Driverless Cars Are Not Waymo Fun

And are sometimes like a bad, existential play.

Drive-by shot of a Waymo when they were still surprising

You know that travel anxiety dream where your attempts to get to the airport keep getting thwarted? That dream became a reality for Mike Johns, a techie who got into a driverless car and wound up in a seemingly endless loop at the airport. The car went in circles, and he couldn’t get out, almost causing him to miss his flight.

These cars may not be in your town — yet. But as of March 2025, you can order one in the San Francisco Bay Area, LosAngeles, Phoenix, and Austin. At first, in the early part of this decade, spotting them on the city streets was bizarre. Every time my husband and I saw a Waymo, the white, camera-outfitted Jaguar run by Google, we’d hit the other’s arm. “Look! No driver! Amazing!” How did it pull over to pick up a passenger so perfectly? The future had come to LA.

But soon, we stopped noticing. No longer a marvel, just another type of car passing: the future quickly becoming the present.

One holiday season eve, prompted by curiosity, and not wanting to worry about driving if we decided to drink at a gathering, my husband and I ordered a Waymo. Click below to see a very short video of the ride.

Click to see a 10-second vid of the ride!

Driverless cars might work for you if you like not having to make conversation with a driver. For those who are sensitive to chemical smells, there is no smoke or cologne, or for that matter, body odor, to deal with. There’s no music that offends your taste. If you feel too hot or cold, you can tell the car to adjust the temperature.

I suppose there are other advantages. Sometimes taxi services can be dangerous. We’ve heard several stories of Jewish Angelenos who were refused rides or, much worse, taken in the opposite direction by angry Uber drivers.

But of course, there is a downside. The car’s temperature may have been warm, but the experience was very cold. It’s scary not to have anyone accountable. Not just scary. Mike Johns, the man who got trapped in his Waymo, had his own take.

“Where is the empathy? Where is the human connection?” Johns asked, after reaching out to a customer service (bot? human?) for help and not getting anywhere.

I’m not exactly sure why we need driverless cars.

Are tasks other than driving really so important that we need to spend time in the car doing something else? Is it just another way for tech companies to get us on our phones, buying stuff?

I wasn’t inspired to use Waymo again. To me, it was a one-time adventure. And they’re pricey.

Johns made a final conclusion about his experience. Not driverless: “Humanless.”