Disability and Progress-June 12, 2025-Waymo!

[00:00:00] Speaker A: KPI. [00:00:32] Speaker B: It. This is KFAI 90.3 FM, Minneapolis, and kfai.org Greetings and thank you for joining Disability and Progress, where we bring you insights into ideas about and discussions on disability topics. My name is Sam. I'm the host of this show. Charlene Dahl is my PR person and Erin is my podcaster. Thanks for tuning in. If you want to email me, you can email me at Disability and [email protected] we are speaking with Amanda Ventura. Amanda is on the Waymo public affairs team and works closely with the Disability advocacy partners. This week, we're speaking about Waymo. Thank you for joining me, Amanda. [00:01:46] Speaker A: Thanks so much for having me. [00:01:51] Speaker B: I want to start out by asking, what is Waymo and how is it different from, like, Uber and Lyft? [00:01:59] Speaker A: Great question. So Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company with a mission to make it safe and easy for people to get where they're going. We are building technology that allows a vehicle to get from point A to point B without any kind of human driving, human driver interaction. So what that means is that someone can hail our car via an app, the Waymo app in some of our cities or the Uber app in Austin, and get into a vehicle that is completely empty and get where they're going without ever needing a driver's license. They can fall asleep in the backseat. The idea is that, you know, it's. [00:02:39] Speaker B: It's your text. [00:02:42] Speaker A: Exactly. Yeah. You can text, you can sing your heart out. We don't judge. The idea is that it's a completely customized personal ride experience. [00:02:53] Speaker B: So how do the autonomous vehicles ensure their accessibility with people with different disabilities? [00:03:02] Speaker A: Of course, it's really important to us that we're building a technology that can enable a diverse group of writers to enjoy this tech. I mean, this is game changing, right, for millions of people who can't drive themselves or don't want to drive or shouldn't be driving because they went out and had a really good time in town. So it's really important to us that we're engaging early and often with accessibility partners. For example, on the national side, we work with National Federation of the Blind, American Council of the Blind, we work with the Blinded Veterans association and many, many other organizations within the physical cognitive disability space. And they help advise us on different features that we're developing. And we also will bring features that we're working on to them for, you know, their expertise. And one of the ways we do that is with our Waymo accessibility Network. And then another way that we do that is just by, you know, engaging with them in their community, in different cities where we're operating. So, you know, there's nothing, there's no replacement for people actually experiencing this technology in their own communities and giving us real time feedback. [00:04:21] Speaker B: Let's take a step into the actual Waymo vehicle. I want to talk about what a Waymo car might look like and how many people can one car transport? So give me like a layout of the car. [00:04:36] Speaker A: Yeah. So the Waymo vehicle does not look like a typical vehicle. Our base platform is a Jaguar I Pace, which is an electric vehicle. It is kind of like a white sedan luxury vehicle. And it has a lot of hardware on the outside. So we have multiple spinning sensors that are called LIDAR and that helps us with 3D view of the world around us. And then we also have cameras on the outside of our vehicle that gives us overlapping field of view in really high resolution. And then we also have a sensor called radar. I'm sure everyone's heard of radar before. And that helps with perception around our vehicles and figuring out how quickly objects are moving around us. And so all of these different hardware pieces that are on our vehicle help us get a 360 degree view around the vehicle up to three football fields away, full daylight, full darkness. So there's really strong perception sensors on the vehicle. It does give it kind of a unique look and unique sound. A lot of people kind of describe our vehicle looking like it has a little top hat on it because the lidar and the cameras and the radar system on top of the vehicle makes it look very fancy. And then, you know, when you get into the vehicle, it's, you know, I would say it kind of will feel like a regular vehicle. You're always going to be in the passenger seat. So you're either in the front passenger seat or the back seats. That means it can fit about four people comfortably. And we also have trunk space. So, you know, anyone who goes grocery shopping or just wants to throw some stuff in the back, we do have the trunk available. And all of this is accessed through the app as well. So we have a screen reader compatible app. And you would use buttons within the app to open the trunk, to unlock the vehicle, to make the vehicle go, to change the music, and to contact 24. 