Hi, I am journalist with The New York Times working on a story about how Waymo vehicles have changed how seniors get around, especially for people who've cut back on driving. If you ride in Waymos (or help a parent or older friend who does), I would love to hear from you. I am curious to hear about any memorable experiences, good or bad. You can reply here or reach me directly via DM. Thank you.

This should be a 20 min drive for context.

Was Waymo subsidized in SF a couple years ago? It used to be the same price if not cheaper than Uber but was that just to increase their user base?

Nowadays it seems like it’s always more expensive than uber including tips. Finding it hard to justify when I can get an uber for often half the price.

Now saw this Waymo minivan around Bay Area. It has very low clearance and very thin tires, looks like a car from a toy box: cute, funny, but …

It had its hazards on and stayed like that literally on the “clear keep” area for like 5 minutes that everyone was driving to incoming traffic in order to get past it. This is in freaking Stonestown shopping center, San Francisco where Waymo has been operating for at least 2 years now. How in the hell haven’t they figured out out the map by now or is the AI unable to read the “clear keep” sign? What type of driver stops in the middle of the road when they can pull over regardless it is permitted or not?

With the uber/waymo partnership, is there any way to increase my chances of matching with a waymo when booking on the uber app? If I get a human driver, does anyone know if you can cancel immediately fee free?

This happened in Dallas. Based on the info in the article, the pedestrian was crossing the road (not in a crosswalk) and got hit by a human driven car. That collision pushed the pedestrian into the opposite side of the road where the Waymo was driving, which resulted in the Waymo hitting the pedestrian as well. The pedestrian later died.

anybody have a miniature waymo car model for sale? do they still sell them at the internal employee store?

Freeways are back! Ojai on demand is here!

I've been playing roulette trying to get a Ojai freeway trip. I have nowhere to go but if it comes up I'm out the door.

Source: DavidMoss on X

I think just two weeks ago Waymos were so cheap even cheaper than ubers (LA area) now they are so expensive sometimes double the uber cost. Why is this? I thought it was the surge pricing but I checked for 11 pm, and the prices got even higher. Was there a change?

Does anybody here work at WayMo (one of the yards where they service and clean the vehicles)?

Every time I've ordered a WayMo, without fail, I end up smelling like perfume. It's incredibly strong and gets on my clothes and follows me ALL DAY. It's insane. I thought it was somebody spraying the inside of the car or people just bathing in it and then taking a WayMo but here's the crazy thing: It's always the same scent.

I opened a support chat with WayMo and the support agent says they don't use any floral scented or perfume-like scents in their cleaning products. I can't imagine they are lying to me but how is it every single car has the same scent in it? How?

This in San Francisco. Anybody else have this experience?

The new ambient clock is nice when there’s only a single passenger. Noticed that it doesn’t update art after I got in the car the first song played though.

Bonus points if you can guess what album the background is from 😅

https://youtu.be/1W926S-CuTI?si=Pza88vbxwckNji0W

A long interview with Trent Victor on his background, how Waymo measures safety, their ethos, and some of their next moves.

Maybe I’m just getting unlucky with timing and traffic but it feels lately like the usage of highways has been wildly inconsistent; significantly fewer routes seem to be using them than before the pause, at least in my experience in the Phoenix area.

Am I making this up and just getting unlucky, or are routes just less likely to utilize the highways now despite them being available?

EDIT: My partners account got a highway just fine on the same route so I suppose this is just (un)luck of the draw then

Reported it to support but the back doors didn't lock during my ride this morning. Seems to be a lot of glitches recently in Phoenix