{"id":389033,"date":"2026-07-07T10:19:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T10:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/389033\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T10:19:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T10:19:15","slug":"i-explored-san-francisco-in-a-waymo-as-maryland-remains-in-idle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/389033\/","title":{"rendered":"I explored San Francisco in a Waymo as Maryland remains in idle"},"content":{"rendered":"

The back seat of a Waymo Jaguar I-PACE is plush, snug and comfortable.<\/p>\n

Buckle up, press \u201cstart ride\u201d on the display screen set between the two front seats, and the driverless car smoothly accelerates into traffic.<\/p>\n

No matter how prepared you are for the experience, seeing the wheel turn this way and that without the touch of human hands is disquieting. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, people get in there and they say that it feels like magic when the car pulls off, and the steering wheel just starts turning and it accelerates and gets you to a location,\u201c said Anthony Perez, Waymo\u2019s Northeast policy manager.<\/p>\n

On a recent trip to San Francisco, my wife and I explored the city with the AI ride service. Three years after it started, Waymo cars are a common sight \u2014 yet still new enough that residents express surprise at seeing five or six driving in a cluster.<\/p>\n

Waymo wants to come to Maryland. State lawmakers rejected the company\u2019s bid for regulations to allow driverless ride service this year, but the company will return to the State House in 2027.<\/p>\n

So those electric Jags dotted with revolving bug-eye sensors continue to map Baltimore. The company is doing the same in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ll have to keep at it, and I think we\u2019re here for the long run in Baltimore, and that comes with continuing to do the work,\u201d Perez said.<\/p>\n

After four days in San Francisco, it became clear that driverless vehicles are coming, whether you trust the AI driving them or not.<\/p>\n

We loaded the app during the taxi ride from the airport to our hotel. <\/p>\n

Just like rideshare companies, Waymo\u2019s software lets you pick the ride and the destination. We plugged in Tadich Grill, the oldest restaurant in California.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe first time you step into a driverless car such as Waymo, it is a bit unnerving. (Rick Hutzell\/The Banner)\"GetGet into a Waymo, and the AI system is waiting for you. (Rick Hutzell\/The Banner)<\/p>\n

The Jag, tricked out with what looks like a rooftop flying saucer, pulled up in a quiet alley a few steps around the corner from our hotel\u2019s front doors. <\/p>\n

That saucer is a custom sensor suite that serves as the vehicle\u2019s eyes and ears, housing LiDAR, cameras and radar. It\u2019s connected to those bug eyes on all four corners, plus the front and back.<\/p>\n

A revolving light atop the sensor package blinked my initials, telling me which robot car was mine. The app unlocked the doors and we slipped inside.<\/p>\n

And there was that feeling that something wasn\u2019t right \u2014 excitement, but also trepidation. Magic is a good word for it, but in a darker-than-Disney sense.<\/p>\n

I went for a driverless ride in San Francisco <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve also heard people who say that just a few minutes later, or maybe after the first ride, it\u2019s just routine, you know?\u201d Perez said. \u201cIt just feels like normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The driving was excellent, the kind of confident navigation through traffic that comes from experience on crowded streets. That\u2019s because Waymo\u2019s AI uses what it learned from 2 million miles on the road to drive an individual trip.<\/p>\n

The display screen shows what Waymo sees around it as glowing silhouettes: cars, pedestrians, even dogs. An illuminated path through it all is reassuring.<\/p>\n

There were unfortunate surprises. Robot cars stop where their AI determines it\u2019s safe, so they can seem confused to a human expecting a direct route.<\/p>\n

After a Giants game at Oracle Park, we had to walk 15 minutes from the crowd to catch our ride. <\/p>\n

Once we got near the meetup spot, it was frustrating \u2014 on a dark street in a strange city after a couple of beers \u2014 to sort out where we were supposed to stand.<\/p>\n

\"AA trip to San Francisco in June was a chance to try out Waymo driverless cars as the company continues to work on bringing them to Baltimore. (Rick Hutzell\/The Banner)<\/p>\n

The app warned that the car would only wait two minutes, so I sprinted to the passenger door once I spotted that glowing \u201cRH.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waymo then struggled to get us to Biscuits and Blues, a jazz spot where a friend was playing. It looped a figure 8 around several blocks, giving us a scare that the car was taking us someplace else. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just a lot of inputs that go into that decision-making process to make sure that we\u2019re dropping you off in the most ideal location,\u201d Perez said.<\/p>\n

We were joined that night by friends from Crofton, who shared our hesitation. Driving San Francisco\u2019s hills can be intimidating, and doing it in a robot car added to that feeling.<\/p>\n

Concerns about safety and job losses were the big reasons Maryland hit the brakes on Waymo. A child was struck in Santa Monica, California. The robot cars passed stopped school buses in Atlanta and Austin, Texas. <\/p>\n

A week after we left San Francisco, many had to be towed when the batteries ran out in jammed Independence Day traffic.<\/p>\n

\"OtherOther driverless vehicle companies are right behind Waymo. We passed several Zoox robotaxis. (Rick Hutzell\/The Banner)<\/p>\n

Perez\u2019s answers on these issues weren\u2019t wholly satisfying. <\/p>\n

Since Waymo started in San Francisco, company surveys show a 45% increase in trust. The reason? Safety.<\/p>\n

The company says 30% of respondents believe it\u2019s safer than a human driver, and 16% say it\u2019s safer than a rideshare. Of course, it\u2019s their survey.<\/p>\n

Waymo\u2019s record is better than other ride services, he said, but there\u2019s no sign roads are getting safer, which is one of the technology\u2019s most significant promises. <\/p>\n

\"MarchWaymo brought one of its Jaguar I-Paces to the Maryland State House in March. It will be back next year. (Pamela Wood\/The Banner)<\/p>\n

On the loss of driver jobs, Perez said what disrupters always say: More rides are good for everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to expand the pie, not necessarily take a slice of the pie,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Driverless vehicles will create as well as devour jobs. But it\u2019s not a 1-to-1 trade. Qualified humans will service and supervise the cars. Most won\u2019t be unemployed drivers. <\/p>\n

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, owns Waymo. It is a data company, so how it shares my information is a concern. I don\u2019t want fish ads after visiting the aquarium.<\/p>\n

Maryland has consumer protections, Perez said. It can\u2019t use my ride data for advertising.<\/p>\n

Driverless vehicles are coming. It\u2019s inevitable.<\/p>\n

The companies are too big, the technology too promising, the tax revenue too large, and the potential gains in congestion, safety and pollution too enticing to say no for long.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the robot apocalypse. At least, I hope not.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers need to get regulations right and prepare for the consequences.<\/p>\n

The future is coming, and it doesn\u2019t have a driver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The back seat of a Waymo Jaguar I-PACE is plush, snug and comfortable. Buckle up, press \u201cstart ride\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105,5987],"class_list":["post-389033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-waymo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}