i need to

i can also play music which i won't do for the purpose of this video and then there's a menu

button as well now the menu will let me choose between the map view music temperature you can

also learn more about the car riding tips and camera privacy. So the cameras are on but the mics are off

The microphones will turn on when I connected to rider support So otherwise unless I need support those microphones will be turned off The graphic is somewhat confidence inspiring because it showcasing to you that the vehicle is picking up its surroundings in its

entirety and you're able to see what the vehicle sees but still that is a unique experience wow

Just driving around LA without a driver. Well, I mean, I do have a driver

Waymo is the driver. And at this point, this Waymo technology has tons of miles traveled under its belt, constantly learning and improving

Now, I'm also watching for other people's reactions. They obviously noticed that this car is a bit different

Some of them are noticing that there's no driver in the driver's seat

multi-lane left hand into the center lane here. And one thing I'm noticing right away is just how

smooth this driverless system is compared to some of the other stuff I've experienced

The speeding up and slowing down, so far extremely gradual. I haven't been in this ride for very long

But your mind, given the smoothness of this experience, your mind begins to forget that there's no driver there or to even consider it

The longer it goes without complication, the smoother it is through transitions, intersections, stoplights, the more convinced you get and the less nervous you are

Switch to the right lane. so it did it just made sure that the opening was sufficient and you'll also notice the distance

it's keeping from the vehicle in front car and a half maybe even two car lengths but this is the

type of technology that you could have told me about when I was a child and I probably wouldn't

have believed that in this amount of time we would have something this sophisticated and the

other thing to mention is this is a new city we're here in Los Angeles obviously there's been

plenty of testing in San Francisco, but the experience feels sophisticated so far. Oh

wow, that was really interesting. The light changed to amber, and the vehicle had to make

a decision quickly. It had to make a decision whether it could break in time abruptly or if

it should continue to travel forward as the light shifted to amber. If you saw the decision that it

made was to go through something very similar to what a driver would do, a human driver. It really

does have a comprehensive picture of its surroundings. For your safety, the doors will remain locked when we arrive

Pull the handle twice to exit. The first pull unlocks. The second opens the door

You're here. Please make sure it's clear before exiting. Okay, we're going to make sure that it's clear

I going to pull the handle once and twice and now it unlocked Close up the door step away from the Waymo wow

what a futuristic experience and a wonderful ride honestly I mean I didn't know what to expect

I knew that things had come a long way there it goes

it really does give you a sense of how far this technology has come the approach here is to build

sort of the ultimate driver that isn't a human regardless of what that looks like having all

this lidar exposed and so forth but weirdly having all those extra sensors and components

actually gives you a little bit of extra confidence when you're riding in the vehicle

same with the voice that's talking to you the pleasant tones the variety of displays showcasing

the visual of all the obstacles and then just the driving itself how smooth the acceleration

the braking and the decision making i mean i had that one example there where the light changed

partway into the intersection the vehicle noticed and then behaved a lot like a human like an

experienced human driver would cool so i'm just sitting here eating my ice cream far away from

the place where I started this morning, realizing that technology brought me here exclusively

Now obviously, the people and the programmers and even the service people that can answer

a call if there's any kind of question, there's tons of people on the team that are behind

the technology, but the technology itself picked me up and brought me here

You know, a person doesn't have 360 degree vision. They've got mirrors

Experience. Humans have decision making. But I just experienced some complex decision making

2023. And Waymo just brought me for ice cream. Hey, Daniels

The one spot that you can't occupy is the driver's seat. Because you're not supposed to touch the steering wheel

The Waymo driver is in control at all times. And the Waymo driver never forgets their seat belt

Slowly moving in towards the intersection, creeping. These are the nuances of driving that the automated systems have to become sophisticated in

This is a large intersection. Two cars have already entered the intersection and they are looking for a spot to make a left turn there goes number one number two amber and we go smooth i actually think the thing that people are going to notice

most when they get a chance to experience this is the smoothness i mean no offense to any existing

drivers there are plenty out there that are very capable but some are a little bit more abrupt on

the acceleration and the braking. Whereas in the case of the Waymo vehicle here, you can take that

very smooth curve and apply it to the entire fleet. You can find a satisfying rhythm and then

roll it out to every vehicle on the streets. Hey, have you guys seen these cars with no driver

right? I think the wildest part for me is just how quickly you get used to the idea. At first

you're apprehensive. Like when you watch the car approach, you go, okay, no driver. But it doesn't

take you very many miles traveled smoothly for you to embrace the Waymo driver and assume that

it's going to make good decisions. It's wild how quickly that changes. And I suppose that's the

case with any innovative technology is you quickly adopt it because of the convenience

and because of the sophistication and then eventually it becomes normal. The better the

technology is, the more quickly it becomes normal and acceptable. Turn signal, car to the left

car turns into the left lane, we go into the far lane. Nice gradual acceleration. Since

it's selecting the pickup and drop-off point selecting for spots within its mapping that it

perceives as safe or good spots for these drop-offs so in this case you're using tremendous amounts of

information in order to determine where those drop-off points are and in many cases it's only

a minute walk from your destination anyways so it's a worthwhile transaction two and out

door handles in and bye bye waymo car's getting lots of attention from the public

including people that was passing well in the vehicle but equally now when it's driving with no one not even a passenger