The year I learned to stop hating the robotaxis

The year is 2024, and the robots have won.

At least, Waymo has (seeya, Cruise). The past 12 months have been nothing short of a smiley-faced, softly spoken, hostile takeover of the streets of San Francisco by the Alphabet-owned robotaxi company. A technology once viewed skeptically by many seems to have gained mainstream acceptance. 

I for one am all for it. And no one is more shocked at this change of heart than I.

I’ve gone from proudly hating (and quietly cutting off) the metallic beasts to riding in them regularly, showing them off to visiting friends from my native Great Britain and spending a whopping $1,031.19 on 53 rides since June. 

I’m not alone. Though Waymo refuses to share ridership data, we can assume rides are way up this year, since the company opened the service to everyone in June 2024 following an invitation-only launch. From talks with practically every San Franciscan I know, as well as the number of visitors filming as I ride through North Beach, it’s clear the robots are winning our hearts, minds, and disposable income. 

“Once we opened San Francisco to anyone in the city in June, it became our fastest-growing city and serves the largest number of trips per week among our Waymo One cities,” a spokesperson said.

This embrace of driverless cars is honestly astounding. I was full-bore “screw the robots” for some time. (I’m also the guy who assigned The Standard’s August 2023 story about people screwing in them.)

And the reasons for my hatred were myriad. My dad was both a taxi driver and a mechanic. I am quite sure he’d despair at what could spell the end of driving as a profession.

I also adore cars, and driving. Do you know what a Reliant Scimitar is? I do: My earliest memory is backing one out of a driveway. (I couldn’t reach the pedals, but I held the steering wheel.) I love the freedom and autonomy that driving represents.

All of this, coupled with enduring the extra-cautious driving skills of the robot class, built a deep well of rage inside me. 

Until I got the invite code. 

Suddenly, my 7×7 world was transformed. No longer must I fret about finding parking after 6 p.m. or face a chatty rideshare driver with my socially burned-out news-editor brain. I was free, and coddled in ambient grooves from the Waymo radio. (Waymo comms people, I know you’re reading this: Fix the damn stereo so I can play my own tunes with ease, please). 

Being British in America, there are things you never get used to. Like the inability to crack a cold one in the passenger seat. But now, who’s gonna stop me? (Waymo says drug or alcohol use inside the car is against the rules, as is bringing an open container. But I know plenty of people who’ve smoked weed in the backseat without getting scolded.)

But it’s not just riding in a state of zen that popularized Waymo. Road safety was among the most tense discussions among San Franciscans this year, after the tragic deaths of a family who were mowed down at a bus stop. Yes, the city failed miserably to reach its pedestrian death goal of zero, instead recording 39 fatalities, including a man who was killed near my home in October when struck by a dump truck. 

Waymo feels safer than many human drivers. On Dec. 19, the company and SF-based insurance firm Swiss Re released a “comprehensive safety study” analyzing insurance claims data across 25.3 million autonomous miles driven. The Waymo Driver (that’s the cute lil dull name they’ve come up with for the AI software) had 88% fewer property damage claims and 92% fewer bodily injury claims than human drivers. (But there was that one time a Waymo killed a dog.)

The Jaguar E-Pace taxis are also just really nice. They’re roomy, clean, and equipped with an incredibly polite robot voice that isn’t afraid to occasionally have a laugh. There’s even a bit of (sketchy?) data, from a company named Yipit, floating about online that says Waymo has caught up with Lyft for SF taxi market share; Uber, which appears to have the largest piece of the action, could be next. Yipit declined to share the full data with The Standard, but you can see (some of it) here.

And beyond their practical uses, Waymos are having something of a cultural moment. Tourists are obsessed. My English visitors from the summer still randomly text me, “I miss Waymo,” as if the cab were a real-life human friend. (I am that friend, boys.) 

They’ve also shot to fame in viral videos, usually because people are tagging them in a phenomenon known as “Waymo bullying.” Also, there was this one assault suspect who appeared to try and fight one, yelling, “C’mon, Waymo, gimme something to work with.” Let’s hope the cops find that bloke soon. But be warned, would-be robot aggressors: This autonomous ride has lawyers and is not afraid to use them.  

Suffice to say, Waymo has bloody won us over. Right?

And I have news for anyone out there still doubting: San Francisco is just the start of the big shift to the robots. Waymo is apparently beloved in Phoenix. There are parts of Los Angeles where everyone is eager to see how short-fused drivers will react to them. And the frontier for the fearless Waymo is ever expanding — the cars will soon appear for testing in Tokyo, proving that the driverless revolution will not stop at the U.S. border.