EVwire brief: For Ruben Brunt, a 28-year-old born with a rare eye disorder, Waymo’s driverless vehicles have given him something he never expected: the simple joy of traveling completely on his own.
Brunt, who is legally blind and cannot drive, had never experienced the feeling of solitude inside a car, at least until Waymo arrived in San Francisco. Now he regularly makes the hour-long trip from Solano County just to ride one.
“It’s that feeling of independence and actually having the control. Being able to play whatever music you want, feeling like you’re in your own car.”
Waymo’s robotaxis have logged 170.7 million rider-only miles through December 2025
Brunt’s experience reflects a quieter but meaningful story emerging around robotaxis. For visually impaired, elderly, and disabled riders, autonomous vehicles are removing long-standing barriers that traditional ride-sharing has never fully solved.
Riders with guide dogs frequently report being refused rides by Uber and Lyft drivers, despite clear legal requirements to accommodate service animals. With robotaxis, that problem disappears. As per Claire Stanley, who is legally blind and who travels with her guide dog:
“When you don’t have a driver, there’s no driver to say no.”
Waymo’s driverless robotaxis are becoming popular among visually impaired, elderly, and disabled riders
Many women also cite improved safety. “I’m very cognizant about not being able to see the person and know what they’re doing,” Stanley added, referencing well-documented issues with sexual violence involving human ride-share drivers.
For now, the main current limitation is cost. Waymo rides currently run about 30% more expensive than a typical Uber or Lyft trip. However, as fleets scale, that gap is expected to narrow.
For riders like Brunt, the wait feels worth it.
“That feeling of independence is amazing. It’s something I never thought I would have growing up.”
Waymo rides are currently about 30% more costly than an Uber or Lyft trip
Context:
The safety case for robotaxis extends beyond personal comfort. Waymo’s autonomous vehicles have logged 170.7 million rider-only miles through December 2025, with safety data showing 92% fewer pedestrian injury crashes, 85% fewer cyclist injury crashes, and 81% fewer motorcycle injury crashes compared to human-driven vehicles.
Tesla has reported similar improvements with its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system. According to Tesla’s official data, vehicles using FSD Supervised have accumulated over 10.6 billion miles, including 3.9 billion miles in city streets. Tesla claims these vehicles experience 7x fewer major collisions, 7x fewer minor collisions, and 5x fewer off-highway collisions compared to human-driven baselines.
Source: New York Times
DON’T FORGET to subscribe to our EV industry newsletter to join 14,000+ EV geeks.
