Are Waymos Driving More Like Humans?

Summary

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Episode Overview

Title: Are Waymos Driving More Like Humans?
Podcast: The Journal.
Date: January 19, 2026
Hosts: Jessica Mendoza, Ryan Knutson
Main Theme:
This mini episode dives into whether Waymo’s self-driving cars are becoming less “robotic” and more “human” — specifically, whether their recent software updates have made them more assertive and adaptable on San Francisco streets. Through first-hand accounts, interviews, and a chat with a Waymo executive, the conversation explores the evolving nature of autonomous vehicle behavior and what that means for human drivers and city life.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Observing San Francisco’s Waymos Up Close

• Katie Bindley’s Experience:

  • As a local reporter, Katie has spent extensive time observing Waymo robotaxis around her San Francisco apartment (00:17).
  • Shares quirky stories, including one where a passenger-less Waymo blared TLC’s “Creep” on a foggy night (00:43).

  “And I pulled up at a stoplight next to a Waymo...all the windows were down and they were blaring the song Creep.”
  — Katie Bindley (00:43)

• Public Fascination:

  • Waymo cars have become an object of fascination, especially for Katie’s 7-year-old nephew who now refuses regular taxis after his first Waymo ride (04:16).

2. The Reputation: Slow, Over-Cautious — “Way Slow”

• Common Complaints:
  • In their early iterations, Waymo cars were frustratingly cautious, notorious for slow driving and hesitancy at stop signs and around obstacles (05:20).

    “They were so careful and slow and you’d be like, come on Waymo, I’m in a hurry.”
    — Katie Bindley (04:37)

  • Examples include extended stops and reluctance to maneuver around delivery or ride-hailing vehicles (04:55).

3. A Change in Personality: “Waymo Gone Way Bold”

• Recent Incidents:

  • Katie recounts a striking four-way stop encounter: the Waymo, typically deferential, asserted itself and went through first (01:49).

    “We both pull up and the Waymo was just like, my turn, I’m going. And all of us kind of gasped...”
    — Katie Bindley (01:49)

• Multiple Eyewitnesses:

  • Other locals, like Sophia Yen, report observing “aggressive” taxi-driver-like behavior, including lane-switching in cramped tunnels and quicker movement through crosswalks (05:49, 06:04).

    “I would say it’s driving more like a taxi driver. An aggressive, you know, New York taxi driver.”
    — Sophia Yen (05:49)

  • Residents notice the emergence of the “California stop”—rolling rather than stopping completely at stop signs (06:41).

    “Some people claim they’ve seen Waymos do it too. Waymo says its cars are designed to come to a full stop.”
    — Jessica Mendoza (07:07)

4. Is This Deliberate? Waymo Responds

• Direct Interview with Waymo Executive:

  • Katie speaks with Chris Ludwick, a senior director at Waymo (07:27).

    “Yeah, we have been trying to make the cars more confidently assertive, as he put it, for a while now. It’s the strategy.”
    — Katie Bindley recounting Chris Ludwick (07:46)

• Why The Change?

  • Updates are intentional and tied to scalability and safety — passivity disrupts city traffic (08:02).

    “When the Waymos are too passive, it becomes disruptive to the rest of traffic. So, you know, there’s reasons to make them more confident.”
    — Katie Bindley (08:02)

• Not Rogue AI:

  • Rule updates are systemic, not individual cars “learning bad habits” (08:27).

5. Safety and Enforcement Challenges

• Company’s Track Record:

  • Waymo claims over 100 million driverless miles and 91% fewer serious crashes than human drivers (08:36).

• Instances of Misbehavior:

  • Rare but notable missteps, like illegal U-turns—a Waymo was pulled over by police (09:11).

    “The windows rolled down. And yes, there was no human in the front. But an operator did come on the speaker and profusely apologize.”
    — Katie Bindley (09:34)

• The Ticketing Problem:

  • Current legal limits: police can’t ticket a driverless car yet, but this is changing (09:34).

6. The Growing Pains of Robot Cars

• A Maturing Technology:
  • The episode closes with musings on the evolution of robotaxis as they “grow up” and adapt to real city environments (10:19).

    “I think they’re growing up, you know, they’re maturing.”
    — Katie Bindley (10:23)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On tech optimism:

  “I do feel lucky because I think it’s been fascinating to observe them, to observe how humans feel about them, how we interact with them.”
  — Katie Bindley (01:20)

• Public shift in Waymo’s Driving:

  “Waymo is tweaking the cars to be more assertive. Like the company is changing Waymo’s behavior.”
  — Jessica Mendoza (07:55)

• Safety statistics:

  “Waymo’s reported that compared with human drivers, it’s had 91% fewer crashes involving a serious injury or worse.”
  — Jessica Mendoza (08:36)

• Law enforcement awkwardness:

  “How do you ticket a car with no driver?...They can’t write them tickets yet. That is coming.”
  — Katie Bindley (09:25, 09:34)

• Coming into their own:

