The future is here and it’s terrifying
A ride through LA in a Waymo self-driving car, and reflections on AI
I have to tell you about a time I really thought I would be held responsible for killing someone. I’m still not quite over it. I was in the back of a car and I prayed. I prayed even though I don’t normally pray, and I don’t think much about God. “Please don’t let us kill someone. Please don’t let us kill someone.” I said this over and over in my head as I sweated and held my breath for too long.
I was in a Waymo. A driverless car. Let me say that again – we were in the backseat of a moving vehicle, gliding along LA roads, and there was no one driving. The steering wheel was moving as if there was someone there. But there was no-one in the driving seat. It looked like a ghost. Like a ghost was driving the car.
Oh, and did I mention we were in downtown Los Angeles? Just a casual little place called LA. A town built for cars, with about seven million vehicles on the road.
I was so terrified that I immediately had to disassociate. I told my partner, who had organised the whole thing, that I would close my eyes. “You need to stay alert and monitor this situation,” I told him. “You need to deal with this because I can’t.”
During my trip to LA from Berlin, I had already stepped out of my comfort zone several times. But this was like we’d taken a quantum leap into another dimension. Because although I know autonomous cars exist (usually from reading reports about them crashing), it felt so wild that you could just hop into one.
Wtf is a Waymo?
Waymo is AI gone mad (to me - a clueless European). But driverless taxis are a common sight in some US cities. Owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, Waymo has been offering robotaxi services using powerful software (or witchcraft?) since 2020.
As well as LA, it operates in San Francisco, Phoenix and Austin with around 250,000 paid rides a week. Even though the market is growing, the general population is still a little wary of getting inside robotaxis. The company (along with other firms like Zoox and Tesla) is trying to win passengers’ trust.
That’s evident in its appearance. Inside, there’s a touch screen where you can pick music and change the temperature. (At one point, I put on Disney tunes so I could calm myself with the comforting sounds of The Little Mermaid). A soothing woman’s voice updates you on the journey as you’re settling in and when you’re leaving.
On the outside, Waymos have sensors on top that make them look like pimped up police cars.
Why take a robotaxi?
After a series of events, we were navigating LA without a car. I had been solo- exploring using the surprisingly cheap public transport system which works (most of the time). Ubers and Lyfts (with a human driver) are quicker but pricey. Waymo is the in-between option. It was about 20 dollars for the ride, while an Uber would have cost upwards of 45 dollars. You can see why people are tempted.
As the Waymo carried us from Downtown LA to West Hollywood – a 40-ish minute journey – I kept thinking: humans are unpredictable. Perhaps it would be fine if every car on the road was a robot. But humans are gonna human. “What if a kid walks out onto the road!” I said. “What if this car in front just stops for no reason!”
But the thing is – and I’m a little hesitant to say this – the Waymo did a good job. The ride was very smooth and it seemed to be in control of things.
The video below shows how wild it is. This Instagram reel also captures it well! I obviously did not take any photos because I was terrified.
We still want humans right? Right?
Technology has been and is changing everything. The way we work and live, our habits, our social lives. I’m not an expert on AI but I have been shocked by its explosion in recent years. The rise of AI assistants, for example, that can write emails, organise your work or design guides, presentations and posters with a simple instruction. I can see how some people become reliant on it if they have the means to pay for it.
Elsewhere in LA, we saw a lot of food delivery robots. Some of them had eyes and a smiley face to make them appear cute. They didn’t seem that bright though, often getting stuck behind hurdles like parking metres.
I have no idea how everything is going to pan out when it comes to AI and techy stuff. I guess we’ll see in the long-run which things catch on, and how they are regulated. I’m not sure that Germany – a land that is famously still quite fond of fax machines – will be rushing to replace everyone’s jobs with AI. But could we see robotaxis here? Perhaps.
From the safety of being far away from the Waymo ride, I am starting to think: wow, that was actually a fascinating experience and absolutely not like a 1990’s sci-fi thriller. It reminded me more of the film Her, where Joaquin Phoenix’s character falls in love with an operating system (the raspy AI voice played by Scarlett Johansson). Slightly creepy, oddly intimate.
Am I in favour of ghost drivers? Not exactly. But maybe MAYBE I don’t need to be so dramatic next time. If there’s a next time.
Where to go for Kaffee+Kuchen
📍Cafe Uebereck, Sonntagstrasse 31, 10245 Berlin
Even though the coffee does tend to be really good at hipster-y cafes in Berlin (is anyone using the word hipster anymore? I don’t know), sometimes it’s good to try different spots.
So I was happy to visit Cafe Uebereck, a family-friendly brunch spot in Friedrichshain recommended by my friend Sarah. It’s a short walk from Ostkreuz station, and the handy Ringbahn. I tried a cortado for the first time and it gave me just the kick I needed on a Monday morning.
Some reviews online say the service isn’t great. Unfortunately, that’s just Berlin! It’s unusual for anyone to give a sh*t about you. If you get your food/drinks in a reasonable amount of time, that’s a result. Happy Kaffee-ing, pals 🤎
And finally…
I am excited to be taking part in ReflektorTV’s free weekend workshop in Berlin on May 17th and 18th.
The workshop is all about telling stories from your neighbourhood, with a mix of practical advice and interactive sessions. I’ll be chatting about community journalism and sharing tips on how to make connections, and conduct interviews.
The event is an official project of the 48 Stunden (48 hours) Neukölln arts festival. You can find all the details and where to register for the weekend workshop here.
Thank you so much for reading!
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***I recently noticed that there’s an option to listen to posts on the Substack app without me having to record a voiceover. To find the feature, open the Substack app, go to the post you want to read/listen to, and look for the little play button at the top. Thanks!
Great read! I feel like robotaxis have a larger hurdle to overcome than food delivery bots in Germany. Both will take jobs away but I’d imagine the analytics recorded in a car violates GDPR in more ways than one.