An article in the Spectator by broadcaster Jonathan Sacerdoti, has concluded that the advent of robotaxis will eventually see the end of the traditional London black cab.
“Over the last few weeks I’ve been flying in and out of different US cities to record a series of interviews for an upcoming documentary series,” writes Sacerdoti. “The trips have been busy and quick, with each airport and business hotel blurring into the next: Miami, Dallas, Vegas, Boston.
“But Phoenix offered me an exhilarating opportunity I will never forget – to be driven in completely autonomous cars, alone, with no driver present. I have always been fascinated by robots, seeking them out years ago on trips to Japan, and putting an early autonomous vacuum cleaner on my wedding list. Machines which in my childhood were science-fiction are now part of real life.”
London-based Sacerdoti says that he tried the driverless cabs as often as as he could during his Phoenix trip, and concluded that from hereon he will always opt for a robo-taxi over a human driver when the choice arises.
“The experience was transformational. The superiority of the service was immediately apparent, and the experience sold itself to me better than any advert or PR could do,” he adds. |I wish I could take these driverless taxis every time, here in London, and just about everywhere else I go.
“If they can get Waymo to work as well on London’s old and peculiar road system as it does on the grid-based, multi-lane roads of modern American cities like Phoenix, then I will happily kiss goodbye to human-driven rides overnight. Waymo drives beautifully – smoothly, carefully, quickly – but never scarily or aggressively. It never takes its eye off the road to text, forces you to listen to music you don’t care for, or gives you the creeps. Once I’d been driven by a robot, I suddenly noticed how much worse almost every human driver was. As I continued on to other states and cities, I was disappointed every time I couldn’t get a robo-cab.”
(Picture: Olga Gonzalez)
