Test Riding Waymo's Self-Driving Minivan

Potential threats lurk everywhere on the test track: there are technicians posing as distracted bicyclists and pedestrians, simulated construction areas and impatient drivers entering roundabouts out of turn. It could be as scary as a Halloween funhouse, but instead the minivan calmly avoids every hazard without drama or screeching tires. (See related story: BMW, Intel and Mobileye in a consortium to develop an autonomous vehicle for global markets.

On Waymo’s side, there has been speculation the ultimate goal of Alphabet, Google’s parent, is to turn cars into smartphones on wheels. But under Krafcik, a veteran auto executive who was CEO of Hyundai Motor America for 5 years and also did stints at Ford, TrueCar and New United Motor Mfg., Waymo is straddling the automotive and tech worlds. The company is offering up lots of juicy new self-driving software and hardware but also demonstrating it can thrive within the constraints of the automotive world, which includes 20-year product lifecycles, 10-year warranties, strict safety regulations, ferocious product-liability attorneys and customers who distrust technology.

“While this technology will be transformative, we see our role as enablers, not disrupters. That’s why we’ll continue to work with many different partners,” a company statement says.

Krafcik describes Waymo as a self-driving technology company with a mission to make it safe and easy to move people and things around. It’s a simple statement, but a tall order when you are creating vehicles that will pick up and drop off blind customers, children and 90-year-olds on busy city streets.

Dimitri Dolgov, vice president-engineering, points to Waymo’s various types of cameras, radars and lasers, all developed in-house specifically for Level 4 autonomous driving – as some of the key technologies that separate Waymo from the rest of the up-and-coming self-driving suppliers, most of whom are using a lot of off-the-shelf equipment.

Waymo says its hardware enables its cars to see significantly farther, sharper and more accurately than anything that exists on the market today. For instance, the company says its long-range Lidar can see up to 328 yards (300 m) down the road.

Thanks to Google’s eight years of development and enormous programming resources, Waymo says it also has software that is better at classifying objects, interpreting their movements, reasoning their intent and predicting what they will do in the future. These capabilities help vehicles confidently deal with complex situations and understand the social nuances of driving in traffic and nonverbal negotiation that happens during lane changes and merging. For instance, at a four-way stop or roundabout, the car will start edging forward like a human driver would to signal its intent to go.

The company also touts its massive experience in self-driving simulation, structured tests and real-world testing on public roads. “Every day, our fleet of self-driving cars drive more than 10,000 miles (16,000 km) on public roads,” the company says.

Perhaps most importantly, Waymo says it has designed a self-driving user experience that immediately builds trust between riders and technology.

“Just like in a relationship, predictability and communication are key to trust,” says Juliet Rothenberg, product manager-UX and Early Rider Program.

To do this, the in-car user interface is designed to help passengers understand what the car is doing on the road and provide an easy way for users to interact with the vehicle.

For instance, when the car is preparing to make a right turn, the car’s camera “eye” will swivel to the left to signal that the car is focused on objects coming from the left, like a human driver would.

Krafcik says one of his proudest moments at Waymo so far was when he took his 91-year-old mother for a ride in a self-driving car and she felt comfortable immediately. He says she can’t wait until her Waymo can pick her up from her retirement village to take her shopping at Kohls.

We had a similar experience in our brief minivan test ride on Waymo’s test track. We were surprised at how quickly we felt at ease. Being predictable and communicating well may not sound exciting as car features, but it apparently is great for building trust, whether you are talking about humans or machines.

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