Parents in the Phoenix metropolitan area using Waymo robot cars to send their unaccompanied kids to school and activities. The problem is it’s against the company’s policy and nobody’s sure how this will play out.
Watch a suspect flee in a stolen Camaro ZL1.
This trend was recently pointed out by AZFamily, with the local news station talking to an ASU professor specializing in researching autonomous cars. He thinks it’s a great idea, although he believes Waymo won’t officially offer its services to unaccompanied teens until certain areas are addressed first.
We find this to be an interesting development after the Uber Teen program was created for kids aged 13 to 17-years-old. That service has all kinds of security features a regular Uber doesn’t, and yet it still seems ridiculously risky to us. To send a child in a robotaxi in some ways is even more outrageous, and yet in other ways makes more sense.
For starters, with an Uber there’s the risk of the driver attacking or interacting with your child in inappropriate ways. With a robot car that’s completely out of the equation. Your kid is riding without some strange adult there.
But also your child is alone, possibly all alone, and that comes with its own security risks. Not only could your kid be attacked or lured off with no witnesses or anyone to step in, teens have been known to trash places or do other unruly things when there’s no supervision.
We expect parents in other areas where Waymo and its competitors offer robotaxis are sending their kids alone to ride to school, band practice, soccer, or whatever else. But Waymo has made it clear anyone under the age of 18 has to be accompanied by an adult. That doesn’t seem to be enforced, so parents will likely continue this practice for the foreseeable future.
Image via Waymo