WAYMO! Driverless Cars????
An unusual subject for my August blog prompted by my son’s recent trip to the West coast of the USA and his experience of a personal transport revolution which is sure to become a worldwide phenomenon.
Peter is an avid cyclist so whilst he and his fiancé were in the USA, they rented some very expensive bikes and a huge pickup truck with a massive V8 engine. Both the bikes and the pick-up are reminders of a low tech era: the bicycle is still a massively efficient machine but traces its origins back well over a Century with the basic mechanism of pedals and chain remaining
fundamentally unchanged. The big gas-guzzling V8 has also been around for over 100 years and even with all the modern electronics, remains a fairly inefficient , if much loved form of vehicle propulsion.
Having covered a large mileage utilising the bikes and the truck, things became much more high tech in the conurbation of San Francisco. All over town there were Jaguar SUVs , many of which were driving around with no human beings on board. Welcome to the world of WAYMO: a company which appears to have spun out of Google and seems to be the leading light in the world of totally autonomous vehicle travel. Using his phone, Peter dialled up a WAYMO Jaguar which duly took him and Millie on a 40 minute journey without either of them ever touching any of the car’s controls. They both found the experience a little spooky as the Jags still have a driver’s seat and the steering wheel moves just as it would if someone human was driving. Should you feel tempted to take over, the Jag will immediately pull over and stop.
WAYMO journeys are now available in a number of Cities in America and this is surely the beginning of the end of universal car ownership. The Jaguars in San Francisco are of course electric and they return to a central charging area when the need arises.
Apart from being fascinated by the fact that this is all happening across the Atlantic, I am amazed that it has received so little coverage over here. The cynic in me might suggest that the world’s car makers may not be terribly keen on promoting fully autonomous vehicles because they will ultimately result in a massive reduction in the need for universal car ownership. Even if this assumption is incorrect, WAYMO must also be looking at cars in the future which unlike the Jaguar in which Peter and Millie travelled, dispense with the driver’s seat, steering wheel, instruments and switch gear which are completely superfluous if you don’t have a driver. This will increase passenger capacity, reduce weight and of course increase the range, as well as reducing the build-cost of the vehicle.
Although most of my friends and family profess to finding some enjoyment in driving, I think we would all agree that it has become increasingly dull due to the fact that we have well over 30 million cars on the road in the UK. This huge number combined with ever more speed restrictions has resulted in longer journey times and the demonisation of driving pleasure.
Classic cars of course provide the perfect antidote to this situation…but for how long?
Just as with the electric/ alternative power debate, the decisions will be taken out of our hands by governments who rightly strive to make the world a cleaner and safer place.
Google WAYMO ! You will be amazed.
What Peter and Millie’s experiences in America say to me is that the future is a lot closer than we might assume. The technology works over there in a society where the lawyers are never far from the negligence claim. It may be slightly easier due to the grid system of roads in American conurbations, but as the number of vehicles driven by humans decreases (as it already has in Central London) due to emissions and congestion charges, the easier it will become to have totally autonomous zones.
So if I was running a car manufacturing company now, it would be difficult to be upbeat about future volumes of car production. It is good to see that in the States, Jaguar seem to be in at the start, especially with the depressing fact that we made less cars in the UK in the first six months of this year than we did in the early 1950s.
However, when autonomous becomes the norm, we may yet look back at some of 2025’s new cars with a nostalgic glow that seems almost inconceivable now.
Meanwhile, seize the day even if it’s raining! Whatever Classic Car you drive, use it , enjoy it, cherish it and the freedom which owning it bestows. The end may not be nigh but it may be closer than you think.