GIF: Waymo
I saw a tweet today that jolted me out of my self-imposed cynical journalist mindset as it relates to self-driving cars.
It was a short video of two guys trying to catch up to a fully driverless Waymo vehicle in Chandler, a town outside Phoenix, Arizona. “There’s no one in this car!” one guy yells exuberantly, before urging his companion to drive “faster. I need to get to the front seat.” They accelerate and, lo and behold, there is indeed no one in this car. The clip ends with the two guys screaming in unison.
Waymo has been increasing the number of its fully driverless vehicles in the Phoenix area lately, so it makes sense that we would see a corresponding uptick in reactions on social media. But I have yet to come across anyone with…