Waymo vs Zoox in San Francisco: Waymo came in minutes, Zoox never did

0:00 The Waymo is here in 30 seconds.

0:02 So Tesla, technically, they are still in level two.

0:06 Oh my god, it's doing the parallel parking.

0:08 Okay, so level zero is just warning. Level one is adaptive cruise control. Level two, you can actually take your hands off. Level three, you can close your eyes. Level four, you can take your mind off. Level five is no steering wheel.

0:24 So we are currently in level four. We are giving direct feedback to the Waymo team now, if they are watching.

0:30 So we're heading from central San Francisco around Civic Center to the Panhandle, because on a map it actually looks like a panhandle. I will say I felt a slight fear in the first 2 seconds.

0:42 The availability is zero. Waymo one, Zoox zero. There was a power shutdown in San Francisco and all the Waymos stopped in the middle of the street. I miss talking to Uber drivers.

0:55 Okay. Hello explorers. Today we are going to try out Waymo and Zoox, the self-driving cars in San Francisco. We're going to try Waymo first and then Zoox next.

1:06 The Waymo is here in 30 seconds.

1:08 To give some context, explorers: Waymo is Google's self-driving car project. Zoox is Amazon's self-driving car project. Zoox right now is free, just like how all the other experimental projects should be. But Waymo is currently charging money for each ride. Review criteria: we can do ride comfort,

1:27 and then fear, like how much fear do we feel, and three would be pricing.

1:34 Huh.

1:34 And availability. How fast did we get the car?

1:37 Yes, availability. Already Waymo is better. Zoox is pretty bad. It's almost coming. It's here in three.

1:44 It's already making its way to the right.

1:46 Slowly it's coming.

1:47 I think it is this one.

1:49 Yes. It's going to come. Okay, cool.

1:53 Oh my god, it's doing the parallel parking.

1:55 Okay, you should open it with the app.

1:57 Unlock. Yeah. Hello.

2:00 Oh, yeah. You can hit the button. Start. Right.

2:04 Why is it like a Tamil song?

2:05 Because I set it.

2:06 You set it.

2:07 We can set the preference inside the car. I mean, with the app.

2:09 Very nice.

2:12 So yeah, it was trying to play this Tamil song as soon as we started the ride.

2:17 It's my third time using it, but it's been a year since the last time. I will say I felt a slight fear in the first 2 seconds, but now... How are you feeling?

2:29 So I think the song might scare some people, like the autoplay. Maybe they can avoid that. They can pull up the song, but don't start playing.

2:38 Yeah, we are giving direct feedback to the Waymo team now, if they are watching.

2:43 And you know, they should really consider my feedback, because I am not technical at all. So I'm just a lay person on the street who's using this. So I'm your actual target. You're right. It was very scary when it played.

2:55 I also think it didn't ask us to wear the seat belt.

2:59 It didn't say "please wear seat belt."

3:00 Yeah, it didn't say that. I remember it used to say that.

3:04 Yeah, in this ride, I don't think it said that. I wish we had somebody who is experiencing this for the first time to rate the fear part.

3:10 For me, the first time was so exciting. It was not fear. I would say it was really, really exciting, like seeing that steering wheel turn. For me the first time was 2 years ago, 2024, and back then they had this beautiful display where you could play songs. That was the most exhilarating part. It felt like a private sound booth where you can listen to anything you want, and I wasn't even trying to do any work when I was in the car, because I was just so enthralled by what was happening.

3:41 Yeah, I like the music as well. The speakers are really good. I think, Bose speakers, and they let you increase the volume to fully maximum if the windows are up. I tried that with windows down one time. It automatically reduced the volume.

3:58 In terms of ride comfort, I would say, like, 9 out of 10. There's nothing else I can ask for here. It's doing its job. I can play music. The seat is great. There's good enough leg room. Today we are in a Jaguar I-PACE, midsize SUV, I think.

4:17 Yeah, I'm thinking of what else I've had. I like Uber drivers where they give you mints and water bottles, but I don't think Waymo can do that.

4:27 I miss talking to Uber drivers. That would be the sad part here, that we don't have a driver. I like talking to Uber drivers. They are complete strangers. You can tell your whole life story to them and they'll give this unbiased one-line opinion: this is what you should do.

4:45 What are you saying? There is a driver here. You want to see him?

4:48 Yeah.

4:51 So we're heading from central San Francisco around Civic Center to the Panhandle, which is near NoPa. That's north of the Panhandle. That's what they say.

5:00 Okay. So we can talk about the technicality. So there are five levels in self-driving, if you include zero. Level zero is also a level. Level zero is just warning. Level one is adaptive cruise control. You still have to keep your hands on the wheel. Level two, you can actually take your hands off,

5:20 but keep my eyes on the

5:21 Yeah, keep your... yeah, you should be ready to take over. And level three, you can close your eyes. Level four, you can take your mind off. Level five is no steering wheel. Okay.

5:33 So we are currently in level four.

5:36 Level four.

5:36 There is still a steering wheel, but there's no mind in the seat. There's no human. There's no mind. So that means it's level four.

5:44 Why is there a steering wheel in this level?

