PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — You can’t hail a Waymo ride in Philadelphia just yet, but the autonomous vehicles are already on city streets, and drawing strong reactions from the people who spot them.<\/p>\n
Waymo, the California-based autonomous ride-hailing company, announced it has begun autonomous test drives in Philadelphia ahead of a public launch.<\/p>\n
For now, trained human specialists remain behind the wheel, but the company says fully driverless operations are coming.<\/p>\n
The Action Cam captured one of the vehicles moving through Center City on Friday.<\/p>\n
Residents who saw the cars, or who have ridden in Waymo vehicles elsewhere, expressed everything from curiosity to concern.<\/p>\n
“Very dystopian,” said Brendan Divilly of New York City, who previously rode in a Waymo in San Francisco. “Definitely an experience, I think the adoption on the East Coast should be interesting. I think a lot of people will be skeptical of them.”<\/p>\n
Divilly said he was “definitely nervous” during his first ride.<\/p>\n
“At the end of the day, you’re kind of just going off the app and what it says in the front, so definitely a unique experience that might not be for all,” he said.<\/p>\n
Others questioned whether the technology can handle Philadelphia’s traffic.<\/p>\n
“I watched the Jetsons when I was a kid, it was cool, but this isn’t that much fun,” said Paul Kahn, an attorney in Center City. “It’s a bad driving city, it’s just the way it is. And people are impatient.”<\/p>\n
“I do not think the Philadelphia drivers will handle this well,” Divilly added. “I’ve seen I-95 in the morning, I’ve seen I-95 during rush hour. I can say I don’t think it’s gonna go over well. Especially Eagles playoff game. I don’t know if they should be around Center City for the celebration of that.”<\/p>\n
Waymo’s expansion comes as the company continues rolling out service across the East Coast, including Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
In other cities, Waymo vehicles have drawn national attention after several high-profile incidents, including a passenger stuck inside a car blocking traffic outside an NFL stadium in Atlanta and a vehicle driving through an active police standoff in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Those examples fuel skepticism among some Philadelphians.<\/p>\n
“A bunch of accidents down Broad Street,” said Ryan Berry of Chester. “I can picture a flat Waymo that’s for sure!”<\/p>\n
“I’m just worried about my safety cause of AI,” Berry added. “Of course, it’s always funky with data and coding and all that jazz.”<\/p>\n
“We have people that can drive cars, why don’t we just do that?” said Grace Hannigan of Port Richmond.<\/p>\n
In a statement, PennDOT said the autonomous testing represents “the first step toward driverless operations in Pennsylvania and reflects an important development in advancing future transportation.” The agency said it will continue working with Waymo as the company moves toward launching public service.<\/p>\n
Waymo said it is “making it official that we plan to expand our fully autonomous ride-hailing service to Philadelphia,” but did not provide a timeline.<\/p>\n
The company confirmed it has a limited number of vehicles currently operating autonomously with human specialists behind the wheel.<\/p>\n
“Riders won’t be able to hail a Waymo just yet,” a company spokesperson said. “Once we are fully autonomous, we’ll let the public know when they can ride.”<\/p>\n
For now, residents may continue spotting the distinctive vehicles navigating Center City, but there’s no word yet on when the public will be able to hop in.<\/p>\n
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