Is the children OK? They are in Waymosat least, now that the Self-driving car Company began allowing Arizona teens in the Phoenix area to ride themselves with special “teenage” accounts.
Eventually, the teenage service, open to 14- to 17-year-olds, could come to all markets in the United States, where Waymo operates its robot taxis, the company says: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Atlanta, and soon, Miami and Washington, DC. In a country where so much transportation system depends on access to cars – and where many people, including those too young to have drivers license, are limited to what they can do and where they can go for it – the movement both promises and threatens to rearrange a young adult life.
According to Waymo, the teenagers, and their parents, like it that way. The concept of robotic cars is still scary, but Waymo says that his customers’ enthusiasm for their self-driving cars has a lot of quiet fears.
The company tested the new service in the Arizona subway area for two years, starting with analyzing the transport habits of a handful of area families in 2023. For the last stage, researchers, led by the Waymo product and customer research Naomi Guthrie, interviewed the young people who participated in a hundred-family pilot. In interviews with those participants, Guthrie was struck “by the critical concern we see in that generation.”
Youth Way
Compared to what Guthrie remembered from her teenage years, children seemed in constant contact with their caregivers, and almost expect surveillance, with local-based programs such as Life360 allowing adults to keep tabs on their whereabouts. But their movements were also limited by the schedules of those caregivers, and could they hunt rides. The young people interviewed had some “strange danger”, whether fear or strong preference against interacting with strangers. They were also nervous about staying behind the wheel.
“Teens are afraid to drive,” says Guthrie. Nationwide statistics back, to some grade: nearly 5 percent of all US drivers were 19 or less In 2007The year when the iPhone came out, according to federal data; By 2023 This dropped to 3.7 percent.
Nurses’ concerns also appeared in Waymo reconnaissance and interviews, Guthrie says. They were emphasized by the expectations of modern parenting, which include playing at least a part -time driver to ferry children to school and later after -school activities. They also took care of their children behind the wheel (as well as their children’s disk friend.) Nationwide statistics back, also: teen drivers 16 to 19 are three times more likely be in a fatal crash than drivers 20 and older.
Waymo believes that there is a serious money “suitable market market”, in the user’s expert speakers such as Guthrie-in the solution of these many anxiety.
Going a solo
Teen Waymo accounts are linked to adults, and as adults, their accounts can be deactivated if they violate Waymo policies, which prohibits in-car drug and alcohol use, weapons, large masses and touching the vehicle’s steering wheel or brakes.
As with anyone who rides Waymo, juveniles riding in the cars will have access to 24/7 customer support, including agents that can be contacted by pressing a button. The in-vehicle requests of adolescent customers will be automatically directed to the company’s highest and best-trained agents. Waymo is also capable of inserting parents into riding support calls.