  “Our baby robot cars are coming into their own.”
  — Katie Bindley (10:30)

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Important Timestamps

• 00:43 – Katie’s story about the Waymo blaring TLC’s “Creep”
• 01:49 – Assertive four-way stop encounter with Waymo
• 04:16 – Katie’s nephew becomes a Waymo superfan
• 05:20 – Complaints about cautious, overly slow Waymos
• 05:49 – Sophia Yen describes aggressive, taxi-like Waymo moves
• 06:41 – Discussion of “California stops” and traffic norms
• 07:46 – Chris Ludwick confirms deliberate updates for assertiveness
• 08:36 – Waymo’s safety record cited
• 09:11 – Story of police pulling over a solo Waymo
• 10:23 – Discussion about robot cars maturing

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Tone & Language

Conversational, inquisitive, and lightly humorous, with hosts and guests sharing a mix of personal anecdotes and serious inquiry. The blend of skepticism, amusement, and optimism threads throughout, capturing the wonder and weirdness of living with self-driving cars that are starting to “drive like us.”

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Summary

This mini-episode of The Journal examines the evolving driving style of Waymo’s self-driving cars in San Francisco. Initially cautious to a fault, Waymos are now—by design—becoming more assertive and “human-like” on city streets. Through first-hand observations, public feedback, and official comment from Waymo, the hosts unpack what it means when robotaxis start executing aggressive lane changes, tentative “California stops,” and, occasionally, maneuvers worthy of a traffic ticket. As Waymo continues updating its software to blend sociability, safety, and driver etiquette, the city’s human and robotic drivers are learning to adjust to one another—sometimes with a gasp, sometimes with a laugh.

Transcript

[Jessica Mendoza]

My colleague, Katie Bindley lives in San Francisco. She's a tech reporter and therefore has taken a special joy in observing Waymos, the self driving robot taxis that are all over the city.

[Katie Bindley]

I was lucky enough to have Waymos training kind of all around my apartment for a while. And there were a lot of nights when, yeah, I would be driving home or heading somewhere and it would just be me in like four Waymos out on the road.

[Jessica Mendoza]

I love how you said I'm lucky enough to be in a neighborhood where waymos are trained. Is that really, like a stroke of luck?

[Katie Bindley]

Well, I mean, it was really entertaining. Like, I remember one night I was driving home and it was like this extremely foggy, you know, kind of moody night. And I pulled up at a stoplight next to a Waymo. There were no passengers in it and all the windows were down and they were blaring the song creep. Do you guys remember that song? Like, Sola Creep?

[Jessica Mendoza]

Yeah.

[Katie Bindley]

Yeah.

[Jessica Mendoza]

The car was just listening. The car was tlc.

[Katie Bindley]

Yeah. Having like a chill ride through the neighborhood. No, I do feel lucky because I think it's been fascinating to observe them, to observe how humans feel about them, how we interact with them.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Recently though, Katie told me she observed a Waymo doing something that caught her by surprise. She was in a car with a few other people one night. They'd rolled up to a four way stop at about the same time as another car, a Waymo.

[Katie Bindley]

And I would say, like, it was probably a tie. And typically in those types of circumstances, if it's a tie, the Waymo would be very deferential and would like. And would let you go, or it would wait to see if you were gonna go. And in this case, you know, we both pull up and the Waymo was just like, my turn, I'm going. And all of us kind of gasped at the same time. We were like, wow, that was like kind of an. That was kind of like an aggressive Waymo. And we started talking about how we'd all observed the Waymos, you know, being more assertive and more, you know, every man for himself.

[Jessica Mendoza]

I guess the experience got Katie thinking. Was Waymo's behavior changing? Were San Francisco's polite, deferential robo taxis driving a little bit more. Well, like us?

[Katie Bindley]

So then I started digging into it to see what was happening.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Welcome to the Journal. I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Monday, January 19, MLK Day. So to close out the holiday weekend, we're bringing you a fun mini episode. Coming up on the show, has Waymo gone from Way slow to Waygo.

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[Jessica Mendoza]

Waymos have their superfans. Among them Katie's seven year old nephew.

[Katie Bindley]

This is a Waymo. It is basically a car that no one drives.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Look, she recently took him for his first, first ever Waymo ride. Wait, it might turn. He now refuses to take any other kind of taxi in San Francisco.

[Katie Bindley]

See, that is amazing, right?

[Jessica Mendoza]

But even Waymo fans would admit Waymos aren't exactly known for their speed.

[Katie Bindley]

I mean, I remember driving behind them again in the early days and being like, oh God, I'm behind a Waymo. This is so annoying because they were so careful and slow and you'd be like, come on Waymo, I'm in a hurry.

[Jessica Mendoza]

How did you see that out on the roads? Like, what would they do?

[Katie Bindley]

Like, not just stopping at a stop sign, but like a kind of a longer stop than you might feel necessary, especially if you're in a hurry or I know they would not necessarily like go around a stopped Uber or a delivery truck.

[Jessica Mendoza]

They'd like, wait, yeah.

