Co Armagh man and former Silicon Valley engineer jokes with self-driving taxi in San Francisco to take him to Portadown and Lurgan

Aaron McCaffrey spent 30 plus years in California but his trip to San Francisco for St Patrick’s Day was his first time in a driverless vehicle and he loved it.

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The Portadown native, who lives in Los Angeles, revealed: “My wife Cindy, son Conor and I got the train up from Sunnyvale, which is 40 miles south of San Francisco, on Saturday 15th for the annual St Patrick's Day parade (174th year for the parade!). Our daughter Sinead has performed Irish dancing in the parade with her dance school for the last 15 years.

"Instead of the usual Uber, I decided to book a Waymo self-driving taxi, as I noticed they were much more common on a recent trip to the city,” he said.

Aaron, who used to work for Google as an engineering manager before his retirement, knew that Waymo's parent company is Alphabet, the same parent company of Google.

"I'd also understood that they were five times safer than human drivers. You will see Waymo issues highlighted on YouTube, etc., but that stuff is often amplified versus regular car use. Other than San Francisco, the service is available in Los Angeles, Austin and Phoenix. Waymo's expansion to Europe is many years off, though competitors may arrive sooner.”

Aaron’s been in the USA since he went to watch Ireland play in the World Cup in New York in 1994, then went on to San Francisco and finally Los Angeles.

Before he went to San Francisco ahead of St Patrick’s Day he had already downloaded the Waymo App – which is similar to the Uber App.

"My wife was hesitant about using Waymo, so that was reason enough to try it! My son seemed to enjoy the experience,” said Aaron.

"It was a relatively uneventful 12-minute trip, which is what you would want. The cost was 9 pounds, similar to an Uber. I'd certainly use the service again,” he said.

"The cars are adapted Jaguars that probably cost over 150 thousand pounds!”

Aaron enjoyed the fact that he didn’t need to talk to a taxi or Uber driver nor did he have to tip.

"You can just slabber away (in my case asking for a diversion to the Tir Na nOg club in Portadown or the Ashburn in Lurgan). Maybe later I'll try it on a dark wet or icy night on the freeway/motorway,” said Aaron, adding that the car won't respond if it is ask it stuff like going to the Ashburn, etc; it only responds for emergency help.

"Internal cameras monitor activity, but in general, microphones are off. So someone fancying a joyride or delivering a suspect device would be stopped, in theory,” said the former Silicon Valley worker.

"Waymo seems to handle some San Francisco streets that are tough to drive, especially with some hills with gradients over 30%,” he said.

"There is a certain pleasure in hearing the drivers behind dooting their horns, even though they know it's a driverless taxi,” he said adding he had a test drive with engineers he knew.

It could be a while before they are in Lurgan or Portadown!