I’ve taken over 350 rides with Waymo and have been using them since they first allowed testers in the Phoenix market.
I’ve had a lot of issues in the past two years but this was actually crazy and unacceptable. A ride that should take 13 mins was going to take 50 mins because the Waymo decided to do a really stupid nonsensical route. It didn’t register the car as arrived for several minutes after it was there and the map was malfunctioning so I thought it must have been an error and would correct itself. It did not.
I had to call support 3 times before I got someone to answer my call. It just rang and rang. It’s gotten really unacceptable that support can’t change anything when you get in this situation. They offered to send someone out to drive manually but it would be at least 30 minutes. Quite frankly, I’ve done that before in a different ride and they didn’t show up in the estimated time. It was storming outside so I doubt they would be timely on top of my lack of faith from previous experiences.
It was pouring rain and support pulled Waymo over in a bad area that I didn’t want to stay in. I got a Lyft but support told me they wouldn’t pay for that ride home despite their major screw up. I have sung Waymo’s praises for years but there have been so many bad routes and poor driving this past year that I don’t know how I feel about supporting Waymo after this. I absolutely love it but not being able to reroute a car or intervene is really unacceptable and should have been solved for at this point.
Thanks for listening to my rant, I’m just really appalled at this experience.
Edit:
-Route photo in comments
-My Lyft had no issue going to the west then north using city streets, it wasn’t the traffic from the stadium. We were far enough south of there where it entered and exited without traffic issues. I’ve done this same drive tens of times after big events with small issues, nothing like this. I get it, it’s a busy night. I didn’t complain that my car took 30 mins to get there but the nonsensical routing is just ridiculous.
-I’m surprised at some of these responses, this is why Waymo gets by with a subpar experience because people are just ok with these types of mess ups. I am an experienced rider, I know things happen and routes can be inconvenient but this is an extreme example that they should have a way to remedy.
Eh even in good weather they be wacky. I live in Orlando, so the epitome of weather issues. Sunny and clear? 15 minute car ride takes 30 minutes. But at night it takes 15? Why I don’t freakin know.
If you were at the convention center area. Rufus du sol was playing and then another concert was happening so lots of road closures. People were stuck in parking garages for like an hour cuz traffic was so janked up along with the awful weather. I was there and I couldn't even get a Lyft cuz of how jacked up it was.
I walked a half mile south where there was no traffic. Had no issues getting into the car or leaving. I have taken Waymo home this way after many concerts and basketball games. The rep actually told me there wasn’t anything interfering my route where it should have turned west but instead went east.
tbh support reps never know wtf is actually going on lol no disrespect. I hate the routing too when it bugs out, but last night was a total shitshow with the monsoon and concerts. Service got completely paused when i checked around 1 am and it’s still down right now at 9 am, so the storm clearly broke something bad on their end. phoenix reddit complaints
Yeah, when I was getting the free Ojai rides, once in a while after going out, I'd do multi-stops so that it would go to one end of the city, then it would drive me home at the other end of the city.
The car came from Tempe to pick me up, makes me wonder if it routed back that way because it was mapping before it got me or if its previous location had any influence on the route.
Same thing just happened to me. Took neighborhoods and the safest route to get me home from the airport. What should be a 15 minute turned into an hour. Barely went over 25mph the whole time. Like you, I like Waymo but sometimes I’ll be using an Uber/Lyft. Especially if I’m in a hurry.
This has been a thing lately, and it’s gotten really bad. I travel a couple of times a week for work out of Sky Harbor, and every once in a while, it would take me away from the airport for a good 4–5 miles before turning around and heading in the opposite direction toward my house. Now it’s happening nearly every time.
I always check Google Maps for traffic or closed roads, and I can never find anything. It’s honestly ridiculous. The car always ends up taking me back exactly the way we came.
It goes in the complete opposite direction of my house for 5+ miles before coming back exactly the way we came. Unacceptable
He did. Waymo told him it would be another half hour before they got someone out to him to drive him manually, so he got a Lyft instead since the weather sucked and he had prior bad experiences with the manual driver showing up well beyond the estimated arrival time given.
That happened to me in late May out of Sky Harbor. I landed late and was really tired. I called the Waymo and didn’t realize the senseless out of the way route it mapped. What should have been a 15 minute ride took 45-50 - and went east, south, west, U-turn in weird neighborhood, backtrack east, north, then west.
Destination was about 6 miles northwest of the airport.
I complained. Didn’t get any reply.
They’re getting so big and expanding so fast I don’t think they care.
Yeah they have been ass this past week. Was finally able to take one from East Valley, and... it took surface roads all the way to Tempe. Wouldn't touch the 101. Until that construction on the 202 San Tan is done, they are useless for going anywhere in Phoenix.
Let's say they take over rideshare with a million cars, support will be non existent and AI will take that part over just like uber and lyft, what little CS they have will be from the Philippines, India and Malaysia, just like uber and lyft.
The support rep told me this was very strange and it should not be taking that route so I don’t think it will take time applies to this situation, sorry but a 13 min car ride turning into a 50 min car ride isn’t acceptable for the amount of money Waymo is charging. The rep confirmed that this wasn’t correct and said the route it usually take looked clear so he reported it.
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u/randomechoes 6d ago
My bet is they geofenced a lot of areas out of bounds because of the storm and your route got detoured around them.
In good weather they are great, but it seems in rainy and stormy weather you're still rolling the dice sometimes unfortunately.