{"id":167234,"date":"2026-02-24T18:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T18:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/167234\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T18:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T18:27:08","slug":"i-feel-safe-trooper-steve-reacts-to-his-first-waymo-ride-in-orlando","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/167234\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I feel safe:\u2019 Trooper Steve reacts to his first Waymo ride in Orlando"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 News 6 Traffic Safety Expert Trooper Steve took a seat in a Waymo robotaxi on Tuesday as the autonomous ride-hailing service<\/a> made its debut in the Orlando area, calling the experience \u201ccalm and reassuring\u201d as the vehicle navigated busy streets.<\/p>\n

Passengers can personalize temperature and seat settings through Waymo<\/a>\u2019s app, and the company says its vehicles use cameras, lidar, radar and artificial intelligence to detect buses, pedestrians and emergency vehicles. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt noticed that a bus was coming through the intersection. It picked up that a pedestrian was in the crosswalk,\u201d Trooper Steve said. \u201cThat is a huge Lynx bus, and it recognizes that, \u2018All right, this is an incredibly large vehicle out on the roadway.\u2018\u201c<\/p>\n

Waymo officials said the system \u2014 which they call the Waymo driver \u2014 continually recalculates to make safe decisions in real time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel safe. I feel like there is something happening outside this car that I can\u2019t see,\u201d Trooper Steve said.<\/p>\n

Trooper Steve and company representatives emphasized that a measured rollout that will expand service areas and rider access gradually as the company evaluates performance and builds public confidence. <\/p>\n

You can watch a POV of the Waymo ride-along at the top of this story. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 News 6 Traffic Safety Expert Trooper Steve took a seat in a Waymo robotaxi on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140,1576,729,24480],"class_list":["post-167234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-technology","tag-traffic","tag-waymo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}