5:46 So recently there was a power shutdown in San Francisco and all the Waymos stopped in the middle of the street, and I think humans came over and took over.

5:57News clip: Scenes like this of Waymo cars coming to a stop in San Francisco played out more than 500 times on December 20th during the citywide power outage. It was a chaotic... Video taken during the blackout Saturday night shows robotaxis stalled out, blocking intersections and nearly causing collisions.

6:11 Oh, okay. Okay, that makes

6:12 So it's for managing the car.

6:14 Okay. Okay.

6:15 Technically, they could get rid of the steering wheel for this ride, but they just don't want to go through that hassle if something goes wrong.

6:22 Now that you say it, actually, that made immediate sense. When do you think we'll get to level five? Is there any estimate? 2029?

6:30 So I mean, various CEOs have been saying different things. I remember Sergey Brin, in one of the press conferences 10 years ago, mentioned that we'll hit the full, no-steering-wheel level five in just 5 years, and it's been more than 10 years since he said it.

6:46News clip: Brin told the crowd he thinks self-driving cars are safer and more economical, especially in congested cities, and he expects them to be available to ordinary people within 5 years.

6:58 And Elon Musk has been aggressively saying we'll get rid of everything, but still no signs of Tesla reaching it. So Tesla, technically, they are still in level two. They're using the owners of the car for testing, and owners of the car are advised to look at the road and still be ready to take over, which is level two.

7:20 Mm. So, like, hands off but eyes on.

7:23 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They can take hands off, but eyes on the road, and they even watch you with a camera.

7:29 But I have been with people who drive a Tesla and they take eyes off as well. Not recommended, though.

7:35 It's not recommended. Yeah.

7:36 Your brain normalizes everything. Although it would be different if it's on a highway. We're still just inside the city.

7:42 Yeah. So I do have highway enabled on my account. They're slowly rolling out the highway feature for users.

7:50 So you're saying they're technically now driving on highways as well.

7:53 Yeah, I've seen some of them drive. There are so many people walking confidently. Waymo is the first one at the light.

8:03 I don't even think people are looking at the

8:05 Yeah, they're not even looking. I remember, like, 2 years ago it used to be a fancy thing, and now people are not even noticing that this is a robotaxi on the street.

8:16 The only times I notice the Waymo is when there are more of them than regular cars on a street. I have so many videos of that.

8:22 Yeah.

8:23 This is the Panhandle, because on a map it actually looks like a panhandle.

8:29 Whoa.

8:31 That was fast. There was just a slight gap and it just

8:36 Do we have to do something, or

8:37 No, I think it'll be done. It'll go.

8:41 Hi.

8:43 Okay. Super. So, ride one done. Next, we're going to order Zoox and see how that goes.

8:53 It's my first time in a Zoox.

8:54 Zoox. Yeah. For me as well.

8:57 Okay. Super.

8:59 See you in

9:00 See you in Zoox. Bye.

9:02 Okay. So Zoox has a radius, a territory. It only operates within the territory, and we took the Waymo and went outside the territory. Even though this is all SF, Zoox has a map, and this is the map, and we are now walking towards the map. We moved right inside Zoox's advertised territory, but still no go. We could not get a ride, because the system continues to say it's busy. Okay. So looks like Zoox is so busy and we cannot get any of the robotaxis. So the availability is zero.

9:41 Waymo one, Zoox zero. We're going to get an Uber and go back to our co-working space and wait for some time, shoot other things that we have to shoot. We're planning to shoot a podcast now. So we'll finish that, and then we'll open the app and see if the car is available on Zoox.

9:56 Yeah. Right.

9:57 The moment it becomes available, we will drop everything. We'll stop the podcast

10:01 and run. Yes.

10:04 All right. While we are waiting for our Uber, we saw so many Waymos, including the Zeekr van that's made in China, now part of the Waymo fleet. It is this huge van that opens with both the doors.

10:15 Ooh, what is that?

10:17 Uber and Lucid. They are trying something.

10:20 So, we finished our podcast and checked again. It is still busy. We could not get Zoox. So Zoox never came that day. Since then, every time I'm in San Francisco, I open the Zoox app and it still says busy every time. And I finally rode a Waymo in the new Zeekr van. And the closest I got to Zoox was sitting behind one of the test cars. Sad.

10:40 So, here's the final score. Availability: Waymo was here so quick, so I would give 9 out of 10. Zoox, I would give zero out of 10. Comfort, 9 out of 10 for Waymo. And Zoox, I'm not going to rate it now until I actually ride it. And fear, I would rate 7 out of 10, because of the autoplay song and not having the seat belt warning.

11:04 Pricing, I would give 2 out of 10, because it is still an experimental project. The government still hasn't approved it across the US. We shouldn't be charging for it. Zoox is right here: I would say 10 out of 10 for Zoox for making it free. And I recently heard that if you go to this place called the Rider's Lounge, operated by Zoox, you can get a Zoox ride starting from that location. So, part two coming soon, including Zoox, and thanks to Soundarya for riding with me for this Waymo review. Subscribe, everyone. See you. Bye.

Source: YouTube auto-captions, edited for readability (filler words removed, names corrected; speakers are not labeled except for news clips).