News4’s Adam Tuss was able to have a test ride in a self-driving, fully autonomous Waymo vehicle.
Self-driving rideshare vehicles have hit the streets as a test to see if they make sense in D.C.
Waymo cars have been spotted crisscrossing the District. They're already in use in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix, and Austin is next.
News4 got a chance to take a ride.
A Waymo user can open the app, request a ride and it shows up to your location.
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"It even has my initials at the top. That's how you know the car is reserved for you," said News4’s Adam Tuss.
The car can "see" 360 degrees and three football fields away. Each car has 29 cameras, radar and lidar, which measures distances. These all constantly make decisions for the cars.
News4's Waymo was able to navigate around construction, double-parked trolleys and pedestrians. We had a driver just as a backup, but the driver was not needed.
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Waymo says their self-driving cars will be safer than cars with human drivers.
“Early data from Waymo shows that compared to human benchmarks, the cars do perform safer,” Ethan Teicher of the company said.
Some residents said, though, they were not a fan of taking away drivers.
"Oh absolutely not – not a chance. I don't trust a robot driving the car. No, absolutely not," said Barrett Lane, a commuter.
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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating at least 22 reports of Waymo vehicles either crashing or doing something that violated traffic laws. No injuries have been reported.
Just a handful of Waymo cars are being tested in D.C. There is no timetable yet for when the vehicles could begin service in the District.
