[superfrank]

I was down in San Francisco a month ago and my friend has access so we took Waymo's everywhere. We took about 10 over the weekend and never had any issue, even when other cars were doing weird things. From my limited experience I felt like they're pretty solid in the city.

The only hiccup I can remember was being in an intersection (past the crosswalk) to make an unprotected left and while we were waiting the light turned yellow. A human driver would likely wait for the light to go red and then make the turn, but the Waymo gave up almost immediately and instead decided to circle the block to make the left (three rights). A little odd, but I never felt unsafe.

If we had Waymo where I live I'd take it everywhere. It's slightly cheaper than an Uber, a nicer car, a better driver than some Uber's I've been in, and there's something nice about not having to interact with a real person.

[disqard]

> and there's something nice about not having to interact with a real person

This is the end-goal, I guess? Not just avoiding a taxi/Uber driver, but avoiding as much human interaction as possible.

Is it surprising that technology is (collectively) being evolved to isolate humans from each other?

AFAICT, we can't have our cake and eat it too -- a completely frictionless life is a zero human-interaction life, which would be very sad.

Edit: I fall into this trap too, but I'm aware that every time I choose convenience over friction, I'm losing a tiny bit of my Human-ness.

[superfrank]

I don't mind interacting with people, but the vast majority of my interactions with ride share drivers are not meaningful interactions. I get in the car, say "hi" and then pull out my phone. A large portion of the time my drivers are on the phone or have airpods in.

I would gladly trade the 1% of rides where I had a decent conversation with the driver to remove the 99% where I we both try to make forced small talk or we both awkwardly sit in silence. Plus, not having to worry about me and my friends annoying our driver when we're drunkly coming back from the bars at 2am is such a win.

[pcthrowaway]

> A human driver would likely wait for the light to go red and then make the turn, but the Waymo gave up almost immediately and instead decided to circle the block to make the left (three rights)

I totaled two cars when I was newer to driving because I did exactly that (waited for the light to turn red and then went), only to collide with people running the red.

Insurance faults the person who was making the left, so I can understand why the Waymo would want to be more cautious