7 rider support. So the in car experience is pretty rich. [00:06:46] Speaker B: Does it actually have a steering wheel? [00:06:50] Speaker A: It does, yes. So right now our vehicles do have steering wheels and pedals. That is for a couple different reasons. You know, the regulatory environment being one, if we're going to go over a certain speed, we have to still have a steering wheel and pedals in the car. But that's something that, you know, the riders never engage with. And we do have little signs inside the car too, that say, like, hey, you don't have to touch the steering wheel. You know, we got this. [00:07:17] Speaker B: What happens if someone does? You know, you're going to get that. [00:07:21] Speaker A: Yeah, of course. I mean, who doesn't want to kind of put the new tech through its paces, right? The car will, depending on, you know, the level of engagement that someone tries to make, the car will pull over or someone from rider support will call into the car and just check in and say, like, hey, is everything okay? You. We have a pullover function as well. So someone, if someone wanted to, you know, end their ride early, they can also press that button. And so, you know, there's a variety of reasons that rider support might, might call in, but that would be one. Just to check in, make sure everything's okay. [00:08:00] Speaker B: Does Waymo, is that an acronym for something? [00:08:04] Speaker A: So Waymo is. It stands for a new way forward in mobility. So we got kind of cute there. And that's really what we're trying to do, is build that future where it is a new way forward in mobility for millions of people. [00:08:22] Speaker B: You talked about the Waymo app and that it works obviously on, I would presume, iPhone and Android blind shell. Are you familiar with that phone? Does it work on that? Does it work on any other phones? [00:08:38] Speaker A: That's a good question. The only apps that I'm aware Of are the iOS and Android apps. [00:08:45] Speaker B: All right, so I'm wondering about wheelchairs. Are there waymos that are equipped to handle wheelchair passengers? And if so, how do they do it? [00:09:00] Speaker A: So our current vehicle platform, which is the Jaguar I Pace, is not wheelchair accessible. What we do in cities where we have a public ride hailing service is partner with organizations that have wheelchair accessible vehicles within their fleet so that people can still hail a wheelchair accessible vehicle on demand via the Waymo app or in Austin via the Uber app. [00:09:24] Speaker B: Okay, so now there are partnerships that obviously then it sounds like organizations that you work to improve the accessibility of everything and to have that service. So I'm curious, and I'm sure you're familiar with, if you have to partner and you do partner with Uber, there's been a large thing about service animals and one of the things I think that people who are visually impaired and don't know really like that thought is that they can finally have the freedom to take their service animal with them and not worry about being denied or left or whatever other excuse that's made up. [00:10:15] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh, this is, this is near and dear to my, to my heart. Yes. There's no negotiation, you know, when you're hailing a ride and have a service animal and using Waymo. So we do allow service animals and many of the partners that I work with across multiple cities and even nationally who use service animals, they, they do love that feature. And actually my friend Ron and his dog York, his dog York rides so much with Waymo that when he sees a Waymo in a parking lot, he's like, that's our car. [00:10:51] Speaker B: So, so, but I wonder though, because if you pair with a partner that is, and I'm going to call Uber out, because I do know the notorious. It's happened so many times, there's infinite amount of lawsuits that if you're in a wheelchair and you have a visual impairment and a service animal with Uber can be a problem. So what does Waymo do to try to circumvent that? [00:11:19] Speaker A: Sure. So we, on the wheelchair accessibility side, you know, we do partner with different entities to provide wheelchair accessible vehicles on demand. And so in that regard, you know, we have our own service agreements with them that allow for our riders to use those vehicles on demand. I can't speak on behalf of any other ride hailing service, but I can say that for Waymo, accessibility is one of the biggest driving forces for us. It's safety, accessibility and sustainability. And so we want our service to be as accessible as it can be. And that's always going to be a priority for us. So I think we're trying to, like, bring that narrative to the forefront. We want to lift up voices from our partners who have guide dogs, who have service animals and, and tell that story, tell that story of how they have been denied service in the past and that this is something that, you know, we're hoping to change by, you know, just bringing those stories and awareness up front. And I think, I think that that's just one of many, many accessibility advantages that people have talked about Waymo offering them. [00:12:49] Speaker B: Let's talk about handling payment. How is payment handled in regards to Waymo? And I'm just curious, are users expected to tip? [00:13:04] Speaker A: I joke that a tip is a five star review, but there's no tipping because there's no human driver in terms of payment. So it's very similar to other ride hailing apps in that you would have a form of payment already associated with your user account in the app. And that would be the form of payment that's charged every time you ride. The price for your, your ride will be shared with you at the beginning, like when you hail your initial ride. And if you decide to change your destination or add additional stops in the middle of the your ride, which you can do in real time, it'll just give you that updated