Hope King, for Cheddar:

I recently took my first ride in a self-driving car while in Phoenix, Arizona, where Alphabet’s Waymo has been operating the world’s first commercial self-driving taxi service since early December.

and:

My trip spanned 4.4 miles and took about 15 minutes. In the car with me was my videographer Doug, a Waymo spokeswoman, and one safety driver at the wheel.

Ready or not, autonomous vehicles are hitting the road. True, these fleets are all staffed with humans behind-the-wheel, and are in a few markets, not nationwide, but they are up and running.

Hope King does a nice job describing the experience, with video snippets, pictures, and well laid out observations.

One quote in particular stood out to me:

I was excited, but I was also a little nervous the entire time.

Imagine if there wasn’t a driver behind the wheel with hands ready to grab the wheel, foot ready to stomp the brake. This is so key. And a reason I do think we’re still far away from a true, autonomous vehicle rollout.