https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwynm4wl1j7o

As the title says would you get in a driverless taxi if one turned up? Personally I wouldn't. Not sure why. Probably because I don't trust them and think it's more jobs being taken over by robots.

Cant be any worse than some of the ones I have got in with actual drivers!

Hmmmm Total Recall springs to mind

https://youtu.be/eWgrvNHjKkY?si=Cw_h2ty6WIPgbmVY

I signed up for Waymo when I was in San Francisco a couple of years ago but it was invite only /beta or whatever and I didn't get selected.

But yes, definitely. Lets face it, most taxi drivers are utterly dog **** and I'd trust my safety to a computer/Elon musk over most of them!

Yep sure would , hate taxi drivers with a passion .

Users will save a fortune in tips!

No more of this "What do you normally pay?" nonsense from ropey firms and grifters.

Whilst not driverless, these look cool.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgnp103zr9o

Tribesmen wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 10, 2025 5:27 pm

Yep sure would , hate taxi drivers with a passion .

tickled me that, hating a profession

Yes I would

Plenty of us have experienced poor taxi drivers
It's also a known thing that there are many taxi drivers who aren't licensed to do the job
They caught a load in Burnley about 20yrs ago

It will rely on the British public not being absolute morons though and vandalising these vehicles...

Definitely. I'd probably get a better conversation out of some of them.

In the States where the roads are wide and straight I'd hop in without a care.

In the UK, not at the moment.

But this is something I'm looking forward to in the future. I can envisage these being the main form of 'public transport'. Just think how much of what a taxi costs goes to pay the driver - the vast majority of it. These are gonna be the future.

And then think about the possibilities it opens up for pub crawls.

Can't wait.

I think in life, you sometimes hear of an idea and you think that could work.

It sometimes takes a big leap of faith, like flying metal boxes or landing on the moon.

This is not one of them.

There’s not a chance in h*ll I’d use a driverless taxi, possibly in ten years when the technology has been proven out to be safe and reliable, but I won’t be around in ten years. There are too many crazy drivers out there, I’d prefer to rely on a human to navigate any difficulties rather than a machine which can be hacked or suddenly stopped working for some technical reason I use a local professional taxi firm a couple of times per month (not an Uber) the service has always been spot on.

No way.

I was in San Francisco late last year and they’re absolutely rife there.

I took about 4 of them and thought they were brilliant, so incredibly clever.

Used Waymo is San Francisco last summer. Loved it.

Clean taxis. You don’t get ripped off and they arrive on time.

I’d rather a driverless taxi brought my daughter home from a night out in Manchester than a standard taxi 100%

Not a chance.

Tribesmen wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 10, 2025 5:27 pm

Yep sure would , hate taxi drivers with a passion .

That’s a bit extreme.

Can you still ask a driverless taxi what time they are on till or if they have been busy?

CyrilEbokiPoh wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 10, 2025 10:15 pm

That’s a bit extreme.

Not really as I try never to use them anyway in the world .
I could go on and on , but will leave you with this one .
Years ago i took a taxi from Newcastle train station to a hotel near by . Now yer man lost it saying that he had waited one one hour for a £ 8 trip . And when he dropped me off he said that's without a tip .
I gave him the 8 pounds on coins and told him to get a new job .

As one of the initial dev team for wayno no I would rather take my chances running across all 8 lanes of the m60 at Middleton blindfolded.
Look at how accurate lidar is then change your underwear

Spijed wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 10, 2025 6:15 pm

Whilst not driverless, these look cool.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgnp103zr9o

They're going to need them!........Trying to get from A to B in this city is a frookin' joke & that's every day. Yet they keep building more & more apartment buildings.

As for driverless taxis the Waymo's are everywhere, i know people who send their kids off in them.

I think you could have posted the same about Apple Pay 10 years ago and you would have got the same answers. Or the Amstrad 1512...

The big problem for the Tech Bros is not selling the concept of a taxi driver but whose going be able to afford to pay for one when everything is automated and no one has a job.

MrTopTier wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 10, 2025 7:16 pm

I think in life, you sometimes hear of an idea and you think that could work.

It sometimes takes a big leap of faith, like flying metal boxes or landing on the moon.

This is not one of them.

Can I ask why you think that when they're already working very well in many cities around the world?

To be fair, the audience for this isn't the general demographic of this messageboard which appears to be retired men from a generation brought up before computers. What i am saying is, most people who this service will cater for will be those who have been using innovative technology throughout their lives, not those who still struggle to understand what a "right click" is.