estimate on price. And so that's, that's how the cost works out. And yes, no tipping. [00:13:48] Speaker B: If the ride, if the user feels like the ride is too expensive when they first hail, is there a thing they can do that they can like get an estimate? Like, if I wanted to go from here to here, how much would it be before they go through the trouble of hailing it? Or can they cancel without any penalty? Penalty. Then if they do hail it and figure out, oh, this is more than I can do. [00:14:13] Speaker A: Great question. And the estimate is provided before you hail the ride and so there's no surprises once you gotcha. Although like I said, if you do adjust the, adjust the ride halfway through, like, hey, I actually want to stop at the bank before I go home. The, the new cost will be also shared. [00:14:36] Speaker B: So if a person wants an inter, you know, in between stop, let's say that that's a great example. Well, I am going from my friend's house to here, but I actually need to pick up my meds or stop and get some money out. Oh, that seems like such a bizarre concept now, more and more but. So let's say they stop at the bank for something. How long will the waymo wait? Can they instruct it to wait? How does that work? [00:15:07] Speaker A: So another really good question. It's not going to necessarily wait in between hails. So we always recommend that if you're going to do multiple stops, that you do take all of your belongings with you because the car might get matched with someone else while you're in, let's say the pharmacy and you come out. [00:15:27] Speaker B: And your car's gone. [00:15:29] Speaker A: Exactly. And so we do have a feature where you can say, I'm ready. It's a little button in the app that says I'm ready. And that just means it's going to hail the next nearest and most easy, like quickest available vehicle near you to pick you up. And then it'll give you that estimate too to say, hey, it might be five minutes, you know, until the next car comes. [00:15:47] Speaker B: I am curious to know. I guess you did talk briefly about the customer service that could be available. So the human side of it, if there's a problem how does it the writer like get that human person to pick up or, or answer if they. If need be. And is this a 247 thing then? [00:16:14] Speaker A: Yeah. So our writer support team is available 247 because our service is also 247 and you can call them via the app. There's a contact writer support or a help button within the app and they will come on via the in car audio system which, you know, for ease, you know, will kind of help give guidance and give additional like audio cues during the ride anyway. But writer support can come on on demand. And then we also, for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, we also have a texting option so that they can communicate with someone. [00:16:59] Speaker B: Okay. So I'd like to circle back to the service animal. Obviously I am one of these people that have had experiences with denials, but I also totally respect that some people don't always do right by their service animal. So are there restrictions in regards to service animals in Waymo and if so, let me know what they are. [00:17:27] Speaker A: Sure. So service animals are allowed to ride with their human companion anytime? I think in some states, like, you know, there's even allowance for service animals that are mini horses. And I don't know how someone would get a mini horse. [00:17:47] Speaker B: I don't know either. [00:17:50] Speaker A: But I would. You know, I think that's, that's one of the, the big things for us is that, you know, service animals are allowed to ride with us and we don't have restrictions that I'm aware of. Okay, if you have a more specific question. [00:18:07] Speaker B: Well, I just would like. I'm, you know, I don't know if there's any clear cut rules in my feeling. Some people put their animals on the seat. I, I know the ADA states that you're supposed to have four on the floor. I know sometimes people can not care for their animals. Well, and so just as long I don't. I think I. For what I understand it's pretty clear cut that you're just trying to get that whole service animal thing to kind of be. It's good to take your service animal and it's clear that we don't want to deny and clear cut for people. [00:18:49] Speaker A: Okay, yes, I understand. Now most of the guide dogs that I've seen riding do have the four on the floor. You know, they follow that they sit in the footwell either if someone's sitting in the front seat, which isn't usually common with someone who has a guide dog, they sit in the footwell or in the back seat. They might Sit in the footwell that's next to the feet of their handler. So that's what I've usually seen. Service animals come in all shapes and sizes. [00:19:22] Speaker B: How safe is Waymo compared to human drivers in their vehicles? Talk a little bit about what that record is for that. [00:19:33] Speaker A: Of course, we're really proud of our safety record and our transparency around safety at Waymo. Our data to date shows that the Waymo driver is significantly safer than human drivers. So, you know, some of our most recent research that we've [email protected] safety includes a comparative study between the average human driver and the Waymo driver, which is what we call our technology. And we found that the Waymo driver has 83% fewer airbag deployment crashes and 81% fewer injury causing crashes. Our cars are obviously designed to handle any situation with safety in