First a Waymo news item, posted without further comment.
Next, one of RantWoman's best friends from high school visited Seattle over the weekend. This friend is now a doctor based in LA. She and another best friend recently had a somewhat harrowing experience involving hills in San Francisco. RantWoman does not recall all the details. Sigh.
Doctor friend noted a frequent problem reported to her: the Waymo just arrives and announces that it is around a corner, down a block, too far away for someone with a walker to reach at all or within the time Waymo allows. Let us not forget need to cross a busy street. There is also the same issue blind people report with Uber: how to find the Uber or Waymo
RantWoman knows there is software in the world that helps a driver get near someone with a cellphone. RantWoman has NO idea why implementing that should not be automatic. RantWoman also has no opinion about how blind people can identify a place it is safe to wait.
Doctor friend noted that there are many reasons that people might need extra time to get into or out of the vehicle. RantWoman wonders whether there could be some options either to configure a setting or to adjust for each different passenger.
RantWoman did learn that there are now Waymo vans. This sounds promising for people who use wheelchairs, but RantWoman has yet to see any information about securing one's mobility device once one gets inside.
But Onward!
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