8 Ways Waymo’s Autonomous Taxi Surprised Us on a Ride
When tiny hiccups can cause big problems without a human driver, we are a long way from self-driving cars as a common, convenient option
By Alex Knizek
Standing around an empty parking lot in Arizona on a sunny, 100° F summer day was not a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. But excitement and anticipation overpowered our fears of heat exhaustion as we waited for Waymo’s self-driving taxi.
I was there with Kelly Funkhouser, CR’s manager of vehicle technology. We looked back and forth wondering which direction the minivan would arrive from. “What if it gets stuck on the way here and never shows up?” I asked. Kelly was a little more optimistic. “It says it’s only 7 minutes away and on the move,” Kelly replied. In the minutes since she had pressed the bright blue “Request Ride” button on her phone app, we contemplated the balance of trust in a driverless car, and the promise of how self-driving cars could bring mobility to so many people.
We diligently tracked the robotaxi’s location on Kelly’s phone screen until we finally saw a white minivan, emblazoned with a colorful Waymo livery and rigged with various sensors, round the corner and enter the right side of the parking lot where we were waiting.
After coming to a stop next to the curb in front of us, we slid open the rear door as if it were any other minivan. Briefly distracted by the relief from the air conditioning, the interior looked quite ordinary as we climbed into our seats. Two screens on the backside of each front seat instructed us to “click” our seatbelts, “tap” the start ride button, and “relax”—which seemed to be for experienced riders only.
Steps one and two were simple, but dreams of putting our feet up and kicking back with a good book quickly faded when the van got temporarily stuck at the first stop sign leaving the parking lot. Our Waymo “driver” repeatedly crept forward and then aggressively applied the brakes before eventually figuring out how to proceed. The fumble was quickly followed up by a successful right turn to merge into traffic, smooth acceleration up to the speed limit, and steady lane following that restored some of our confidence. Reality set in as I watched the steering wheel spin around on its own from the back seat as if it were part of an arcade racing game without a human player. “It is just driving us through a parking lot right now, this is the real deal,” Kelly said, with enthusiasm.
Watching the Waymo minivan navigating through a parking lot, it was impressive how it negotiated some challenges.
Photo: Alex Knizek/Consumer Reports
This ride was a long time coming: Waymo started in 2009 as Google’s self-driving car project before being spun off as its own company. It has since become the first of its many competitors to offer fully autonomous rides to the public, which is how we ended up in its small service area of Chandler, Ariz., southeast of Phoenix.
After years of studying self-driving cars—myself as an automotive engineer, and Funkhouser as CR’s in-house vehicle autonomy expert—we were there to get a feel for what it is really like to ride in a driverless “robotaxi.” Before our first ride we met with a Waymo representative who arranged for us to interview Ethan, a college student who is blind and uses Waymo to travel back and forth to school. Otherwise, we used the service the same way anyone else can—as long as they only need to get around Chandler. We also raced it against Uber, watched how it dealt with a tricky drop-off, checked out the cargo space, and observed how other drivers reacted.
Our on-the-ground experience with Waymo amazed us with just how far self-driving technology has come, and we feel optimistic that autonomous ride-hailing providers like Waymo could eventually become a convenient mobility option. But it also left us wondering how the company and its emerging competitors will address the many challenges we encountered during our trips while scaling up to work in larger, more complex environments.
Here’s what we found.
Kelly Funkhouser, CR’s manager of vehicle technology, shares a ride with Ethan, a visually impaired college student who uses Waymo.
Photo: Alex Knizek/Consumer Reports
Drop-Off Challenges
More often than not, our experience with the Waymo taxi was delightfully unremarkable once out on the road. But it really struggled in parking lots and when dropping off passengers.
We witnessed such a glitch while waiting for Ethan, who is the exact kind of rider that self-driving car companies often say would benefit from their services, to arrive via autonomous taxi. Unfortunately, the Waymo minivan dropped him off in the back of a large parking lot, far from the front door of the coffee shop we were waiting in. This would be a confusing, even dangerous, situation for a blind person traveling alone. Before Kelly and I were fully aware of the situation, a Waymo representative hurried across the parking lot to escort Ethan inside.
We personally experienced some hiccups, too. The vehicle got stuck at the very first stop sign we came to at the start of our first ride. It was attempting to make a left turn onto an empty side street in order to exit a parking lot. Our wonder and excitement were tempered quickly by abrupt braking—which happened repeatedly as the vehicle tried to figure out what to do. Later, we used Waymo to travel to lunch where it crept slowly and awkwardly along the curb in front of the restaurant as it determined the best place to stop. Any human driver would have made this decision much quicker and stopped sooner. Thankfully there were no cars behind us waiting to get by.
