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NEW: exclusive data on 🚕🚘Waymo🚖🚗 self-driving car performance in Phoenix. We just finished a big reporting effort… (1/6)
...And learned Waymo’s ops chief Rocky Garff (pictured) said privately that by end of 2019 Waymo wanted to be competitive with Uber/Lyft in Phoenix. 
...which is a useful yardstick to hear about. As former Uber/Uber ATG PM Shalin Mantri (@shamantri) puts it, a typical Uber experience is pretty darn good/efficient for passengers. Teaching a robot to meet that high standard...well, good luck.
We wanted to know what the state-of-the-art robotaxi—@Waymo—can do & how big the gap is from Uber. We analyzed confidential Waymo customer feedback on 2,500 rides this quarter. Conclusion: replicating Uber = bigger mountain to climb than we expected. Why?...
Because even Waymo’s customers have expectations rooted in Uber. When Waymo’s robotaxi takes a bad route, gets stuck, or makes them walk a minute to the pick up spot—all of which happens frequently—they get PISSSSSSED... [image of actual Waymo customer post-ride feedback]
And we haven't touched on safety yet! Backup drivers still are needed to avoid possible collisions, multiple customers said. Learn what it’s really like for hundreds of customers that ride Waymos: theinformation.com/articles/with-…
Post-script: This earlier article explains why backup drivers present a totally different set of problems and why Waymo sought outside help from @VTTINEWS... theinformation.com/articles/waymo…
...and this one is about the "remote operators" that sit in Waymo offices to monitor cars from computers, helping to solve primarily non-safety critical problems like when cars get stuck and don't know what to do... theinformation.com/articles/troub…
This is how Waymo is structured and who its top 140 or so managers & engineers are: theinformation.com/articles/the-1…
...and why it's been seeking to raise outside capital, even though parent company Alphabet has more money than almost any corporation in the history of humankind. (Btw Garff reminded colleagues Alphabet won't fund Waymo indefinitely!) theinformation.com/articles/alpha…