mind. And the potential that these early numbers are showing to like reduce serious and fatal crashes is something that I'm really excited about and proud of because, you know, we're losing around 40,000 people every single year on our roadways to traffic crashes. And about half of those are pedestrians and vulnerable road users. So people outside of vehicles and a lot of these crashes are preventable from the perspective of reducing human choice and error. [00:20:53] Speaker B: Right, right. Well, I have to tell you, I'm very jealous of some of these places that have Waymo. So I would like for you to go through what cities that currently Waymo is in that services. Waymo services, sorry. And where you're planning to go next, of course. [00:21:15] Speaker A: So I don't have any news for your neck of the woods, but at the moment Waymo is currently in three different states. So we drive 24, seven in metro Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles and in Austin, where we are available on the Uber app. Our next cities will be Atlanta and then we have also announced that we will, you know, one day be launching in D.C. and Miami. [00:21:49] Speaker B: That's so wrong. I feel discriminated against. You're not liking the snow, I wonder, like, so when you decide to expand, how do you decide what city that you're going to expand to? [00:22:10] Speaker A: So initially when we first started driving, weather was one of the more complicated things for the technology to navigate. And so it's, you know, not surprising that we expanded initially in a place like Phoenix, Arizona. [00:22:23] Speaker B: Right. [00:22:25] Speaker A: The streets are wide and fast and, you know, well maintained. And so just like how anyone, you know, when they're first learning how to drive, they go to, you know, a place like that where there aren't a lot of Additional, you know, complications maybe to kind of early driving learnings. And then, you know, we also, at the same time, we're learning how to drive in San Francisco, which is a really complicated. Yeah, that is complicated environment. And so the learnings that we have taken from, you know, our initial cities have made it, you know, has really paved the way for us to expand to more complex, complex urban environments. And so, yeah, you know, when we're thinking about expanding now, it's, you know, what are some of the new things that we could be learning? Like, for example, in Miami, there's a lot of rain and interesting weather. In Washington, bc, you know, similarly, it's, you know, complicated urban environment. And so, you know, that's going to be something that the weather is not as much of a consideration as it was kind of in those early days. So you're going to see us expanding more, you know, complicated service areas and then snow, just to give you a little bit of hope here is, you know, something that we're always thinking about, too. So we've tested in places like Buffalo, New York, and, you know, Michigan, and places that do have a lot of snow and weather just to start that, you know, that process and that learning process so that we can one day serve those. Those areas. [00:24:05] Speaker B: Right. Yes. Well, I'll be very anxious with that. I'm wondering, you. You. So you talked about being on the Uber app for one of the. You. But I. I'm pretty sure you have your own app. Is there a reason why you go on the Uber app as opposed to just having the Waymo app for each city? [00:24:28] Speaker A: Yeah. So right now, Austin is the only city that Waymo is exclusively on the Uber app. Atlanta will also be in partnership with Uber. And in the other cities, we do have the Waymo app itself where people can directly hail us. And it's, you know, us. As we continue to grow and expand as a company, it's us exploring other partnerships and ways that we can scale this technology for more people. [00:24:57] Speaker B: What's been the general response you've gotten back from riders? [00:25:02] Speaker A: I mean, people are excited, and I think it's not just because it's a novel, cool technology. People really are using this every day. We're doing about 250,000 rides a week, and we've already had more than 10 million paid rides in our couple of cities that we're operating in. And so people are quickly adopting this technology. I think from the accessibility community, we've seen so much positive feedback and constructive feedback, and it's changing the way that People with different disabilities think about mobility and what kind of. What opportunities they can pursue because mobility is now a little bit more convenient. You know, I have another friend named Jordan who he and his wife are both blind and they have young children. And, you know, I was listening to him talk about how he uses Waymo and one of the ways is like taking his daughter to, you know, like practice. [00:26:09] Speaker B: Right. [00:26:09] Speaker A: And it's those kinds of things where it's like, it would have maybe been a little bit more complex or like, you know, you would have had to rely on someone else to take you sideways somewhere. And it's that little bit of independence that a lot of people who don't have that same lived experience take for granted. I'm going to talk about my friend Ron again, but he and his wife have been married for decades, and they're both blind. And they'd never been in a car alone on the way to a date before and after, you know, like decades of marriage. And it was one of those things where it was like they could go on dates now where it was