Last weekend I took my son and his friend to a baseball game at Oracle Park, in San Francisco. As I’ve often done in the past, I parked about 2 miles away from the stadium, so that I could get free parking. Sometimes I’ve used bikes or scooters to cover those two miles, sometimes the Muni, occasionally I have walked.
This time I decided to catch a Waymo.
The ride came pretty quickly! About 5 minutes.
It parked around the corner and across the street, which was not a huge problem, but it would’ve been nice to avoid getting the kids across the street. No big deal, though.
On the way to the stadium a very nice remote support human dialed into the vehicle to inquire as to the age of the children. Only eight year-olds and above can ride in Waymos without car seats – I think that’s a DMV rule in California. We confirmed we were legal.
The route was a bit circuitous. Instead of rolling straight up Third Street, we meandered around the UCSF Mission Bay Campus. The Waymo dropped us a few blocks from the stadium, which was as close as it seemed to be able to get.
The kicker was the price. $25 for 1.7 miles. When we got to our seats, a friend who met us there and had taken a regular Uber from home – a distance of about 15 miles – told me his ride had cost $35. So it cost almost as much to Waymo the last 1.7 miles as to Uber from home.
All in all, the ride was a lot of fun. But still maybe a bit of a splurge.
We rode the Muni back to our car after the game. $2.50.
David Silver 