The Waymo welcome screen confirms that you're in the right car, and you use it to initiate a ride.
Photo: Alex Knizek/Consumer Reports
'Hailing' a Cab Was Easy
It was easy to flag down a Waymo taxi using the company’s Uber-like smartphone app. Simply enter where you are and where you want to go and press the “Request Ride” button. Just like other ride-hailing apps, it will tell you how far away the taxi is and how many minutes until it arrives while letting you track its location on a map. It even displays your initials on a small screen you can see through the bottom of the windshield to help you identify your taxi from outside the car.
You can also add stops along your route or request a round trip. When we tried this, our Waymo brought us to our first destination before driving off, completely empty, into the distance. The app told us the van was going to “hang around nearby.” Turning to Kelly, I asked, “Why do I feel like we just released an animal back into the wild?” as the vehicle drove hastily toward the exit of the parking lot.
Kelly noted just how fast it seemed to speed away while we waved goodbye. We used the app to indicate we were ready for the next leg of our journey and the van quickly reappeared as if it were eagerly waiting just out of view.
Other than pressing the “Start Ride” button on one of the two informational displays on the backside of each front seat, there is little the rider has to do. The vehicle gives audible prompts when the ride is starting and as it approaches the destination and each screen gives a simplified view of what the autonomous system “sees” and its driving route. A small panel of buttons on the ceiling lets you manually call rider support, request that the vehicle pull over, or stop the ride in an emergency.
Passengers can watch progress on the route from a monitor mounted on the back of the front seat.
Photo: Alex Knizek/Consumer Reports
Rider Support
To our surprise, before our first ride even started, a phone call came through the vehicle’s audio system. It was Waymo Rider Support checking in and asking us if everything was okay and if the ride was going as expected. The person on the other end was friendly and the call was quick, but this happened at some point during every ride we took and eventually became slightly annoying. These unprompted calls combined with the camera inside the vehicle pointed at passengers may be a turn-off for some riders.
We did not experience it ourselves, but rider support can be escalated to an unexpected extreme. Waymo told us that in addition to the support team being able to visually see the situation the car is in, they are able to send a person to the car’s location if it gets stuck and needs help.
Although the dream and promise of autonomous vehicles might eliminate the need for pedals or a steering wheel, it’s clear that humans are still very much involved, albeit in new ways. Instead of sitting in the driver’s seat, they may be miles away, monitoring the situation behind a computer, or waiting close by, ready to physically take over.
Chandler Is Well-Suited for an Autonomous Car Trial
After a few rides, it became clear that the city of Chandler was not chosen at random. Its gridlike roads are wide and clearly marked, the terrain is flat with mostly dry weather, and vehicle and pedestrian traffic is modest. All of which makes it easier for an autonomous vehicle to navigate compared with a dense city with variable weather like Chicago or New York, therefore lowering the risk for riders. But Waymo has been expanding, recently beginning trials in downtown Phoenix and areas of San Francisco.
The most striking limitation in our experience was just how small a geographical area Waymo operates in. At about 9 miles from the southernmost to northernmost points, it might take about 20 to 25 minutes to cross Chandler. It could be quicker, but the taxi currently avoids highways, operating only on surface-level streets and in neighborhoods. Waymo told us that limiting the boundary allows the company to focus on perfecting its autonomous capabilities in a somewhat controlled environment before future expansions to more difficult areas. Even in Chandler, if the weather is challenging enough, an autonomous Waymo might show up with a human driver behind the wheel.
Operating in a small area not only limits who can take advantage of the service but also reduces the convenience for people who do have access to it. For example, we asked Ethan what he does when his destination is just beyond the boundary. He told us it’s easier to call Uber or ask a friend rather than using Waymo to get most of the way there. Even those who don’t plan to leave the small city of Chandler won’t be able to ditch their personal car or delete that Uber app just yet.
During our rides we paid close attention to the body language and facial expressions of the other drivers around us, anticipating some strong reactions or at least some pointed fingers. Quite frankly, the citizens of Chandler appeared to not care much at all. Maybe other drivers have grown used to seeing white minivans on their roads blatantly draped in expensive sensor arrays. Or maybe Waymo’s software has done a good job learning to mimic a human driver.
