LOS ANGELES () — Rideshare services will see a significant increase in usage during the holiday season, but the human risk factors still exists, unless your service doesn’t use a driver.
“I saw a commercial come up about Waymo,” recalled Dr. Brian Hoeflinger, a neurosurgeon at Mercy Health in Toledo, Ohio. “I didn’t even know these cars existed and I was thinking, ‘You know, if that car was around when Brain was alive, if that Waymo would’ve picked him up, he’d be alive today.'”
Hoeflinger’s son Brian died in a drunk driving accident in February 2013.
Hoping to turn that death into something more than a statistic, the family has spent the last decade trying to keep impaired drivers off the road, and Waymo One is a solution Hoeflinger is excited about.
“I would trust a Waymo ride more than I would trust somebody drunk in the car, or somebody who’s angry in the morning when I’m driving to work who cuts me off, who needs to race around … I mean, Waymo is going to take all that human emotion and human error out of play,” he said.
Hoeflinger isn’t a paid spokesman for Waymo, which operates more than 100 vehicles in roughly 80 square miles of Los Angeles County.
According to company data, Waymo Driver is 72% less likely to be involved in an injury-causing collision, compared to the average human driver.
“When you think about how many lives are unnecessarily lost every single year on our roadways because of completely preventable crashes like drunk and impaired driving, why not use a vehicle, or a mobility platform, that will never have that problem?” said Amanda Ventura, the Public Affairs Manager for Waymo.
Waymo technology allows the vehicle to monitor activity 360 degrees around the vehicle.
It also sees from 300 yards away in full daylight and darkness. Technology could save lives on New Year ‘s Eve night even if you aren’t the impaired or dangerous driver.
“It has this really, really strong artificial intelligence compute system that can see how fast all the objects around us are moving and then make predictions about where that object is going to go next,” said Ventura.
Even without a driver, you aren’t alone.
AI can analyze activity within the vehicle to help determine if a rider is incapacitated or not wearing a seatbelt. Plus, rider support agents are always available through the car’s customer service interface.
“This is a technology that I think is going to save lives in the long run,” said Hoeflinger. “It’s not going to be perfect at first, like anything, but I think with time, it’s going to be something that’s going to be in our society, and I think they’re going to far outweigh the human error.”
To ride in L.A., San Francisco or Phoenix, simply download the Waymo One app.
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