Waymo

Review by eFreeware

Waymo is the ride-hailing app from Waymo LLC, the company behind the self-driving cars of the same name. Rather than connecting you to a human driver, it books a trip in a vehicle operated by the Waymo Driver, the autonomous system the company describes as the world's most experienced driver. The app is free, carries no ads and offers no in-app purchases, and it has been downloaded more than a million times with a 4.9 average from nearly 60,000 ratings.

What makes it worth considering is the shape of the trip itself. You get a car to yourself without driving or hunting for parking, and the whole booking and ride experience lives in one app. If you live in or travel through one of the territories Waymo serves, this is the simplest way to try a fully autonomous ride rather than read about one.

Booking a car with nobody in the driver's seat

The core loop is deliberately ordinary. You enter a destination, request the ride, and a Waymo car comes to your current location. When it arrives you get in, buckle up, and tap Start Ride on the passenger screen inside the car. There is no negotiation with a driver, no small talk and no route discussion; the car handles the driving and you handle being a passenger.

That in-car screen does more than start the trip. It shows what the Waymo Driver sees, so you can watch the system's view of the road as you move, and it gives you a way to reach Rider Support at any point during the journey. For a first ride, that combination of visibility and a support line is likely to be the part that settles any nerves.

The company frames the fleet as all-electric, and the sensor setup is described as cameras, radar and lidar working together to keep a constant 360-degree view of the surroundings. I would treat the safety language as the developer's own pitch rather than something a rider can verify from the passenger seat, but the underlying point stands: this is a purpose-built autonomous vehicle, not a conventional car with an add-on.

Controls inside the cabin, from temperature to playlists

Waymo leans into the idea that the ride is yours to shape. You can set the temperature and choose music either through the app or on the in-car display, which matters more than it sounds when there is no driver to ask. The developer pitches these rides as customizable, and the two obvious levers are climate and audio.

If you would rather adjust how the temperature and music behave, the settings live under the My Car Tab in the app.

Storage is handled too. There is enough trunk space for belongings, and the trunk opens on its own when you get out, which is a neat safeguard against leaving a bag behind. Anyone who has stepped out of a taxi in a hurry will see the point.

Planning ahead, adding stops and sharing the trip

Trips can be scheduled up to an hour before you need the car, which covers the common case of wanting a ride waiting at a set time rather than requesting one and watching the map. Multi-stop trips allow up to four destinations in a single ride, so an errand run or a drop-off before your own stop does not require booking twice.

If plans change mid-journey, you can add destinations whenever you like, or pull over with a tap using either the app or the in-car screen. That flexibility is the difference between a fixed shuttle and something closer to having a car at your disposal.

You can also share live arrival times with friends or family while you are on the way, which is useful for anyone meeting you at the other end, or for letting someone know you are close. It is a straightforward feature, but it is the kind of thing that makes an unfamiliar mode of transport feel less opaque to the people waiting for you.

Where the service reaches, and what a ride depends on

The most important practical point is coverage. Waymo rides are available in the territories the company already serves, and the app is the way to request them. A recent update widened that map, adding South San Francisco, San Bruno, Millbrae and Burlingame in the Bay Area, along with Inglewood, Silverlake, Echo Park and other parts of Los Angeles. If you are outside those areas, the app has nothing to book for you.

The second is that this is a car service, not a navigation tool in the usual sense, despite sitting in the Maps & Navigation category. You are not getting turn-by-turn directions for your own driving; you are getting a vehicle that drives itself. The app's value is tied entirely to requesting and managing those rides.

There is no charge for the app itself and no advertising or purchases inside it, so trying it costs nothing beyond the fare for any ride you take. Scheduling is capped at one hour ahead, which is worth knowing if you were hoping to arrange a pickup days in advance, and the multi-stop limit is four destinations per trip.

The rider this fits

I would expect Waymo to appeal most to people who already live or work inside its service areas and want a dependable ride without driving, parking or coordinating with a driver. The combination of a private cabin, adjustable climate and music, scheduled pickups and live trip sharing reads as a service built for regular, planned journeys rather than spontaneous late-night improvisation.

It also looks well suited to riders who are curious about autonomous driving and want to see the technology in action rather than read about it, since the passenger screen shows what the system perceives. Travelers passing through a covered city can use it the same way they would any ride-hailing option, with the difference that nobody will be sitting in front of them.

Families and groups get some benefit from the trunk space and the multi-stop feature, and the automatic trunk opening on exit is a small kindness for anyone juggling bags. What ties all of these riders together is location: the app is only useful where the fleet already operates, and that is the first thing to check before installing it.

A straightforward choice in the cities it covers

Waymo does one thing and does it without much clutter. You request an autonomous car, you ride in it, and you control the cabin, the stops and the sharing of your trip from the app or the screen in front of you. The free download, the absence of ads and the lack of in-app purchases make it easy to install and see whether your area is covered.

The caveats are structural rather than annoying. Service is limited to the territories Waymo operates in, scheduling tops out at an hour ahead, and multi-stop trips cap at four destinations. None of that undermines the appeal for someone inside the coverage map; it just defines the edges of it.

If you live in or regularly visit one of those areas and want a driverless ride you can book in a few taps, this is the app for it. If your travel stays outside the fleet's reach, there is nothing here to use yet.

What's new in version 26091405.985618785-release

Now serving more of the Bay Area (adding South SF, San Bruno, Millbrae, and Burlingame) and Los Angeles (adding Inglewood, Silverlake, Echo Park, and more).