# Waymo Driver 23 Hacker News commenters recommended Waymo Driver and 17 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months. **Verdict:** People recommend it as the most successful driverless system, with public rides that work, though critics note remote human help and limited service areas. ## Why people recommend it - Driverless rides work in public (4 comments): "Waymo's approach is proven to be better with every public fully autonomous ride they complete." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47009426)) "Waymo Driver 6 works. Level 4 automation, in commerce." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47074588)) "They have been fully autonomous for many years." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46995709)) - Ahead of Tesla's self-driving (4 comments): "Tesla EV performs far worse than the Waymo both during th crash and afterwards" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47002760)) "Waymo is doing 1000x better at "full self driving" than Tesla ever has." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46998008)) "In a saner world Teslas would be running Waymo's self-driving stack" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47124404)) - Major achievement that keeps improving (3 comments): "Everything you’ve mentioned don’t do anything to diminish the magnitude of this achievement in the slightest." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47006477)) "Waymo was proving that autonomous driving is feasible" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46991616)) "The Waymo Driver is getting smarter all the time." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46375393)) - Strong environment perception (2 comments): "The lead that Waymo has acquired in perceiving its driverless car's environment will be almost impossible to kill." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46996318)) "The Waymo driver can measure the speed and the acceleration of the offending car" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47448820)) ## What people warn about - Still relies on remote human help (4 comments): "Waymos are geofenced, restricted to certain roads, and have remote humans in the loop at lot more than most people assume." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47005224)) "It still needs human brains to take it by the hand and help it when it gets stuck in ambiguous situations" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46997226)) "The roll out of this is clearly limited by the number of remote employees that are filling in the 1%." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47004951)) - Gets stuck in unusual situations (2 comments): "Waymos get stuck in weird situations every day. They need intervention, even on their guardrails." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47023944)) "stuck behind one that just decided to stop and turn on the hazards in the middle of a two-lane" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46997841)) - Limited to geofenced roads (3 comments): "Waymo is good, but much more on guard rails in terms of its limits" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47003639)) "Waymos are geofenced, restricted to certain roads, and have remote humans in the loop at lot more than most people assume." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47005224)) "Waymo's strategy has been to start with a proof-of concept and gradually expand geography and capabilities." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46997122)) - Not fully autonomous without oversight (4 comments): "Not actually autonomous until it can be more or less trusted to handle itself, without constant human supervision." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47005260)) "The Waymo Driver is not "fully autonomous". It's an impressively well-functioning and safe system" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47003537)) "it does not choose point A and point B on its own: a human chooses them." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47002768)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Waymo](https://hackerapproved.com/p/waymo.md): 696 recommend - [Tesla Robotaxi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tesla-robotaxi.md): 41 recommend - [Tesla Cybercab](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tesla-cybercab.md): 21 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://waymo.com/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Waymo Driver", https://hackerapproved.com/p/waymo-driver/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).