[Katie Bindley]

Okay guys, so we're blocked by semi. Let's see what Waymo does.

[Jessica Mendoza]

This is a common gripe against Waymo on social media.

[Katie Bindley]

Come on Waymo, you can do it. Or can you do it?

[Jessica Mendoza]

This has been Waymo's reputation. Passive, cautious, perhaps to a fault. But after that moment at the four way stop, Katie began asking around to see if other people were seeing Waymo's be bolder. One person she talked to was Sophia Yen, a health care company founder in San Francisco.

[Sophia Yen]

I would say it's driving more like a taxi driver. An aggressive, you know, New York taxi driver.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Okay. Recently, Sophia told Katy she saw two Waymos doing something that caught her off guard.

[Sophia Yen]

I was behind two of them in my own car in San Francisco. And you know that tunnel that runs through Chinatown?

[Katie Bindley]

Yeah.

[Sophia Yen]

I had never seen anyone switch lanes in that tunnel. And there were two Waymo and me behind, driving very, very quickly. And then they switched lanes in front of me and I was like, I hope they know where the other one is at all times.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Another person told Katie he'd noticed Waymos being more assertive with pedestrians. Starting to drive before people had fully exited the crosswalk. And then there's the matter of the so called California stop.

[Katie Bindley]

It is when you pull up to a stop sign and the car does not come to a complete stop. It slows down kind of to a.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Crawl and the person like looks both.

[Katie Bindley]

Ways and then they just go.

[Jessica Mendoza]

That's the kind of thing that would get you some demerits if you were taking a driving test. For sure.

[Katie Bindley]

I wonder if it would in San Francisco, because I feel like it is very widely accepted as a thing you do now.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Some people claim they've seen Waymo's do it too. Waymo says its cars are designed to come to a full stop. So you had all these stories that people were telling you. You saw things yourself with regards to Waymo in your reporting journey, what did you do next?

[Katie Bindley]

Oh, I had to ask Waymo what was going on.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Katie reached out to Waymo, which, by the way, is owned by Alphabet, Google's parent company. That's how she ended up on a call with Chris Ludwick, a senior director of product management at Waymo. Her question for Ludwick, was this really happening? Were Waymos driving more like humans? Ludwig was unequivocal.

[Katie Bindley]

He was like, yeah, we have been trying to make the cars more confidently assertive, as he put it, for a while now. It's the strategy.

[Jessica Mendoza]

So Waymo is tweaking the cars to be more assertive. Like the company is changing Waymo's behavior.

[Katie Bindley]

They do regular software updates. Okay, so this is something that's been happening over time. I mean, he described it as, you know, just kind of necessary in order to scale them up. In San Francisco, it's a busy city. You've got tons of cars on the road. When the Waymos are too passive, it becomes disruptive to the rest of traffic. So, you know, there's reasons to make them more confident.

[Jessica Mendoza]

So it's not like there's these, like, rogue Waymos just picking up the California rolling style on their own.

[Katie Bindley]

No.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Okay.

[Katie Bindley]

I don't think so. No.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Waymo says its cars are safe. A company spokeswoman said waymos have logged 100 million driverless miles in San Francisco and other major cities. And Waymo's reported that compared with human drivers, it's had 91% fewer crashes involving a serious injury or worse. Ludwig wouldn't comment on specific incidents of Waymo misbehavior, but he emphasized that while Waymos are designed to make common sense decisions, they're also designed to respect traffic laws. Still, Katie says that doesn't always happen.

[Katie Bindley]

San Bruno police pulled over a Waymo car with no driver Friday night while.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Conducting a DUI crackdown last year, two California cops pulled over a Waymo. Police say the car made an illegal.

[Katie Bindley]

U turn right in front of them.

[Jessica Mendoza]

And it raised an interesting question. How do you ticket a car with no driver? Katie talked to one of the cops.

[Katie Bindley]

The funny thing is, he said that he and his partner had just been talking about hearing about how waymos were getting more assertive. And then he said they saw a pull the ue and then they looked up and they saw the no U turn sign. So they put their lights on and pulled over the Waymo and the windows rolled down. And yes, there was no human in the front. But an operator did come on the speaker and profusely apologize. And they can't write them tickets yet that is coming. So, yeah, no tickets issued.

[Jessica Mendoza]

It's kind of unfair, isn't it?

[Katie Bindley]

I mean, you know, now that you mention it, yeah. Although I will. I've talked myself out of a few tickets, so I guess I can't complain.

[Jessica Mendoza]

I mean, does this mean our robot cars are getting their training wheels off?

[Katie Bindley]

I think they're growing up. You know, they're maturing.

[Jessica Mendoza]

Our innocent little robot cars are.

[Katie Bindley]

Yes, Our baby robot cars are coming into their own.

[Jessica Mendoza]

That's all for today. Monday, January 19th. The Journal is a co production of Spotify and the Wall Street Journal. Thanks for listening. We'll be back tomorrow with a regular episode.