just them in the car. And, you know, there's no buzzkill. [00:26:47] Speaker B: Right. [00:26:48] Speaker A: Random driver kind of in the. In the front seat. [00:26:51] Speaker B: So that eliminates so many things, you know, it that you had to be dependent on. I'm wondering how I'd like to. I apologize to my listeners that I don't have a recording, but I'd like to kind of go through how the steps that one takes. So let's say I'm going to take an A Waymo. I pull out my phone, I order a Waymo, and when it comes, I do what? How do I know where the Waymo is? [00:27:24] Speaker A: Yeah, so we do have built in wayfinding within the app. So you. There's a button that will show up once the car's reached its destination for pickup. It'll be labeled Find my car. And so it can give you step by step walking directions with haptic feedback. So it's kind of like a navigational arrow that'll say like 300ft to your left or, you know, 300ft ahead and kind of help guide you to find the vehicle itself. We also have an auditory wayfinding option where you can choose to honk the vehicle's horn or play a melody to help find the vehicle. So those are some of the wayfinding options. And then when you finally do reach your vehicle, you'll have to unlock it with a button inside the app that says Unlock car or Unlock vehicle. And the door handles are actually flush against the sides of the car until you do that. And then they'll pop out so that you can get into the vehicle. It's a really cool built in safety feature. [00:28:28] Speaker B: Wow. So will they pull up in your driveway or park on the street or what do they usually do? [00:28:36] Speaker A: Sure, they will drive where we've already mapped. So we haven't mapped people's driveways, but we can pull up on the street. And so there are a couple ways to change the pickup and drop off destinations within the app. We have a couple like suggested, you know, pick up and drop off spots, especially for like big events or you know, larger venues like a shopping center where you can say like, I actually want to go to the AMC versus, you know, the Sears or something. And then the. You can also kind of adjust that too. Like if the car decides to drop you off at a location, you can kind of add that additional stop to get the car to, to go to another location without getting out as well. So that's another option for changing the, the drop off itself. So say you're picking up your friend. [00:29:29] Speaker B: For example, and when you pay, do you pay at the beginning? Do you pay before you get out? How does that. [00:29:37] Speaker A: Yeah, so you would. When you click Hail ride within the app or you know, hail car. [00:29:44] Speaker B: You. [00:29:44] Speaker A: Will be agreeing to the fare at the start of the ride. If you cancel the ride, for example, when it's like already on its way, there might be a small cancellation fee, but you agree to that, that initial fare and I believe it'll be charged afterwards. Just because if you decide to change the ride at any point, you know, that would affect the final price. [00:30:09] Speaker B: I'm wondering how Waymo handles like these outdoor malls. So let's say I want to go somewhere where there's 20 different stores and an address. Usually I think there's usually a suite number or something on the stores. How does it handle where it's going to drop you and how do you know where it's dropped you? [00:30:28] Speaker A: So that might take a little bit of finessing. You know, if it's a really complicated location, you might need to type in like the store name specifically like Target, you know, so that the car would know like, okay, this is, you know, where the Target is at the shopping center. There's also like an ability to drag and drop a pin. But that's, you know, I think not, not necessarily like an accessibility feature. That's just like an in map kind of adjustment that you can make. The. I think the recommendation I usually make for people is like try to get as specific as you can. So don't just enter like a mall name, but try to enter the specific store or like something that you know is on the side of the mall that you want to go to. [00:31:19] Speaker B: Amanda, I know that you have been hearing, I'm sure, all sorts of stuff on privacy and data privacy and the list goes on. How does Waymo ensure customers, both data and location privacy? [00:31:42] Speaker A: So we do have our full privacy statement on our website. So I would recommend anyone with privacy questions can go to the website and learn more there. In terms of, you know, what we have for quality control within the vehicle, we do have a camera inside the vehicle. Audio is never turned on when we have, you know, riders inside the vehicle, unless rider support is engaging with the riders and riders will be given a cue to say, hey, rider support is going to be calling into the car. And then, you know, I think it's, I would say like, you know, for people who like really want to go deep in that, to go check out the privacy statement on our website. [00:32:33] Speaker B: I'd like to talk a little bit about cost of ride. Are they equal to Uber? Are they equal to regular cab? Are they more. How does that work? [00:32:45] Speaker A: Yeah, so I would say that we tend to be similar, sometimes lower priced than other like ride hailing services or competitively priced. And then we do have some dynamic pricing, for example, you know, during busy, busy times when a lot of people tend to be using ride hailing, you know, a big concert or rush hour. But I would