Preparing for my first ride in a self-driving car, June 2021
It's June 5th of 2021, and I live in the Phoenix metro area, but not precisely the area that's covered by Waymo's self-driving cars, so I've begun making arrangements to make my ride happen. I will need to get myself from Glendale, Arizona to Tempe-Mesa-Chandler, which I will do the old-fashioned way. I will have a friend drive me there and back.
I downloaded the Waymo app, and I wish that I could tell you more, but it really doesn't have anything that you haven't already seen - mostly information about the technology, videos of the cars driving around, testimonials, that sort of thing. My first question was "What does it cost?" but so far I've seen nothing that answers that, so I'm assuming that it's free. I guess being a guinea pig for a new technology is payment enough for them. I'm an old techy guy, and I know how important it is to have people volunteer to help you test something with new technology. Oddly enough, I've always called these people "Crash Test Dummies". I hope it won't come to that!
My friend who lives in Chandler (and prefers to remain anonymous) tells me that he's been seeing these cars driving around his neighborhood for years, lots of them. He humors me, but is kinda puzzled as to why someone would go to all of the trouble just to go for a ride in a self-driving car. And all I can say is "because it's there!"
I've always been an early adopter to technology. My graphic design career began with desktop publishing in the 1980s, and the invention of personal computers, including PCs and Macs. And it's all the same to me, I just get a big kick out of seeing new things become part of life. I wish that I had been in Phoenix when Dr. Swetnam drove the first car in town, but that was too long ago. I wish that I could have ridden on the first elevator that was fully automated, and watched people stand back in terror as I pushed a button instead of asking the elevator operator to take me to a particular floor. That's how I see things.
This will be a fun adventure, and hopefully just a nice ride around Chandler. And when I'm old (well, older) I want to tell people that I was one of the first people to ride in a self-driving car!
I'll let you know how it goes.
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