🪄 My first, magical Waymo ride

After changing my view of self-driving cars by using my head and thinking through the data, I can confirm that my heart (and guts) agree with that rational conclusion. I’ve been in the Bay Area for a few days, so I have been finding reasons to jump into Waymo cars. You order the car from the slick Waymo app, which provides simple instructions for finding and getting into the vehicle.You can watch a brief video of my first ride—Halloween-themed—above. In short, the experience is magical. It works. The car drives well. As a passenger, the rear screen tells you where you are and how the journey is going. The privacy is frankly marvellous. The cars have been pretty clean, better than the average Uber, but not as immaculate as a high-end Wheely. Pricing? Hard to tell. It felt like the same price as an Uber Comfort.Yesterday, Rohit Krishnan treated me to a spin in his Tesla with full-self driving. I’ve got to admit that it is pretty remarkable, but it didn’t feel quite as polished as the Waymo experience. I felt safer in the Waymo than the Tesla. Something about the experience's details: the car ensured I could board it safely and gave a pre-ride safety briefing. Most importantly, the battery of sensors in multiple modes, with oodles of redundancy, signalled this robot would try to keep me safe. Not that the Tesla didn’t and wouldn’t be safe, but rather that the white Waymo car had been engineered to go above and beyond.It’s magical. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.exponentialview.co/subscribe