say one of the biggest long term savings is the no tipping component. That that can definitely add up over time. [00:33:21] Speaker B: I know, I'll give an example. In the Twin Cities where I am, we have a transit option called Metro Mobility. Metro Mobility is a ride share program and they work with a cab company called T plus. And so you can actually make the same type of rides similar, you know, as you need them. And Metro will cover a partial part of the ride, giving the user the ability to do that kind of thing with a discount. So does Waymo work with any of those services to do something like that or would they ever consider in the future doing that? [00:34:07] Speaker A: Definitely looked at that kind of thing before in Metro Phoenix, we worked with Valley Metro, which is kind of our transit authority in Phoenix, to do a subsidized ride research program where we were offering access to our rides for about $5, which is the same that people would pay for a dial a ride. [00:34:27] Speaker B: Right, right. [00:34:29] Speaker A: And that was about a six month research project and the feedback was pretty incredible. And so I think, you know, we're looking at those kinds of research opportunities and pilot opportunities so that we can, you know, eventually, you know, partner with entities to provide, you know, discounted rides in places like San Francisco and Los Angeles. We've also done a transit hub credit program where we provide $3 back to people who use Waymo to get to or from, like, a bus station or, you know, another public transit station. And so, you know, we're looking at kind of some of those opportunities to integrate Waymo into existing transit options so that we can kind of just help fill the gaps instead of, you know, replacing the entire ride. [00:35:22] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I mean, that, I think, is part of the problem with some of the dynamic pricing, as you call it, right? That Uber can do that. And often, and I have seen just astronomically incredibly expensive ride offers where I, like, I'm not gonna take that. I can't afford to. Where I'll always go to my discount cab and can do pretty much the same thing with a good discounted ride and a good driver and somebody I can call into and talk to if there's a problem. That's another. Another issue that sometimes happens. I'm wondering, in regards to, let's say, is there ever a case where a Waymo doesn't show up and what does that person do then? [00:36:14] Speaker A: So now that I've heard of, if a Waymo ride gets canceled for any reason, someone would be notified. I think that, you know, you have about, depending on the time of day and where the pickup is. If the pickup's in a really busy spot, this would change. You have about six minutes to get to the vehicle once it's arrived at its destination to pick you up, so. Or at the pickup location. And so the car will depart after, you know, that that time expires. But there is a countdown timer within the app to kind of help someone understand, you know, how much time they have to board in faster, like more busier areas. Think like a busy street, for example. The car would wait for maybe a shorter amount of time, but that will all be communicated via the app with the rider too, to help them understand. But the car, it wouldn't be that the car isn't showing up. It would be that maybe the car, you know, the time to board expired. [00:37:16] Speaker B: Ah, okay. What happens in regards to safety? I'm thinking that how does the person assure that there is no one else in the car or that somebody hasn't left a mess in the car of whatever kind? How do you ensure that cleanliness and Safety for the next passenger. [00:37:41] Speaker A: Yeah, that's something that the in car cameras can help with. So, you know, in between rides we do have like quick spot checks just to make sure that there's, you know, nothing that seems to be left behind. If someone doesn't get out of the car, for example, like rider support will come on and just check on them. If someone, you know, it's been like five or six minutes and like the person hasn't gotten out of the vehicle yet at the end of their ride. So we have some of those processes already built into the service. [00:38:14] Speaker B: So is the camera always watching then? So somebody sees when the rides ended and they can make sure all is good. [00:38:24] Speaker A: So the cameras are always on, but we don't have someone constantly, you know, observing every ride. That just doesn't make sense to, you know, from a business perspective either to have like one person assigned to every single car. And it's, it's more of a, it's more of a safety feature for the riders in that, you know, if someone doesn't open the door after their car has reached the drop off location, for example, the car isn't going to take off and take them to the next spot. It's going to stay put and check in on whoever's in the backseat just to make sure they're okay or help them, you know, navigate to their next destination or help them, you know, get out of the vehicle if they, you know, in terms of like helping them decide to get out of the vehicle. [00:39:06] Speaker B: Right. [00:39:07] Speaker A: Or if they need assistance, like we could, you know, call authorities if needed, that of thing. [00:39:13] Speaker B: How is Waymo funded? [00:39:16] Speaker A: Yeah, so we're currently private, we are under the Alphabet umbrella. So you know, when we started back in 2009, we were the Google self driving car project. And then in 2016 