‘Badass Blind Babe’ Jessie Wolinsky Shares Why She Rides With Waymo: “The Most Freeing Feeling Ever.”

Jessie Wolinksy is on a mission. Since being diagnosed at seven years old with retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that has steadily taken her peripheral vision, she has been on a journey of grief, acceptance, and now a fervent conviction to tell the world what it’s like to navigate life as a person who is  blind.

“I just want people to know disabled isn't a bad word,” Jessie said. “I think the more that you embrace the things that make you unique, the happier you are.”

Jessie has a podcast called Badass Blind Babe and built up a following of over 44,000 on TikTok as @BadassBlindBabe with audio stories and videos dispelling myths, sharing her perspectives, and chronicling her journey navigating the world as a person who lives with a disability. 

“There are all different types of blindness, whether you're losing peripheral vision, central vision, whether you have no vision, whether you just have light perception,” Jessie explained. 

In addition to educating the public about blindness in general, Jessie is using her platform to dispel the myth that people who are blind cannot be independent. Alongside many photos and videos showing her using a white cane, one of Wolinsky’s videos shows her using the Waymo One fully autonomous ride-hailing service, which is publicly available in San Francisco and Phoenix, with the caption: “I love my invisible boyfriend.” 

“The first ride with Waymo was absolutely wild,” Jessie recalled. “When you're in the car and there's no driver, you're a little bit worried at first, but then I felt so safe, I felt so comfortable.”

Before regularly using Waymo to get from point A to point B, Jessie had never been able to get in a car by herself and have control over the experience. Waymo One’s accessible app provides riders with wayfinding features to identify the vehicle at arrival and locate your destination at the end of a ride, as well as in-car descriptive audio cues to describe what’s happening during your ride.

“I've never been in a car by myself before, and I've never been able to get myself around freely, and have that sort of feeling, so I'm constantly being dependent on other people,” Jessie said. “It's very, very tricky to not feel like you can really be independent.”

Jessie said she prefers Waymo to riding with other ride-hailing services and trusting drivers she doesn’t know, which can be nerve-wracking for her.

“When it comes to other ride-shares, I have to be in the car with people that I don't know and trust strangers, and it can be very, very daunting as a blind person, but also as a woman,” Jessie shared.

When it comes to other ride-shares, I have to be in the car with people that I don't know and trust strangers, and it can be very, very daunting as a blind person, but also as a woman.

Jessie

For Jessie, finding Waymo gave her a type of independence she’d never had before, which she described as “the most freeing feeling ever.”

“There is so much hope for mobility” Jessie said. “Just being able to get around easily, and more on my own terms, in a safe way, has made me feel completely different about the way that I get around.”

There is so much hope for mobility. Just being able to get around easily, and more on my own terms, in a safe way, has made me feel completely different about the way that I get around.

Jessie

Recently, Jessie took a Waymo ride around San Francisco and brought along her boyfriend Nick. The two met at a birthday party last year and began dating after quickly identifying a shared love of the outdoors, coffee shops, and the city of San Francisco. 

“San Francisco is just a beautiful city,” Nick said. “And there's so much to do, and there's so many people, and everyone is always so friendly.”

On their Waymo ride, Jessie and Nick made stops at Golden Gate Park for a picnic and Progressive Grounds coffee shop in Bernal Heights.

For Jessie, sharing experiences like these with her followers is all a part of her mission to share her message with a wider audience.

“I think the main message is that being disabled doesn't mean you're incapable,” Jessie emphasized. “You might have different challenges, you have to navigate your life a little bit differently, but it, in no way, shape, or form diminishes my life.”