3 minute read
Four rides in, zero regrets
I’ve now taken Waymo four times around Miami and I’m ready to say it: it’s actually good. Not “impressive for a robot” good, just good. No small talk about traffic, no unsolicited opinions on the housing market. Just a quiet car that shows up and gets me there.
Watching a ghost drive is still deeply weird
Seeing that steering wheel turn itself with nobody’s hands on it never stops being unsettling in a fun way. You catch yourself staring at it like it’s about to say something. It won’t. It’s just doing its job, better than most humans I’ve paid to do it.
The screen knows what it’s doing
The in-car display shows every car, pedestrian, and stray shopping cart as little animated blobs, and reacts before I even notice them. It threads through Wynwood traffic and Design District foot spillover without a hint of grandma braking. It drives like something that trusts its own math.
Bring your own vibe
Picking your own music from the app sounds small until you realize it means never sitting through someone else’s talk radio again.
Please, just close the door
Here’s the part nobody tells you: these cars cannot close their own doors. No power doors, no motors, just a regular door a human has to shut all the way, or the car will not move. Waymo got so tired of stranded, door-ajar robotaxis it now pays DoorDash drivers and tow operators through an app called Honk to run over and slam them shut, six to twenty four bucks a pop. So do the fleet a favor: close your own door. A billion dollar sensor suite still needs you for this one part.
The weather thing is real and not just about rain
Waymo doesn’t just bail when it’s pouring, it bails in situations that don’t look like weather at all. A cluster of Waymos in San Francisco once stopped mid-route over thick fog, no rain involved, just visibility bad enough that pulling over seemed smarter. Riders in Phoenix have gotten the “all cars are busy” brushoff on overcast days with no rain falling, because the system gets cautious before the sky even opens up. Waymo also paused service in Atlanta and Texas this year after a car got swallowed by a flooded street, triggering a recall and stricter flood-zone rules. So “unavailable due to weather” on a clear day isn’t a lie, it’s caution about conditions you can’t see.
About that Hyundai rumor
I checked the whisper that the next Waymos will be Hyundai Ioniq 5s instead of the Jaguar I-Pace, and it’s more than a rumor now. Waymo and Hyundai locked in a multi year partnership, and Ioniq 5s built at Hyundai’s Georgia plant have already started on-road testing in San Francisco with the newest sensor stack. The I-Pace is aging out and Jaguar stopped making it, so the swap tracks. No word yet on power doors, which would solve half the problem above.
Still better than the alternative
No system is flawless, and a car that pulls over for fog or needs a stranger to shut its door is still a fair trade for one that never gets road rage. Four for four in Miami and I’d get in again tomorrow. Just don’t expect it during a thunderstorm, don’t be shocked if a clear sky gets you “please try again later,” and close the door behind you.
Sources: Myself, Associated Press, Axios, TechCrunch, Atlanta News First, Jalopnik, Buttondown, InsideEVs, Fortune