By law, autonomous vehicles are not permitted to transport unaccompanied minors in California. WaymoAlphabet’s self-driving car company, does not allow children under 18 to ride alone outside of the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area. But that hasn’t stopped some parents, pressed for time, from using their own accounts to transport their children to school, after-school activities and even social outings. A few to have reported that the lack of drivers makes them feel safer.
Waymo is working to crack down on the practice, the company confirmed Friday, after reports of new mid-term age checks began circulating on social media. The company has “policies in place” to help identify violations of its terms of service, Waymo spokesperson Chris Bonelli wrote in a statement to WIRED. “We continue to refine our system and processes to improve accuracy over time.” Violation of its terms of service may result in temporary or permanent suspension of an account, Waymo said.
The company uses cameras inside its cars to check that the riders are not breaking its rules. It is Privacy Policy notes that the company records videos inside the vehicle while traveling. Waymo said its support workers “may view video in certain circumstances” and, “in more urgent circumstances,” access live video while traveling. The company said it does not use facial recognition or “other biometric identification technologies” to identify individuals.
The news comes a month after several California labor groups, including the California Gig Workers Union, filed a formal complaint to a state regulatory agency, accusing Waymo of violating the terms of its license to operate in the state by knowingly transporting unaccompanied minors. The case was assigned to a judge this week. The state is weighing new rules that could allow solo drivers under 18 in driverless cars, perhaps along the lines of a program which allows rideshare companies with human drivers to transport minors in California.
So far, several fresh-faced adults have been caught in the crossfire. On Tuesday, Nicholas Fleischhauer, a machine learning engineer in San Francisco, was about five minutes into his Waymo ride when the car connected him to the medium. A voice came on the line asking Fleischhauer to verify his age. He told the worker the truth: he is 35 years old. “I had wet, messy hair and a backpack on me,” he said, explaining why he might have been flagged by Waymo’s system. Plus, “people told me I looked young for my age.” Fleischhauer says he takes Waymo every week, but this was the first time he’s been asked his age.
Since last summer, Waymo has allowed Phoenix-area parents to create teen accounts for riders aged 14 to 17. The accounts allow teen adults to track their location in real time during their travels. Waymo says it has a team of specially trained support agents to handle any issues its teens might encounter. Waymo says “hundreds” of Phoenix families use the service every week.
In Waymo’s other U.S. markets, adults are allowed to travel with guests under 18, although children under 8 must be in a secured car or booster seat.
Ethan S. Klein is 23 years old, but his 26th LA Waymo ride on Thursday — and the music he was listening to — was interrupted by a drive-by call from an assistance agent who asked him, for the first time, to verify his date of birth. Klein is an adult, but his first impulse was almost that of a teenager. “I was a little surprised,” he said. “I thought I was in trouble!”
Parents who use Waymo to transport their children to school and other activities to have said that driverless cars can be a big help when their families are not eligible for school transportation services, when different children need to attend different schools at the same time, or when they are not comfortable letting their children take public transportation. Uber and Lyft drivers sometimes cancel rides accompanied by minors.
Beyond the rules, however, the price of a driverless ride can limit access: a Waymo ride is on average 13% more expensive than an Uber, according to one study. January analysis.
