2 ms·

I just took a Waymo in San Jose, having taken a few from San Francisco - it dropped me off in a place that would have made sense in SF (across the street from m

by lanstin 2mo ago

I just took a Waymo in San Jose, having taken a few from San Francisco - it dropped me off in a place that would have made sense in SF (across the street from my destination at a light, avoiding a U turn) but was terrible in the suburban streetscape where the road was literally 10 lanes 4 / 4 / 2 turning and no one would ever drop someone off like that instead of U turning so they didn't have to cross scary giant traffic. So weird little things for scaling, but overall it was a good ride till that point. Also, the dropoff was at a hospital/clinic and Lyft for the return trip had no issue with going into the property to the actual destination.

rootusrootus 2mo ago
That seems like something not hard to fix, I am surprised they haven't already addressed it. Uber, as a comparison, absolutely narrows down the drop-off & pickup to the side of the road you want. I would demand the same of Waymo.
- tfehring 2mo ago
  Waymo also lets you pick, but only from a predetermined list of pickup/dropoff locations. Sometimes there's not a spot on the side of the street you'd want, other times it will default to a spot on the other side of the street but you can override.
  - ButlerianJihad 2mo ago
    Your market may vary, but I can assure you that in Phoenix, you can drop the pin practically anywhere that's safe and legal. The app has changed the method a few times. It used to show green or blue segments for valid spots, but today as it is, I just pick up the pin, drop it, hope for the best. It also demonstrates which way the car will be facing. Dropping a precise pin on the map is no guarantee that it will actually stop right there, depending on the situation on the ground when it arrives. But, you can still adjust the pin while the car waits, or you can hit the "Pull Forward" button to try and improve it. The app has also been updated to disallow adjustment of multiple dropoffs beyond the initial stop. So if you want a precise pin-drop in a multi-stop trip, you need to intervene along the way, instead of during your initial setup. There was a recent case reported in the news, where people were trying to Waymo to the San Bruno airport, but their pin got dropped off in a residential neighborhood. This was apparently because Waymo doesn't directly serve the airport's lanes yet, so the pin dropped as close as possible, but the residents of that street were nonplussed about the results. So were the airline passengers who were lugging luggage!
    - fragmede 2mo ago
      https://sfstandard.com/2025/09/16/waymo-receives-permit-operate-sfo/ https://sfstandard.com/2025/09/16/waymo-receives-permit-oper... Waymo does have a permit too go to SFO now, so it's only a matter of time.
Rebelgecko 2mo ago
Fwiw the accessibility options have a setting to avoid across the street dropoffs
- fragmede 2mo ago
  I'd settle for "on the same block" pick up/drop off. For some reason, Waymo has decided my street is a busy street in the middle of the night when it isn't, so even if I override it to stop down the street where there's plenty of space for traffic to go around the Waymo, it only gives me a short 2 minutes or else it'll drive off. Which would be less of a problem if it didn't decide to also change the location of the pickup last minute as well. It's enough of a problem that I've switched back to Uber/Lyft if I'm not feeling like dealing with it.
deleted 2mo ago
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by lanstin 2mo ago

rootusrootus 2mo ago

That seems like something not hard to fix, I am surprised they haven't already addressed it. Uber, as a comparison, absolutely narrows down the drop-off & pickup to the side of the road you want. I would demand the same of Waymo.

tfehring 2mo ago
Waymo also lets you pick, but only from a predetermined list of pickup/dropoff locations. Sometimes there's not a spot on the side of the street you'd want, other times it will default to a spot on the other side of the street but you can override.
- ButlerianJihad 2mo ago
  Your market may vary, but I can assure you that in Phoenix, you can drop the pin practically anywhere that's safe and legal. The app has changed the method a few times. It used to show green or blue segments for valid spots, but today as it is, I just pick up the pin, drop it, hope for the best. It also demonstrates which way the car will be facing. Dropping a precise pin on the map is no guarantee that it will actually stop right there, depending on the situation on the ground when it arrives. But, you can still adjust the pin while the car waits, or you can hit the "Pull Forward" button to try and improve it. The app has also been updated to disallow adjustment of multiple dropoffs beyond the initial stop. So if you want a precise pin-drop in a multi-stop trip, you need to intervene along the way, instead of during your initial setup. There was a recent case reported in the news, where people were trying to Waymo to the San Bruno airport, but their pin got dropped off in a residential neighborhood. This was apparently because Waymo doesn't directly serve the airport's lanes yet, so the pin dropped as close as possible, but the residents of that street were nonplussed about the results. So were the airline passengers who were lugging luggage!
  - fragmede 2mo ago
    https://sfstandard.com/2025/09/16/waymo-receives-permit-operate-sfo/ https://sfstandard.com/2025/09/16/waymo-receives-permit-oper... Waymo does have a permit too go to SFO now, so it's only a matter of time.

Rebelgecko 2mo ago

Fwiw the accessibility options have a setting to avoid across the street dropoffs

fragmede 2mo ago
I'd settle for "on the same block" pick up/drop off. For some reason, Waymo has decided my street is a busy street in the middle of the night when it isn't, so even if I override it to stop down the street where there's plenty of space for traffic to go around the Waymo, it only gives me a short 2 minutes or else it'll drive off. Which would be less of a problem if it didn't decide to also change the location of the pickup last minute as well. It's enough of a problem that I've switched back to Uber/Lyft if I'm not feeling like dealing with it.

deleted 2mo ago

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