By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Online Tech Guru
  • News
  • PC/Windows
  • Mobile
  • Apps
  • Gadgets
  • More
    • Gaming
    • Accessories
    • Editor’s Choice
    • Press Release
Reading: The Teens Are Taking Waymos Now
Best Deal
Font ResizerAa
Online Tech GuruOnline Tech Guru
  • News
  • Mobile
  • PC/Windows
  • Gaming
  • Apps
  • Gadgets
  • Accessories
Search
  • News
  • PC/Windows
  • Mobile
  • Apps
  • Gadgets
  • More
    • Gaming
    • Accessories
    • Editor’s Choice
    • Press Release

Amazon Prime Day 2025 Sale: Deals on OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite, Redmi A4 5G, Lava Storm Play 5G Announced

News Room News Room 9 July 2025
FacebookLike
InstagramFollow
YoutubeSubscribe
TiktokFollow
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Terms of Use
© Foxiz News Network. Ruby Design Company. All Rights Reserved.
Online Tech Guru > News > The Teens Are Taking Waymos Now
News

The Teens Are Taking Waymos Now

News Room
Last updated: 9 July 2025 09:12
By News Room 4 Min Read
Share
SHARE

Are the kids all right? They’re in Waymos, at least, now that the self-driving car company has begun to allow Arizona teenagers in the Phoenix area to ride by themselves through special “teen” accounts.

Eventually, the teen service, open to 14- to 17-year-olds, could come to all of the markets in the US where Waymo operates its robot taxis, the company says: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Atlanta, and soon, Miami and Washington, DC. In a country where so much of the transportation system depends on access to cars—and where many people, including those too young to have a driver’s license, are limited in what they can do and where they can go because of it—the move both promises and threatens to reorder young adult life.

The teens, and their parents, like it that way, according to Waymo. The concept of robot cars still scare plenty of people, but Waymo says its customers’ enthusiasm for the self-driving cars has a lot to do with quelling fears.

The company has been testing the new service in Arizona for two years, starting with analyzing the transportation habits of a handful of Phoenix area families in 2023. For the last stage, researchers, led by Waymo’s product and customer research manager Naomi Guthrie, interviewed the teens who took part in a hundred-family pilot. In interviews with those participants, Guthrie was struck “by the mounting anxiety that we see in that generation.”

Youth Drive

Compared to what Guthrie remembered from her teen years, kids seemed in constant touch with their caregivers and to almost expect surveillance, with location-based apps such as Life360 allowing adults to keep tabs on their whereabouts. But their movements were limited, too, by those caregivers’ schedules and whether they could hitch rides. The teens interviewed had some “stranger danger,” either a fear of or strong preference against interacting with strangers. They were also nervous about getting behind the wheel.

“Teens are scared to drive,” says Guthrie. Nationwide stats back that up, to some degree: Nearly 5 percent of all US drivers were 19 or younger in 2007, the year the iPhone came out, according to federal data; by 2023 this had dropped to 3.7 percent.

Caregivers’ worries, too, came up in Waymo feedback and interviews, Guthrie says. They were stressed by the expectations of modern parenting, which include playing at least part-time chauffeur to ferry kids to school and then after-school activities. They were also concerned about their children (as well as their children’s least-risk-averse friend) getting behind the wheel. Nationwide stats back that up, too: Teen drivers 16 to 19 are three times more likely to be in a fatal crash than drivers 20 and older.

Waymo believes there is serious money—”product-market fit,” in the parlance of user-experience experts like Guthrie—in being the solution to these many anxieties.

Going Solo

Teen Waymo accounts are linked to adult ones, and like adults, their accounts can be deactivated if they violate Waymo policies, which forbid in-car drug and alcohol use, weapons, big messes, and touching the vehicle’s steering wheel or brakes.

As with anyone who rides a Waymo, teens riding in the cars will have access to 24/7 customer support, including agents who can be contacted with a push of a button. Teen customers’ in-vehicle requests will be automatically routed to the company’s highest tier and best-trained agents. Waymo is also able to loop parents into rider-support calls.

Share This Article
Facebook Twitter Copy Link
Leave a comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

China Has Attempted What Might Be the First-Ever Orbital Refueling of a Satellite

News Room News Room 9 July 2025
FacebookLike
InstagramFollow
YoutubeSubscribe
TiktokFollow

Trending

Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2025: the 7 biggest announcements

Samsung’s summer Galaxy Unpacked event has come to a close. As expected, the company unveiled…

9 July 2025

Samsung Unpacked 2025: Galaxy Watch 8, Watch 8 Classic With One UI 8.0 Watch, Exynos W1000 Chip Launched

Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 and Galaxy Watch 8 Classic were unveiled at the Galaxy Unpacked…

9 July 2025

Redmi 15C Leaked Renders Show Design, Colour Options; Reportedly Spotted on NBTC Site Alongside Poco C85

The Redmi 15C is likely to debut in select global markets soon. Ahead of anything…

9 July 2025
Gaming

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered Update 1.2 Finally Adds Performance Improvements, Tunes Journeyman Difficulty Setting

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered finally has a new update with much-needed performance improvements and tweaks to the difficulty settings.Bethesda said update 1.2 focuses on fixes for quests, gameplay,…

News Room 9 July 2025

Your may also like!

News

Everything Samsung Announced at Its Summer Galaxy Unpacked Event

News Room 9 July 2025
News

Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2025: Everything announced at the July event

News Room 9 July 2025
PC/Windows

Amazon Prime Day 2025 Sale: Top Laptop Deals Are Here

News Room 9 July 2025
Gaming

Dragon Age: The Veilguard wins Game of the Year at Gayming Awards 2025

News Room 9 July 2025

Our website stores cookies on your computer. They allow us to remember you and help personalize your experience with our site.

Read our privacy policy for more information.

Quick Links

  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Terms of Use
Advertise with us

Socials

Follow US
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?