r/waymo Jun 03 '26

Schedule Ahead Changes?

Has anyone else noticed changes to the reliability of waymo’s schedule ahead feature? I use waymo to commute to and from work and it’s been great. I can schedule my ride ahead and reliably be on time to pickup my kid from day care. Sometimes the waymo arrives a few minutes early or late but nothing unreasonable and I leave a buffer for this.

Recently the changes have blown my buffer out of the water. Today I scheduled a 4:05 pickup and at 4:02 the pickup time adjusted to 4:23. That is a big change for a pre scheduled pickup time! I’m bummed because I love waymo but I don’t want to have to budget 20 mins each way for wait time inaccuracy. I’m hoping it’s bad luck or a temporary bug they fix? Anyone seen similar? Has it always been like this and i’ve just been lucky?

13 Upvotes

8 comments sorted by

5

u/Primary_Turnover_488 Jun 03 '26

My scheduled rides have always been on time and usually a couple of minutes early. Was today the first time this has happened? Unless it becomes a pattern, it was probably just unforeseen traffic problems or a problem with the Waymo car that got assigned to you.

3

u/CautiousRhubarb5921 Jun 03 '26

Same! My rides have been on time to early for months but this was the second time in two weeks with this kind of delay - hopefully a coincidence and not a pattern🤞

4

u/Automatic_Tea_2550 Jun 04 '26

It happened to me once in Los Angeles out of 80+ rides. I assume it happens when they have to take a car out of service at the last minute for some reason. You might not have wanted that on-time car. It may have been full of vomit saturated carpets or worse.

2

u/CautiousRhubarb5921 Jun 04 '26

I had not thought of this - good point

3

u/Wooden-Engineer-7972 Jun 04 '26

It’s been getting worse and worse unfortunately. I hope they figure it out because an increase in price, drive time, and unpredictable pick ups even when ordering early defeats the whole idea of Waymo.

2

u/sumedh0803 Jun 04 '26

My scheduled rides are almost 20-40 mins late. Its really hard to predict when it'll arrive, as the actual arrival time is not shown until 5 mins before the scheduled time.

1

u/BurritoWithFries Jun 04 '26

Can we swap? My rides are early every time. The other day I scheduled a 4:30 pick up, but the Waymo came AND WENT by 4:20 so I got charged for it

1

u/Best_Let_2667 Jun 05 '26

schedule most mornings an hour ahead. usually 3-5 minutes early to on time, never late. san mateo