Mountain View-headquartered Waymo wants to expand the ride-hailing experience with its advanced self-driving taxi service. But if Bay Area test riders have anything to say about it, the previously Google-owned company still has a long way to go if its executives plan to compete with Lyft and Uber.

One man reportedly griped that the awkward end to his ride made him feel like he was getting dropped off by his dad. Other passengers grumbled that Waymo made them late to work, according to a story from The Information.

"That ride was s—!" wrote one Bay Area rider, who is also a Waymo employee. "Uncomfortable and downright alarming."

Tech industry publication The Information recently reviewed feedback on 10,500 trips taking place in July and part of August. The majority of the rides – 6,100 – took place in Phoenix, where the self-driving, ride-hailing cars are available to the public (with some paying customers and others riding for free).

Local Bay Area passengers, however, are employees of Waymo in San Francisco and the surrounding cities of Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Los Altos and Palo Alto.

"We know this area well," the company wrote in a statement to the Verge last October, after it announced it would begin testing fully driverless cars in California.

In the Bay Area, the complaint rate was 47 percent. A previous batch of data reviewed by The Information showed 40 percent of passengers in Phoenix gave their Waymo ride less than a 5-star review. That's now down to 30 percent.

Notably, though, the company encourages its employees to be especially critical when serving as test riders.

"All of our Bay Area test riders are Waymo employees," a Waymo representative said. "We push ourselves to give rigorous, critical feedback on every ride, including rides rated 5 stars, which helps us continuously improve our product."

In addition, San Francisco streets are notoriously crooked and narrow, with a higher density of foot traffic.

During test drives, Waymo passengers usually aren't alone. A designated "safety driver" sits behind the wheel, but with their hands in their laps instead of controlling the vehicle.

Many passengers complained about "weird drop-offs, circuitous routes, and shaky driving" but others applauded their Waymo taxi for "coping admirably with idiot drivers of the human variety" during their ride.

Either way, self-driving technology of this variety won't be available to the public any time soon. J.D. Power's recent survey of auto and tech industry professionals shows that experts predict it will be "at least 12 years" before fully autonomous vehicles will be sold on the market.

Tell that to Elon Musk, who wants to put one million robo-taxi Teslas on the market next year – pending regulatory approval.

"We're taking a gradual, iterative approach to scaling our self-driving service as we continue to learn and improve," Waymo said.

[Editor's note, Aug. 28, 2019: Waymo has since clarified that all Bay Area test riders are employees of the company and provided quotes for the story. The article has been updated throughout to reflect this.]

Amanda Bartlett is an SFGate editorial assistant. Email: amanda.bartlett@sfchronicle.com