Waymo in London

[DarrenO'D']

Spotted a Waymo I pace in London on Saturday, presumably testing as there was someone behind the Lhd wheel. Then on the way out, saw another car covered in sensors doing similar, but didn’t really catch the name. Are driverless taxi approved here yet ?

[Doggleg]

They test with a safety driver in place behind the wheel until they're approved. They are excellent, sign up for early access if you can. The other one is probably Zoox.

[EuroPartShop]

Doggleg said:

They test with a safety driver in place behind the wheel until they're approved. They are excellent, sign up for early access if you can. The other one is probably Zoox.

[ashenfie]

Be interesting to see how they get on with roundabouts

[SchillingTwo]

I see them quite often near my office in central London; as others have said they are testing, not working yet.

I’m looking forward to when I get to try one, just for the novelty and to see how the technology works. Getting out of my street in the morning can sometimes require a, well, assertive approach and / or a lot of throttle so I’ll be fascinated to see how they handle that.

[Hoofy]

I hear quite a few of them are getting stuck down some residential road in London at 3am and pissing off the neighbours with the safety beeping or whatever.

[abzmike]

Saw a few out testing last time in was down. Ironically I was in an Uber behind one when the driver of mine took a long turn that required a massive detour to sort out.

[smn159]

I used one in Los Angeles last year. Order it on the app, check in using the app when it arrives and enjoy the ride. You can even select your own music / radio station and adjust the AC.

[vikingaero]

Took my Dad to an event in London today so he could meet his old chums. I parked up nearby and noticed a lot of Waymos zipping around.

Initial thought: They are unsafe.

Why? Because the road I was on has parked cars along one side and 2 normal cars can fit comfortably side by side - say 12 inches from the parked cars, 18 inches between the passing cars, and 12 inches from the kerb. Everyone co-exists happily, until Mr Waymo comes along passing the parked cars at 3 feet and squishing oncoming cars into the kerb. Every single Waymo did this even though they had a safety driver not bothering to correct it.

[Terminator X]

Doggleg said:

They test with a safety driver in place behind the wheel until they're approved. They are excellent, sign up for early access if you can. The other one is probably Zoox.

Why would you knowingly attempt to kill off human taxi drivers? Insanity imho.

TX.

[SchillingTwo]

Terminator X said:

Why would you knowingly attempt to kill off human taxi drivers? Insanity imho.

TX.

To improve the overall experience of using taxis.

I rarely ever use black cabs nowadays after years of them taking the mick over choice of route.

[Doesitdrive]

Terminator X said:

Doggleg said:

They test with a safety driver in place behind the wheel until they're approved. They are excellent, sign up for early access if you can. The other one is probably Zoox.

Why would you knowingly attempt to kill off human taxi drivers? Insanity imho.

TX.

Progress, init, agree, why?

[SchillingTwo]

Doesitdrive said:

Progress, init, agree, why?

Commercial Road. It’s always the right choice for going from the City to Canary Wharf at busy times. I’ve had tens of different drivers of black cabs sail straight on past it down to The Highway where they are guaranteed not only a logjam all the way to the Limehouse Link, but probably a good twenty minutes just waiting to get through the lights to join it.

Then there’s the more than once that my wife has had some quite unpleasant experiences of being asked if she’s married, or if there’s anyone waiting for her at home as they insist on taking her via Stratford as apparently it’s a short cut…

[Rolise]

DarrenO'D' said:

Spotted a Waymo I pace in London on Saturday, presumably testing as there was someone behind the Lhd wheel. Then on the way out, saw another car covered in sensors doing similar, but didn t really catch the name. Are driverless taxi approved here yet ?