November 7, 2025
One thing we did in San Francisco was try a driverless robotaxi. In this case, the Google offering called Waymo:
They went to Jaguar, a company that has just about destroyed itself by going woke with its new models (production is currently shut down) and bought a bunch of these.
You get tired of hearing it but, if you are a company, when it comes to hot button issues…
Anyway, it’s something of a surreal experience. You have an app; you call the car and its’ charged to your card. It arrives with your initials on the top sensor, so you know it’s yours. Press a button on your phone and the car unlocks and you get it. When you’re ready to go, hit the start button on the car and off you go. When you arrive, you pull the door handle twice to open and get out. Done.
In order of worst to best:
Bicycle jitney guys are notorious for ripping off tourists (we never take them)
Taxi cabs (guy tried us on for $40 on a ride that should have been $20)
Uber (or, Lyft)
Waymo (or robotaxis like Zoox which is Amazon’s offering)
The trip in the robo was efficient, at the lowest cost ($10 typically vs $14-$15 Uber). You didn’t have to deal with the driver, instead you dealt with your own trepidation and fears. Fair trade off. You can change channels on the music in the car, change the temperature and so forth. Of course, very weird feeling watching the car move around without a driver, but you do have a button to call the people who man some kind of service desk if you get into a situation. So, there is help.
We took Waymo four times. We are instant fans.
For many years, I would ask our AI consultants about self-driving cars and for years, the answer was the same…they personally would not get into one because they believed the technology couldn’t recognize the tail risk situations, the one in 100,000 oddities that you run into and that the car would flounder on and maim/kill the passengers in the process. It would appear that these problems have been solved or greatly solved. So, there’s that.
Michael and I chatted about the experience and the implications. Given that she was in automotive advertising she had a professionals’ point of view which was helpful. We came to the following conclusions.
First, like things AI, this is a job killer. I’ll bet in five years the Uber we know and the taxis we know will be gone, at least in the big cities and big highways. Uber will be robotaxied if they even exist, taxis will be no longer. You’ll probably have human-driven limos because of the personal touches, but that may be it.
Second, this will liberate the elderly. Once you can’t drive your own car, you eventually will no doubt be able to buy a robo and have it drive you to the store and the pharmacy. And you’ll enjoy the feeling of having a chauffeur, even if it’s a robot.
Third, once these cars are available to the public (right now, costs are prohibitive but will inevitably come down), there will be absolutely no reason to sit in your car on the I-whatever for an hour, driving to your office. You’ll be driven by the car and no doubt you will have purchased the Office Package, so you’ll have a functional work area in the back seat…voila, two hours per day of extra efficiencies.
Fourth, families might have one of these as a kind of family resource. It takes the kids to school, comes back and takes Mom to her office, comes back and drives Dad to his doctor’s appointment. Automobile dealers, take note: multi-car families will exist, but your sales figures will trend down, inevitably.
Fifth, auto insurance will undergo a radical shift. It might not even exist in its present form. If the car malfunctions, who is responsible? The owner or does the owner buy Malfunction Insurance as part of the vehicle cost.
Sixth, drunk driving? If you drink too much, you call a robo and it brings you home. What will this do to law enforcement?
Seventh, they won’t build these with gasoline engines. Just saying.
To be sure, the service isn’t perfect. Sometimes, you need to walk to a more convenient pick-up location, but we never had to walk more than, say, 150 feet. It was fine.
And then you’re left with the ‘car guys’, dinosaurs like me who will still want the experience of a stick shift or whatever but cars, as we know them, will increasingly become a hobby and not a central means of transportation.
To us, the big issue will be the employment issue. AI is a job killer and those hell bent to offer AI services are not being full throated about why they are so keen on AI development. Sam Altman at Chat CPT (via AI of course):
And this all plays into the clear tension developing in society, between have’s and have nots. Not the epicenter…the election in New York City.
As a society, we’re going to have a lot of wood to chop on this issue, and I’m not convinced it won’t be without strife and conflict and difficulties, some of which seem impossible to deal with.
Let’s face it, when you’re in a Walmart and a robot comes along to clean the floor, you don’t give it a second thought, nor do you think about the entry-level job it costs someone.
I think what we can all do is stay current on this kind of thing, in great part to help our kids and grandchildren make good choices. I don’t wish to sound harsh, but just because Beth wants to be a programmer or Tom wants to design homes, doesn’t mean the new world we’re entering will accommodate them. Maybe it will, but sure as hell these kinds of decisions now demand extra and higher levels of examination and thought, before you plunk down that tuition payment.
Meanwhile, we’re thinking that the next time guests come to visit us in Florida, the one-hour drive to the Sanford airport would be just so perfect to send out the robo. Just saying.
So, circling back, Waymo will be Way Less, jobwise, to finish the thought.
Thoughts, questions, or reflections? I’d love to hear them. You can reach me anytime at anthony@workingprofit.com
