Asleep on the job

The novelty of riding in a driverless car wears off quickly, according to footage from Google’s Waymo.

Members of the public taking part in its Early Rider programme in Arizona, US, were invited to take trips in its fully automated minivans.

After initial excitement wears off, the video clip shows them playing with their phones, taking selfies and even falling asleep.

Waymo’s first publicly available ride-hailing service is expected to be unveiled in Phoenix later this year, after the state gave the plans the go-ahead.

The footage was released as Waymo CEO John Krafcik spoke at South by Southwest, an annual annual conglomerate of film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences in Austin, Texas.

In the video, travellers can be seen laughing nervously at the empty driver’s seat as well as wondering if on-lookers were bemused at the sight of the autonomous vehicle, before quickly become distracted.

Krafcik said: “We’ve gained increasing confidence that we can remove the safety driver. Everything we learn in one of our cars gets passed to all of our cars. We think he could be the world’s most experienced driver.”

Speaking about the video, he said: “For us at Waymo, the most rewarding things were the yawns and the fellow who fell asleep.”

Waymo plans to keep a staff member in the car for the initial phase of its driverless taxi service. It will also launch a commercial ride hailing service similar to Uber’s, using the automated technology.

The launch comes after Arizona’s transport department approved Waymo’s application to become a transportation network company. But Waymo won’t be the world’s first autonomous taxi service, Singapore firm nuTonomy started that in 2016.