I spent a fun-filled 24 hours in San Francisco celebrating my daughter’s 18th birthday with a group of her friends. My wife and I were able to turn it into a relaxing staycation as the kids preferred to explore the city on their own (if you can imagine that). We were able to snag a highly-coveted reservation at legendary Michelin-starred restaurant State Bird Provisions. I recently was invited to join Waymo and we finally had a chance to try it for the first time.

One of my initial thoughts when booking our car was that it might take a long time to secure our ride. I imagined that there were probably not many Waymos on the street, unlike Uber or Lyft. I was completely wrong as our rides in both directions arrived within 5 minutes of being called, and a car was booked within 10 seconds of requesting it. No waiting forever to find a driver, and no cancellations for better fares. So far I was happy.

One thing that was not ideal is that we had to take a short walk to our pickup spot (1-3 blocks) for both rides. There are clearly safer spots for Waymos to pull over and pick you up, so they choose the closest place that will allow for an easy entry. This was not a big deal on a beautiful evening but I can see it being a minor inconvenience on a night when it is luring rain. They also provide you with directions and a compass-like arrow telling you exactly where to go.

When the car arrives the handles are flush with the body of the car, so there is no way to open the door until you tap the “Open Door” button on your app. The handles pop out of the sides and you can then open the door. they disappear again and lock once you are inside for safety.

As it was my first ride, a recorded voice told us that we still need to buckle our seat belts, and that Waymo team members could check on us via camera from time to time, but could not hear anything we say. So making out is not a great idea but you can fart as much as you want and nobody will know.

There is a panel in front of you where you can choose the music you would like to listen to, so we chose Hanukkah songs

For the majority of the ride you could watch your car’s progress and see what it detected around it. The blue rectangles are any cars that were driving or parked around us. White dots were people it detected on the sidewalks or crosswalks.

Once we arrived the doors unlocked and we got out. It was a little odd having nobody in the driver’s seat, and my wife actually said “thank you” as we were exiting the car out of habit.

Ultimately, I would take Waymo whenever I am in San Francisco if it were the same price or cheaper than Uber or Lyft. My two rides to and from dinner were about 1 dollar more than Uber but I was happy that I have it a try. I can see prices coming down as technology and scale come into play, but for now the jaguars that drive you around town must be astronomically expensive to manufacture. It is going to take many years (or decades) to perfect this technology and see it everywhere, but it will definitely revolutionize transportation. Highly recommend getting on the list for an invite and trying it sometime.