University of San Francisco

Flew into San Francisco from Vancouver, Canada, yesterday for the TechCrunch Disrupt event at Moscone West, which kicks off tomorrow. Thought I’d tick off an SFO pool before three jam-packed days of tech madness.

San Francisco’s still the home of tech, and the buzz right now is all about driverless taxis. Couldn’t resist the chance to give it a go, so I downloaded the Waymo app, signed up, and within minutes was hopping into a shiny white Waymo Jaguar. It knows where it’s going (I hope!), so I sat back, took in the experience, and let it whisk me off to the University of San Francisco for a swim.

The Waymo was brilliant—honestly, it only took seconds to feel at ease. The backseat display shows this 360-degree lidar view of the world around the car—buses, bikes, scooters, even dogs—everything accounted for and avoided. Ten minutes later, I was at the Koret Health and Recreation Center… well, sort of. It dropped me on the wrong side of the building, so not exactly perfect, but a quick two-minute walk sorted that out.

It’s $27 for a drop-in swim—ouch! And the touchscreen sign-in form? Let’s just say it’s not going to win any usability awards. But once you’re out on the pool deck, all is forgiven. It’s a cracking 50m x 25-yard pool with a boom across the middle, so there’s plenty of lane space. I counted 16 lanes, which is a dream if you’re used to fighting for space. Found a lane down at the far end and cracked on with a 3,000-yard swim. The water temperature was spot on, and the whole setup just felt really well-maintained.

Had a quick chat with a local in the changing rooms afterwards. He was keen to hear what I thought of San Francisco and its challenges. It’s my sixth visit here—first back in 1995 and the last in 2018—and the changes are both shocking and a bit sad. That said, there’s still hope, and the tourist spots like the Ferry Building and Fisherman’s Wharf still have the SFO feel.

Summoned another Waymo for the ride back to downtown.