When a Robotaxi Becomes Part of a Birth Story

0:00Welcome to the podcast. I'm your host Jayden Schaefer. Today on the show a woman has given birth in a San Francisco robo-taxi, in a Waymo, AI driving and human doing the labor and delivery. And this whole thing raises a lot of philosophical questions that previous people never had to think about. Does the baby get its own rider rating? Should the parents be the ones tipping? And what exactly does a robo-taxi think when a human being materializes in its backseat? We're getting into all of that on the podcast today, but before we do, if you've ever wanted to try all of the different AI models we talk about on this show, make sure to go check out AIbox.ai.

0:40This is my very own startup where I let you chat with the top 40 different AI models, a bunch of image, audio models from 11 labs, all in one place. You can compare the results side by side and see which model is best. And you also don't have to have subscriptions to 40 different platforms. You can have them all in one place, all of your data's in one place, centralized, encrypted, amazing. Go check it out, AIbox.ai. All right, let's get into the driverless delivery as the San Francisco Standard is calling it, where a woman has given birth in a San Francisco Waymo. The interesting thing is that the Waymo said it detected, quote unquote, unusual activity in their robotaxi and actually initiated a call to 911 to check on the passenger.

1:23But before that, the passenger actually arrived at the hospital. So what happens to a Waymo when someone gives birth inside of it? This was a pregnant woman who was heading to UCSF to give birth. She obviously had contractions, but was not. I mean, it's really hard to time this, and you never know when that baby is coming. So a UC San Francisco spokesperson said, quote, We can confirm this is true, and the mother and the baby came to our hospital. So this is a legit thing that has happened. And according to Waymo, the rider support team detected some unusual activity inside of the vehicle. They called 911.

2:02The robo-taxi got to the hospital before the emergency service vehicles intercepted the Waymo. And then the vehicle was promptly removed. They took it out of service and they went and actually cleaned it, which I think seems quite reasonable given the circumstances of everything that has happened. The statement from Waymo absolutely killed me. Apparently a Waymo spokesperson was talking about this and they said in a very cheerful positive spin on this whole thing, they said they are, quote, proud to be trusted rides for moments big and small, serving riders from just seconds old to many years young.

2:37Anyway, so that was hilarious. They also said that they're wishing the family all the best and they look forward to safely getting them where they're going throughout many of life's events. Anyways, obviously this is great publicity for Waymo because if someone doesn't have a ride to a hospital as a pregnant person, I mean, I'm not sure if her partner or perhaps her husband was there and in the car with her or if this person was, you know, perhaps single and literally went with no other option other than perhaps a taxi or Uber or something. but a Waymo obviously seemed like a good situation, perhaps a good choice in the situation.

3:11I'm not sure. What would you do if you were going into labor and had no one else to drive you? Would you take an Uber, a taxi, or a Waymo? I can see why someone would pick a Waymo. It seems a little bit more private if you're in contractions going through a lot of pain. Maybe you don't want to startle your Uber driver. And so maybe this would be a good choice. But is it the safest thing? that is another question that is definitely to be to be discussed. So Waymos have obviously become a lot more popular. We have a lot of other car companies that are rolling these out. Tesla is working on a competitor.

3:44Uber is working on a competitor of these self-driving car taxi companies and they have obviously doing all sorts of things. I think new parents right now have been known to ride from the hospital in the Waymo with their newborns on the way home. This is something that I think a lot of people know about, but using it to actually get to the hospital and getting birth with it, this is, you know, something that's a little bit newer, but actually Waymo, when they were asked about it, confirmed that this is not the first birth in one of its vehicles. I used to live in Arizona for the last five years.

4:13I recently moved, but we have tons of Waymos there. And in Phoenix, there was actually someone, I believe in September that had, that gave birth in a Waymo as well. Very tricky to time that on the way to the hospital. So Waymo said, while this is a very rare occurrence, some of our newest riders just can't wait to experience their first Waymo ride. Anyways, I think this is absolutely hilarious. San Francisco has obviously been one of the big testing grounds for autonomous vehicles, along with, I think, Austin, Texas and Phoenix, Arizona. And now they are seeing the next evolution in driverless rides, which is people are now giving birth inside of Waymo's, or as the San Francisco Standard has put it, quote, the city's robots can now officially handle rush hour traffic, double parking, and apparently labor and delivery.

5:03No word yet on whether the newborn is going to receive free ride credits or, I mean, honestly, at this point, I think they should receive free Waymos for life. But we'll see if that ever actually ends up panning out. Anyways, thanks so much for tuning into the podcast. It is a crazy story. It was a short one, but I wanted to bring it to you. I think that it is an actual and actually an interesting topic. while some people might think it's terrifying, some people might think it's funny. I think this is an interesting topic because with Uber and with Tesla and with Waymo and more and more of these self-driving taxi companies coming online, it is a question that we have to grapple with.

5:34There will be serious things that happen in Waymos. And of course, you could have labor and delivery. I know it sounds morbid, but you have to imagine what would happen if someone overdosed in a Waymo or all sorts of emergencies that could happen in these self-driving cars. How do we handle that? Does the Waymo know to pull over? In this case, the team that's kind of in charge of this detected unusual activity. I'm assuming there was, they have like volume detection in there. I'm assuming they were hearing loud yelling, screaming, those types of noises. And they actually have people remote that can check in and look inside of the Uber, probably understood that there is a big issue going on.

6:09But what happens to the Uber? Does it, or the Waymo, does it pull over? Does it stop taking you to your route? Does it wait for, you know, police to arrive? Typically, I think it will have the destination of where you're going in marked out. The ride will continue, but they'll send emergency vehicles to either intercept or arrive at the same destination. In the case of this Waymo, it actually got all the way to the hospital before the emergency vehicles got there. So it's kind of an interesting question of does it complete the ride or does it pull over, right? What's the safest thing for the patient or the person inside?

6:40Obviously, if it's on the way to the hospital, there's not really a much faster way to get to the hospital, although I guess an ambulance, but moving someone from a Waymo to an ambulance and getting to the hospital would probably slow it down. So it's honestly a really interesting question that does have to be grappled with. Even if it's not your only option, I can imagine in for a woman in labor, perhaps having their partner in the backseat with them, trying to help them through that difficult moment might be more useful than, you know, when I'm driving my wife to the hospital. And, you know, it's not a super comfortable experience.

7:10And I can't really give her that much attention because I'm focusing on trying to keep us all alive while I drive like a maniac to the hospital. So I mean, it is an interesting and it is a fair point. So we'll see what happens in the future. Thanks so much for tuning into the podcast today. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to leave a rating and review wherever you get your episodes. And I will see you on the next show. Make sure to go check out AIbox.ai.