How a ride in a friendly Waymo saw me fall for robotaxis

I took my first ride in a Waymo robotaxi last month, and now I’m obsessed. I have taken five autonomous car rides since, and even convinced two reluctant friends to do it too. Here’s how I went from a hater to a cautious friend of robot cars in five weeks.

Waymo’s parent company Alphabet – which also owns Google – recently launched a pilot programme in San Francisco. When I was ready to hail one, I simply downloaded an app that closely resembles a rideshare app and pushed the call button. Within minutes, a white Jaguar…