Waymo is using the work of local artists to “humanize” its driver-less cars.
As consumers slowly warm up to robotic vehicles—a halting process given the occasional crashes and privacy complaints about the cars’ constant surveillance system—the company’s management has realized that the robotic nature of its cars can be unsettling—not good for the overall brand. So the art project was launched in 2015.
From a New York Times article on the project: “This points to deeper reasons, beyond a simple cool factor, why Waymo has teamed up with local artists instead of using, say, A.I.-generated designs. Even if Waymos are proving safer than many expected (the company has released a trove of data to this effect), art remains an easy way of making the intimidating vehicles more approachable or even personable. Just as some food-delivery bots have faces or names that make them seem friendly, art lends Waymos—which make human drivers superfluous—a human touch.” (Art and photo © 2025 Nigel Sussman Illustration, LLC.)
