I went on a boat trip between the Golden Gate Bridge and the Oakland Bridge from Fisherman’s Wharf. It lasted 90 mins and cost $45 and it was unremarkable.
Later that day I took a taxi ride in an autonomous Waymo car and it lasted 5 minutes and cost me $22 and was easily the most exciting five minutes I have spent in any country.
Not that it was fast and furious but that I was being driven by artificial intelligence. I had seen these cars on the street and couldn’t work them out until I saw inside one and there was only a passenger and no driver.
Then I made it my mission to take one. I downloaded the Waymo One app and hooked it up to Apple Pay and it was then very simple to request one. On approaching my taxi, the app on my phone showed a “Open Door” button and when I pressed it the door handle popped out from the door panel and I jumped in.
People were watching me and taking video with their phones and I felt a bit like a celebrity. After pressing the Start Ride button on the screen in the car we were off with some helpful information from the car’s voice telling me not to touch the pedals or steering wheel.
I realised that I could have sat in the driver’s seat had I so wished and later did see someone doing just that.
I chose my music and sat back and enjoyed a very smooth and safe ride back to my hotel through traffic lights, stopping to let pedestrians cross the road and keeping well clear of other cars.
I don’t much like San Francisco – this Waymo taxi was by far the best thing about the whole city and definitely worth the nasty Holiday Inn Hotel I stayed in and all the druggies passed out on the streets and in the parks.