A Waymo robotic taxi in San Francisco with the typical roof structure full of sensors.
(Photo: Paresh Dave/Reuters)
All routine: call a taxi, get in and talk about the weather. A short small talk with eye contact creates trust. But what if the driver’s seat is empty? This will happen more often in San Francisco now. Throughout the city, paying passengers are transported around the clock without a security driver. A battery of computer eyes looks down from the roof of the autonomous car. Whoever encounters this look involuntarily wonders whether one can trust such an autonomous car.