We are not yet five minutes into our robotaxi ride when a loud “whack” breaks the monotonous drone of Los Angeles afternoon traffic.
Thankfully, it is not my self-driving cab that has crashed, but a car belonging to the man who moments earlier was gawping at the empty driver’s seat in front of me.
The distraction has, it seems, proved unfortunate both for him and the Tesla he drove into the back of.
Whether such collisions are the inevitable growing pains of a transportation revolution or an unnecessary added hazard to city life remains to be seen, but Los Angeles will now be able to draw its own conclusions.
Waymo, Google’s lavishly funded autonomous taxi company, has sent out its fleet into America’s second-biggest city, the latest development in what Silicon Valley titans including Elon Musk believe is the future of mass transport.
That optimism is fuelling a crowded market.
Waymo’s great rival, the General Motors subsidiary Cruise, is seeking to rebuild its reputation after an incident in San Francisco last year in which one of its taxis dragged a pedestrian along the street.
• California puts brakes on ‘dangerous’ Cruise robotaxis
Amazon’s Zoox plans to offer driverless rides to the general public in Las Vegas next year before also launching in San Francisco.
Then there is Musk’s electric carmaker Tesla. The billionaire has made a string of bold promises about the company’s self-driving software and aims to launch his Cybercab service by 2026.
Shares in Tesla jumped this week after reports that Donald Trump, whose presidential campaign Musk energetically supported, is considering relaxing regulations around self-driving cars.
That may trouble sceptics who question the need for robotaxis and the opponents who say they are a dangerous nuisance.
San Francisco, which has served as something of a guinea pig for self-driving cars, was initially plagued with problems. Waymo vehicles have disrupted the work of emergency services and disturbed the sleep of some residents by beeping at each other through the night.
However, Waymo journey numbers have risen from 77,000 in January to 312,000 in August, suggesting San Francisco is learning to love the taxis.
Google’s parent company Alphabet is hoping Los Angeles will also embrace the autonomous cabs.
Beginning this month anyone can hail a ride around an 80-square-mile area, excluding freeways, to the delight of those stuck on a waiting list that had ballooned to 300,000.
Hailing a Waymo is no different from calling an Uber. Simply enter your destination in the app and five minutes later a modified, all-electric Jaguar I-Pace turns the corner, the cameras mounted on the roof a clue to its party trick.
“Hello, Keiran,” a soothing AI voice says as I climb in, having used the app to open the doors.
Seatbelt on, the ride begins. The Jaguar is clean and spacious, a generally pleasant environment in which to spend a 25-minute ride.
Passengers can charge their phones in the back seat and control the air conditioning and radio via a small touchscreen. The panel also shows a 3D rendering of the taxi and its surroundings, including other motorists and pedestrians.
All of which is impressive, though the sight of an empty driver’s seat and steering wheel moving of its own accord remains unsettling.
We are only minutes into the drive through the Koreatown neighbourhood when the crash happens next to us.
Allowing himself to be distracted by Waymo’s technological wonder cost a man his no claims bonus and a woman the rear bumper of her Tesla.
Even though these cars have been on the roads of Los Angeles in a limited capacity since March, the novelty has not worn off.
Other drivers are constantly wowed when pulling up to find the front seats empty while some passers-by are so impressed that they walk into the road to take a picture.
Thankfully, the vehicle is trained for such unexpected incidents.
“The world’s most experienced driver,” Waymo describes its cars as, with a nod to the millions of miles the vehicles have driven on public roads. That rises to billions when taking into account simulated driving.
The taxi uses onboard cameras and sensors to interpret the world around it and act accordingly. Lidar sensors, or light detection and ranging, are located all round the car and send millions of laser pulses into the environment, measuring how long they take to bounce back off objects.
Waymo says its tech works in all weather and at all times of day. And yet, for all the simulated driving hours and Silicon Valley’s sharpest technology, the robotaxis are not without fault.
There is the occasional jerkiness and we almost crash near downtown Los Angeles. The taxi suddenly slams on its brakes and turns sharply to the right for no obvious reason. It seems to have been spooked by a yellow school bus to our left and a car double parked with its doors open to our right.
According to Waymo, since 2020 its driverless vehicles have been involved in 192 collisions, of which 18 resulted in some type of injury. However, the company has faced criticism for its vehicles performing unsafe manoeuvres. Waymo estimates its autonomous vehicles were involved in 72 per cent fewer injury-causing crashes compared with human drivers. It also claims they were involved in 84 per cent fewer collisions involving airbag deployments.
Rides are typically similar in price to Uber and Lyft, both ride-hailing apps albeit with human drivers. However, there are instances where Waymo’s algorithm will take a longer route to avoid highways, pushing the cost up.
In the UK, the Conservative government paved the way for “level four”, fully autonomous vehicles to be on the roads within a couple of years with the Automated Vehicles Act 2024. Such vehicles do not require a “safety driver”, allowing motorists to become passengers in their own cars. Experts predict that similar driverless taxis could be operating by the end of 2026.
Aside from the jerkiness and the near-crash, our four-mile, $17.66 journey to the Walt Disney Concert Hall is smooth.
Living in California, it is easy to become blasé about the robotaxis, given their increasing prevalence on the city streets. Yet to ride in one is to be reminded what an extraordinary technological achievement they are. For not much money a car fitted with some of the most advanced software in the world picks you up, navigates a notoriously busy city and drops you off, all with little fuss.
There are other considerations, of course.
Driving in Silicon Valley’s latest toy while fentanyl-addicted homeless people lie comatose on the pavement raises certain ethical questions and encapsulates the tensions of California’s unequal society.
Then there is the missing human element. Taxi drivers are part of the fabric of a city: tourists rely on them for tips on the best restaurants and bars while locals enjoy sharing easy banter and relaxed conversation.
Will this simple pleasure be lost? The Waymo AI will surely have no response to the universal icebreaker passengers ask cabbies the world over: “What time are you on till?”
A couple of hours after the autonomous taxi drops me at home, I am back in an Uber heading to the airport.
The driver, a Korean immigrant of few words, gets me there with little fuss, occasionally grunting in frustration at rush hour traffic on the I-10 highway.
We share a smile and a goodbye as he drops me off. A simple human touch, but one that might not be a given in the future.
