Today, Waymo showcased its new Ojai experience, bringing a more intuitive and seamless software experience to its customers. In addition, Waymo will now take advantage of Google’s Gemini AI assistant in order to give riders new ways to interact with “cabin controls, journey information, Waymo education, and everyday knowledge at the touch of a button.”
A new look and feel with Waymo
As you can imagine, having Gemini at your fingertips provides riders with an easy and seamless way to interact with the vehicle. You can tell Gemini to turn on the air conditioning, or set the heat to a certain temperature. You can even ask about local hotspots in order to get a better sense of the world around you.
Waymo stresses that Gemini is independent of Waymo’s own software system. So, while you will be able to tell Gemini to pull the car over, it will not recognize or be able to control “any aspects of the vehicle’s movement or routing”. Waymo also provides its customers with ultimate privacy, making the Gemini experience an option.
If you don’t engage with it, Gemini will not be part of the ride experience. At the moment, this feature is in beta, so you may not see it in every ride or every city. However, if you’re a Waymo rider, we recommend keeping an eye out for this feature in order to give it a try. Furthermore, you’ll want to check out Ojai too.
Hi, Ojai
Waymo states that this is the first major upgrade to its interface in years, introducing a more “relaxed” feel and “dynamic screen elements”. The goal is to make it all stress-free, with the menu system providing easier access to key ride information. This also extends to important controls for the cabin and media playback.
The cabin will now rely on a triple-screen setup to accomplish this, which will provide information to all passengers at a glance. The information on each screen will dynamically change based on how many riders are in the vehicle. For the most part, this all sounds quite exciting. And it’s important to feel comfortable if you’re riding a vehicle using autonomous driving technology.
Personally, I’ve never ridden in a Waymo before, but that’s because I’ve never really seen them on the road where I live. Hopefully, when I visit a bigger city, I’ll have the chance to give one a try. Have you ridden a Waymo? What was your experience like? Let us know in the comments.
