I recently took my first ride in a driverless car, courtesy of Waymo, and I must say it was an experience. I opted for the driverless option over taking an Uber with a human driver due to the desire to contribute to the “gig economy” by depriving some gig worker of their fare. However, the $109 fee and 2.5-hour journey time seemed excessive, especially considering it took longer than predicted.
The ride started out as cool but soon became boring as I realized I was stuck in city streets with no possibility of reaching freeway speeds. The driverless car also came to a complete stop at every stop sign, which can be seen as overly cautious and unnecessary. Despite the advantages of having a private ride without human interaction, the overall value seemed to be the satisfaction of putting an actual human out of work, albeit at a higher cost.
I’ll admit that taking a driverless car was exciting for the initial few minutes, but the experience was not worth the premium price paid for the privilege. In the end, I chose an Uber with a human driver and it was significantly cheaper and faster.
Source: https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-situation–my-first-waymo