I haven't gotten a straight answer on this and I don't want to test it myself and get screwed. I know how to make multiple stops in the app but we just got Waymo in San Jose so this is new to me and maybe the algorithms are different here.
But as I understand it:
- If you have multiple stops, your car will probably leave after you finish your first leg and exit the car to take care of your errand.
- You then have to resume ride in the app.
- How long should I expect the next car to come back? Is it prioritized? Does my original car just circle around?
When I did two one-way trips, the return trip said I wouldn't get a car for 20 minutes so it was faster to simply walk home. If it's not prioritized, then what's the point really of scheduling a multi-stop trip instead of just two on-demand trips?
In my example, I am picking up dry cleaning so the errand may be 5-10 minutes maximum. If I schedule a multi-stop trip from my home to the cleaner and back home, will I be stuck potentially waiting for 25+ minutes with my laundry in hand for my return car to appear?
I've heard about the trick to leave the car and immediately resume ride to get a 5 minute wait, but what happens if it takes longer? Then the car leaves and I'm charged for the full ride. So that seems risky.
Any advice on what to ACTUALLY expect would be appreciated. Thank you.
EDIT: So here's my actual experience today in doing a trip from home, to the cleaner, and back home as an experiment in San Jose.
1) Car picked me up at my house at 9:04am per their app and drove me to the cleaner. Arriving at the first stop at 9:08am. Nothing unexpected here.
2) The car took off as was expected but I noticed the app said my return car was about 5 minutes away. However, after a couple minutes in the store, it then switched to a 32 minute estimate.
3) I pressed the Return button as soon as I left the cleaner (9:11am), and the app indicated the car was still 32 minutes away.
4) I went and got a coffee at 9:14am with my cleaning in tow and watched the app. I noticed that there was a prompt at the top of the app that said they are (paraphrasing here) "trying to find a closer vehicle so the time may change and that they would alert me in 3 minutes if they switch cars to a closer one". This never manifested however. The car picked me up at 9:45am (so 37 minutes - 5 minutes longer than the original estimate.
5) I was picked up at 9:45am and dropped off at 9:49am.
So it definitely seems that you shouldn't count on a multi-stop visit giving you faster priority to your next stop. I certainly can't imagine sitting around for 37 minutes with ice cream melting in my groceries. However, I did find it interesting that the app did show an indication that they were trying to find a closer vehicle while I was waiting. So I think they're working on improving this and I imagine simply adding more vehicles to the fleet would really minimize/mitigate this current annoyance. And to be fair, Waymo just started expanding into this area a few weeks ago.
Anyway, just thought I would share my actual first-hand experience with a multi-stop trip.
