At first glance, you might think you’re looking at a Google Maps car. But these self-driving vehicles actually belong to Waymo, an autonomous rideshare company founded here in California.
Waymo, formerly known as the Google Self-Driving Car Project, operates as a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc. As of December, Waymo vehicles had driven 7.1 million miles between the cities of Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
Waymo held a pop-up session outside of the Shrine Auditorium this afternoon where they offered students a free weeklong trial of the driverless rideshare alternative. Visitors got a chance to see the vehicle up close and got free Waymo themed tote bags and t-shirts.
The pop-up today is part of Waymo’s strategy to expand their market and visibility here in L.A., and they seem to have won some customers in the form of USC students.
Miguel Silva, one of the attendees, is a senior studying business, and talked about how he actually prefers Waymo to contemporaries like Uber.
Miguel Silva: Right now, especially because all of the drives are subsidized, it’s a lot cheaper just to use these vehicles over like an Uber. But once it kind of gets to a bigger scale, I feel like it’d be a bit more competitive in prices but right now Waymo definitely seems like a better alternative.
Junior Max Holeschneider also enjoys the Waymo experience because of the solitude it provides.
Max Holeschneider: I’m a fan. I gotta say like, I’ve ridden it once or twice and I really enjoy the just sort of being in your own car. I think they were really clean and, you know, there’s obviously broader implications with something like a Waymo but I think for an individual I quite enjoy it.
Junior Justin Zandi is an aerospace engineering major and also one of the first USC students to use the rideshare. He discussed his initial trepidation when using the service and how he warmed up to it after his first drive.
Justin Zandi: Getting into it, I was pretty nervous because it was a new experience. But once it started driving, the nerves kind of went away because it was very good at driving. It was better than I expected. I thought it was going to be very jerky and indecisive about certain things. But, I mean, it drove better than most Uber drivers I’ve been with.
So far, most responses have been positive and the future of Waymo looks bright. Hopefully, with enough visibility and practical testing, the days of worrying about being harmed by rideshare drivers can be eliminated by the introduction of this self-driving miracle.
For Annenberg Media, I’m Aditya Thiyag.