I ditched Uber for a driverless robotaxi in San Francisco, here's why I'm never going back

A journalist who used Waymo robotaxis in San Francisco said the experience convinced them to prefer autonomous rides over Uber. The writer, traveling from Las Vegas, said they used Uber only for an airport transfer before switching to the Waymo app for subsequent trips. Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet, operates a fleet of Jaguar I-Pace vehicles in San Francisco and is conducting trials in London. The journalist said the app provided advance details on arrival time, duration and cost without requiring a tip. The vehicle navigated busy streets smoothly, yielding to pedestrians and merging into traffic. Waymo said its driver is better than humans at avoiding injury crashes and airbag deployments, citing 67 million miles driven in the Bay Area with 94 percent fewer serious injury crashes and 82 percent fewer airbag deployments and injury crashes compared to human benchmarks. The writer said fellow passengers unanimously chose Waymo over Uber when given the option. Tesla was also cited for Full Self Driving statistics, and Amazon's Zoox service was noted operating in Las Vegas. The journalist said autonomous vehicles make sense for city travel while acknowledging a continued desire to drive personally at other times.