The town of Chandler, Ariz., primarily features a simple road grid with wide roads that is conducive to operating a self-driving car.
Photo: Chandler, AZ
Waymo Drives Like a Human
With a computer at the wheel we anticipated robotic “binary” steering, acceleration, and braking inputs—think squared-off turns with abrupt, stop-and-go behavior. Instead, the Waymo driver could easily pass for a human in many situations. The software usually applied a slight curve to 90-degree turns to make them more natural and gradual. It accelerated from stop lights at a comfortable rate for passengers, but not too slow to avoid annoying surrounding traffic. If you begin to trust the system, it is easy to start daydreaming during rides and forget there is no sentient life at the wheel. Possibly the least realistic aspect of the Waymo driver is that it sticks exactly to posted speed limits.
During our rides we got small glimpses of the Waymo’s situational awareness when it seemed to bias the far side of the lane when passing large trucks. While waiting to be picked up, we witnessed the approaching taxi get temporarily blocked in the middle of a parking lot by a vehicle that had stopped in front of it. After a moment the Waymo “driver” politely signaled and drove around, only to stop in front of the other car itself.
Traveling in a traditional vehicle without a driver, rather than something like an airport monorail shuttle, is a bit surreal initially.
Photo: Alex Knizek/Consumer Reports
Limited Seating
Sliding open the Chrysler Pacifica’s door turned out to be the most conventional aspect of the entire experience. Once inside, it was clear that this wasn’t any old minivan.
Although we were pleasantly surprised to see that each Waymo vehicle has a child’s car seat installed and a booster seat on the floor that can also be used, we wondered where we might put a stroller and other gear while traveling with an infant and the other seats are being used. (You’ll soon find out why we couldn’t put it in the trunk.)
Depending on the child’s size or age, a permanently installed car seat might not be an option. Considering the van was equipped with captain’s chairs in the second row, that left us with just four of the seven seats to choose from, including the tiny middle spot next to the car seat in the third row.
A sticker under the license plate points out that riders need to take their luggage through the passenger doors, rather than stow them in the rear cargo area.
Photo: Alex Knizek/Consumer Reports
Storage Access
You may want to think twice before using one of Waymo’s Pacifica minivans for a Home Depot run or to get your grocery shopping done for the week. While we had full access to the second and third rows of the van, the cargo area behind the rear seats was completely blocked off, filled with bulky and likely expensive equipment necessary to run the self-driving software. In fact, the rear tailgate was locked and did not open at all. As shown above, small sticker by the rear license plate read: “Supercomputer at work | Please put bags in cabin.”
Waymo is slowly phasing out the Pacifica vans in favor of electric Jaguar I-Pace SUVs, which are smaller overall but do allow access to the trunk. Both vehicles use an extensive array of cameras and sensors to collect information about their surroundings and the robust computer system that runs them takes up storage space in both vehicles.
A Waymo Chrysler Pacifica minivan (left) and a Waymo Jaguar I-Pace electric SUV.
Photo: Waymo
We Raced It Against Uber
Beyond the convenience of being able to reliably request a Waymo ride 24/7, we wanted to know how the experience compares with other readily available ride-hailing options. So we decided to conduct a race between Waymo and one lucky Chandler-area Uber driver.
Kelly requested Waymo while I simultaneously requested an Uber ride from our current location to a Target store just over 6 miles away.
My Uber driver arrived first by a few minutes, alluding to the outcome of the test. Sure enough, I was sitting on a bench outside of Target for about 5 minutes before Kelly’s Waymo awkwardly crept up to the curb and dropped her off. Of course, the proximity of each vehicle when the requests were made played a big role. But the chances of Uber responding first were higher simply because there are more Uber drivers.
The real takeaway is that my ride was 5 minutes shorter overall and $2 cheaper. I did not inform my Uber driver of the competition, but their more assertive driving style undoubtedly contributed to the quicker trip. Along with the win, I also got an impressive amount of unsolicited detail from my driver about what kind of questionable antics one can get up to in the Phoenix area. It is up to you whether you prefer the quieter, mostly undisturbed Waymo experience, or the conversational dice roll of a human taxi driver.
Ultimately, our time spent with Waymo was less about getting from A to B, and more of an interesting opportunity to sample the future. Naturally, we encountered some hiccups, but we expect this technology to progress rapidly in the years ahead.
More from Consumer Reports:
Top pick tires for 2016
Best used cars for $25,000 and less
7 best mattresses for couples
Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Copyright © 2022, Consumer Reports, Inc.