Tribesmen wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 10, 2025 10:39 pm

Not really as I try never to use them anyway in the world .
I could go on and on , but will leave you with this one .
Years ago i took a taxi from Newcastle train station to a hotel near by . Now yer man lost it saying that he had waited one one hour for a £ 8 trip . And when he dropped me off he said that's without a tip .
I gave him the 8 pounds on coins and told him to get a new job .

Cool story!

I think there should also be some balance to this argument and say there are good taxi drivers out there.

The ex used to make sure she got the same taxi firm when going home from a night out, bearing in mind she was usually suitably drunk, whatever driver she got would always sit in the car and wait to make sure they could see she'd safely got through the door at home before driving off.

Thats safety that no driverless taxi can do.

clarets1978 wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 11, 2025 10:20 am

I think there should also be some balance to this argument and say there are good taxi drivers out there.

The ex used to make sure she got the same taxi firm when going home from a night out, bearing in mind she was usually suitably drunk, whatever driver she got would always sit in the car and wait to make sure they could see she'd safely got through the door at home before driving off.

Thats safety that no driverless taxi can do.

Have had plenty of good ones over the years. And struck up interesting conversations with many. Was with an old school east london taxi driver last week and the chat was worth the fee alone!

The human race is being driven to extinction.

CyrilEbokiPoh wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 11, 2025 10:24 am

Have had plenty of good ones over the years. And struck up interesting conversations with many. Was with an old school east london taxi driver last week and the chat was worth the fee alone!

Agreed. I knew a couple of them when I lived in London. Always worth listening to. To answer the OP's question: I wouldn't.

Logically, it makes sense to have driverless cars.

They are trained to stay exacly in the middle of the lane, keep the correct distance to the car in front and will never speed.

Plus the reaction time to any emergency will be in a split second. Humans can never react as fast.

Yes, there will be accidents when cars malfunction, but far fewer than with a human driver at the wheel, as there is no emotion involved.

Humans can never learn to drive safely all the time, whereas a computer can.

Nope. The roads are already out of control.

For the same reason I never owned a motorcycle with “rider aids” fitted or programmed in.

I’ll decide, thanks.

Tribesmen wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 10, 2025 10:39 pm

Not really as I try never to use them anyway in the world .
I could go on and on , but will leave you with this one .
Years ago i took a taxi from Newcastle train station to a hotel near by . Now yer man lost it saying that he had waited one one hour for a £ 8 trip . And when he dropped me off he said that's without a tip .
I gave him the 8 pounds on coins and told him to get a new job .

You should have been charged for the waiting time. He wasn't on shift just for your benefit.

A mate did whilst in San Francisco - he recorded it from the passenger seat..... Looked very weird..... like being driven by the invisible man as the steering wheel was turning and indicators were being used.

I have used them in San Francisco. Weird and exciting the first time and then pretty much routine. Feels safe. All sedate and smooth. It will be interesting to see how they deal with our much narrower roads, and roundabouts. But my journeys weren’t all just in a straight line. It dealt with things like turning left across multiple lanes with apparent ease. And the US strange priority rules at cross roads junctions. Like everything there will be examples of where things go wrong. There was a guy recently in Phoenix I think where he videoed his taxi driving him around in circles in a Car park. And sometimes they get confused when they meet each other and one has to give way. But it seems to get sorted pretty quickly. And, as others have said, it’s not as if getting into a car with a random human is without risk.

Dazzler wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 11, 2025 11:53 am

You should have been charged for the waiting time. He wasn't on shift just for your benefit.

Nope wrong end of the stick here , I got into the first taxi at the rank and I think if I said Glasgow he still would have bitched.
The last time I used a taxi was before Christmas.

I'd use a taxi-less driver! Give me a Piggy back lad!

Dazzler wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 11, 2025 10:48 am

The human race is being driven to extinction.

Is that necessarily a bad thing? I'm sure that most every other species on the planet would be glad to see the back of us

Fretters wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 11, 2025 7:27 am

Can I ask why you think that when they're already working very well in many cities around the world?

Just an opinion Fretters nothing more, happy to be proved wrong if/when there are significant numbers of them out on the streets.

MrTopTier wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 11, 2025 6:00 pm

Just an opinion Fretters nothing more, happy to be proved wrong if/when there are significant numbers of them out on the streets.

Fair enough!