we spun off and became Waymo. So we're still under Alphabet. Google's kind of like a sister company and we have private investors at the moment. [00:39:39] Speaker B: Okay, well this I'm sure is a very interesting time for you. [00:39:45] Speaker A: It's so exciting. [00:39:47] Speaker B: I, I'm wondering what are some of the things that Waymo has difficulty doing? [00:39:55] Speaker A: Yeah, good question. I think, you know, one of the things we've already talked about, which is the weather testing, you know, driving in like extreme weather is always at this point like one of the difficult, like technological hurdles that we're working through. And then I think, you know, one of the other things that we're always thinking about is that the regulatory environment. So that's not necessarily a technical thing. But you know, in order for us to expand into more cities and more states, we need, you know, to be able to actually drive and, you know, bring vehicles without human drivers into those states. So that's something else that we're kind of thinking about as we grow and expand, you know, which states are kind of opening their, opening their streets to bringing us, bringing us to the cities. [00:40:52] Speaker B: So now most of your vehicles must have no drivers, but is there a percentage that has a human driver in it? [00:41:00] Speaker A: So none that are going to serve riders. We do manually drive our vehicles for mapping or validation missions. So things that you know, will help us expand a service area or map like a new service area, we'll have human drivers in there for the beginning stages of that. [00:41:18] Speaker B: Are any of the cars, are they hybrids or is it just regular sedans that all electric? [00:41:25] Speaker A: So that's, you know, a big part of our, our future mission too is, you know, giving access to electric vehicles to, you know, people who maybe can't afford them or don't want to deal with that, you know, everything that goes with owning a vehicle or an electric vehicle. And we actually, we have cool stats on this too. Every single week we're preventing about 315 tons of CO2 emissions. And that's, you know, just with 250,000 rides a week. So pretty excited to see that number growing. [00:42:05] Speaker B: I do want to talk about just something that probably is a little more difficult and I'm sure that, I mean, accidents happen, right? I mean, it's just the layout of, I guess I feel like when everything is done by autonomous vehicles, that's when probably the accidents will pretty much stop. But until you have a complex mixture of, I mean, while you have the complex mixture of people versus autonomous vehicles, there will also be, always be some of that. So how is that handled? When there is an accident of that kind, what happens with the coverage of the person inside of the vehicle and what happens to you guys? [00:42:51] Speaker A: Yeah, so there are, you know, instances where there's been a crash where someone has like rear ended us, for example, at a stoplight. And in those types of instances, our rider support team will come on and speak to any riders that we currently have in the vehicle just to make sure they're okay and advise them on, you know, what to do next. We train tens of thousands of law enforcement officers on how to engage with our vehicles. And we currently have a, like a QR code on each of our vehicles so that if there is, you know, an instance where there's a contact event, law enforcement or the person even in the other vehicle could scan that and do an exchange of insurance information. And then, of course, the person riding in the vehicle, Waymo, is the driver in that kind of instance. So for thinking about, you know, what the. What this means for the person inside the vehicle, it would be Waymo exchanging information with anyone else. So not the person inside the vehicle. [00:43:57] Speaker B: Gotcha. [00:43:58] Speaker A: Who's riding with us. [00:44:00] Speaker B: You talked a little bit about. Well, I want to step back there. Do you see anything's changing with, like, insurance and things like that as far as. Do you think this will be how it is that it's handled with Waymo then? And I presume anybody who needs anything looked at can just go to the hospital and it will be covered. [00:44:24] Speaker A: I wish I could answer that for you. I'm definitely not the right person to get that. [00:44:27] Speaker B: All right, just checking then. You talked a little bit about Waymo being a little weather sensitive. So how bad can the weather get? And then Waymo stop working or you decide you're going to suspend the rides out of safety for all. [00:44:48] Speaker A: Yeah. So we can drive everywhere that we're currently operating in all the weather that it throws at us. So I live in Phoenix, and we have something called a haboob, which is basically a giant wall of sand and dust that will just like sweep over a city. And I was going home from an Arizona State football game last season, and it was a haboob and a thunderstorm all at once. And I was using the Waymo to get home. And I have to say, it was pretty incredible. Like, a lot of human drivers would be really uncomfortable in those kinds of driving conditions. And the Waymo handled it beautifully. [00:45:29] Speaker B: Wow. [00:45:30] Speaker A: And so it's. It's those kinds of instances where I'm really proud of how far, you know, the tech has come since I first started riding. And we can also drive in things like, you know, fog in places like San Francisco that, you know, commonly