SAN FRANCISCO: Ruben Brunt hopped off a ferry, tapped his white cane against the sidewalk and held his phone to his ear to listen for directions. His destination was a white Jaguar idling a few blocks away – with no one behind the wheel. Brunt, 28, was born with a rare eye disorder. He can’t drive himself and had never experienced the feeling of being alone in a car – until Waymo’s self-driving vehicles started navigating San Francisco’s hilly streets two years ago. Now Brunt will occasionally make the hourlong journey across the bay from his home in Solano County, California, just to ride in one. “It’s that feeling of independence and actually having the control,” he said. “Being able to play whatever music you want, feeling like you’re in your own car.” With hubs in San Francisco and Los Angeles, Waymo and its autonomous vehicle fleet have sometimes been a target of frustration and conflict, trapping riders when attacked, stalling during power outages and even killing a beloved neighbourhood cat. But with the largest population of blind people in the country, California has also seen the robot taxis offer something unexpected and joyous to the visually impaired – an opportunity for solitude on the streets. “I don’t have to talk to another human being,” said Sarah Funes, a South San Francisco resident who is partially blind and partially paralysed from a brain tumour. “I get in a car, and I’m just alone.” Another benefit is that driverless cars don’t discriminate, Funes said. She often posts online about human ride-share drivers who refuse to transport her service dog, despite policies requiring them to accommodate service animals. Claire Stanley, who is legally blind and uses a guide dog, said she had also had to “battle” for Uber and Lyft drivers to