have dense fog. [00:45:47] Speaker B: What are the most difficult situations for Waymo to learn to drive in? Is it snow? Is it bridges? Is it. What. What would that be? [00:45:59] Speaker A: I mean, yeah, our roads are really complex. And, you know, Waymo is an incredible adaptive driver. I think, you know, just from the technical capabilities. We've talked about snow before. I think that it's. It's a driver that's always learning, and that's why we're taking it to so many new environments so that it can learn different idiosyncrasies. One of the, you know, kind of simple but fun example is when we first started driving in Austin. We noticed that all of the stoplights were horizontal, whereas in all the other cities where we had been driving, they were vertical. So it's just learning, like those. Those kinds of new things that are different to a different city. Like, those are all things that, you know, the Waymo driver has to learn how to drive, drive with. [00:46:50] Speaker B: And what kind of training does the staff go through when they're dealing, you know, the customer service staff? [00:46:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I can't speak specifically on that, but I do know that it's, you know, they're trained on a lot of typical situations, crisis situations. We've done some disability training with some of our writer team. It's. I would say, you know, something again, where we're. We're constantly learning on. But our team's pretty incredible. They've. They've done a lot of. They've done, what, 250,000 rides a week? Over 10 million paid rides. Like, they've. They've, you know, helped with a lot of different situations in that. In that experience. [00:47:39] Speaker B: How can people with disabilities get involved? Let's say they want to help test or they want to get involved and give you feedback. How can they do that? [00:47:49] Speaker A: Sure. So if they're in one of our service areas, they can apply to be a trusted tester. There's a link to do that in the app, and that would give them potentially early access to some of our beta features, so they can really help us test those out. And then, you know, even as just a public rider, we have a feedback button in our app, and that is always really, really useful. I still get feedback on a lot of my rides, you know, just because that's you. I want the driver to be the best version that it can be. And so even if you're not a member of trusted tester, I always encourage people to leave feedback on their rides. If people want to get involved from an advocacy perspective, they could go to waymo.com community and learn about some of the nonprofit organizations that we work with in the disability community, so they can find, you know, their local affiliates and just let them know, like, hey, I want to get involved with anything, you know, regarding autonomous vehicles to make sure that they can safely deploy, you know, in my. My city. [00:48:57] Speaker B: Well, I can't. I can't. I'm. I'm very anxious for you guys to come here. It will be great. When we finally do get you in here. Is there anything you'd like to leave us with, any great tidbits that we need to know about Coming up. [00:49:14] Speaker A: I mean, I would, Sam, I would love for you to ride. So if you ever find yourself in one of our cities, please, please let me know. [00:49:20] Speaker B: Oh, I will. I would love to do that. It's great. I, I, I'm envious of those who get to. And I've heard great things and I, it will just be a whole new opener when you do. And imagine that's what it's like. It's, it opens up a whole new area of riders when you get into a state. So presumably right now you're just focusing on large cities kind of opening up in those cities. No small towns yet or anything like that. So I'm, I'll be anxious to see, you know, when you guys do more expansion. But I do want to thank you for coming on. It's been great, and I think you've given my listeners a lot of information, and I really appreciate that. [00:50:12] Speaker A: Thank you so much for taking the time to chat and sharing enthusiasm in the future of transportation. I am so honored to have been on the show. [00:50:22] Speaker B: And thank you, Angelica, for helping set this up. I know I was a pesky bird for many months, so I really appreciate it, Appreciate the effort you made to get Amanda on for me. Oh, my goodness. [00:50:39] Speaker A: Not at all. It was such a lovely conversation to listen in on, and we really appreciate that. [00:50:45] Speaker B: So thank you again so much. It's been great and I really appreciate the time you spent. [00:50:49] Speaker A: Thanks, Sam. [00:50:50] Speaker B: You're tuned to KFAI 90.3 FM, Minneapolis, and KFAI.org this has been disability and Progress. The views expressed on this show are not necessarily those of KFAI or its board of directors. My name is Sam and I'm the producer of the show. Charlene Dahl is my PR research person. Erin is my podcaster. This week we've been speaking with Amanda Ventura. Amanda is the public affairs team and works closely with the disability advocacy partners with Waymo. And we were talking about Waymo. So if you have any questions, please feel free to email me at disabilityandprogressamjasmin.com where I will follow the questions, forward the questions, and get answers back for you. So tune in next week when you'll hear another new adventure. And that email also is to let me know what other things you'd like to hear on the show. Thanks for listening. [00:51:53] Speaker A: Goodbye, KPI.org.