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Alphabet's Self-Driving Cars to Get Their First Real Riders

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Re: Alphabet's Self-Driving Cars to Get Their First Real Riders

#21

Is there really a race to build self-driving cars? It seems that Waymo is eons ahead of everyone else.

I have a lot of respect for Waymo's approach to this.

While Tesla and Uber have both just recklessly (imo) jumped in and started setting loose self driving cars and making bold claims, Google/Waymo has really taken a slow and measured approach and given great care to making sure their cars are actually safe.

Re: Alphabet's Self-Driving Cars to Get Their First Real Riders

#22

Is there really a race to build self-driving cars? It seems that Waymo is eons ahead of everyone else.

I have a lot of respect for Waymo's approach to this. While Tesla and Uber have both just recklessly (imo) jumped in and started setting loose self driving cars and making bold claims, Google/Waymo has really taken a slow and measured approach and given great care to making sure their cars are actually safe.

Google's approach is cautious, however has Tesla been reckless?

Re: Alphabet's Self-Driving Cars to Get Their First Real Riders

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a lot of respect for Waymo's approach to this. While Tesla and Uber have both just recklessly (imo) jumped in and started setting loose self driving cars and making bold claims, Google/Waymo has really taken a slow and measured approach and given great care to making sure their cars are actually safe.

Google's approach is cautious, however has Tesla been reckless?

By describing and marketing driver assistance technology as self-driving technology.

Re: Alphabet's Self-Driving Cars to Get Their First Real Riders

#25
post #3

That the author even uses Uber as a rival to Weymo demonstrates their lack of awareness in the industry.

it's not obvious to everyone but Uber is betting big on self driving cars as well, in form of massive data science effort and route algos. great write up on this by Ben Thompson

https://stratechery.com/2016/google-uber-and-the-evolution-o...

Re: Alphabet's Self-Driving Cars to Get Their First Real Riders

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a lot of respect for Waymo's approach to this. While Tesla and Uber have both just recklessly (imo) jumped in and started setting loose self driving cars and making bold claims, Google/Waymo has really taken a slow and measured approach and given great care to making sure their cars are actually safe.

Google's approach is cautious, however has Tesla been reckless?

googles cars have gotten in a few fender benders and side swipes

people have died using teslas autopilot

Re: Alphabet's Self-Driving Cars to Get Their First Real Riders

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a lot of respect for Waymo's approach to this. While Tesla and Uber have both just recklessly (imo) jumped in and started setting loose self driving cars and making bold claims, Google/Waymo has really taken a slow and measured approach and given great care to making sure their cars are actually safe.

Google's approach is cautious, however has Tesla been reckless?

Arguably. Tesla has not done a good job educating their customers on the limits of their "Autopilot" system, which has led to at least one preventable death.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/28/tesla_autopilot_dea...

Re: Alphabet's Self-Driving Cars to Get Their First Real Riders

#28
post #4

How will self-driving cars affect society? Trying to wrap my head around the bigger picture.

http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2017/3/20/cars-and-second...

I didn't read the entire piece...

People think the autonomous car is going to solve a lot of the current problems; Accidents, Parking, Congestion. It kind of makes me giggle a bit, as I ponder what may happen. That is, the conclusions drawn from "self-driving" vehicles are possibly way over cooked.

The certification process for these cars are going to be very, very expensive. Think about the software involved for the operation of aircraft and the review / testing process then apply it for the road. That is level of scrutiny that will be placed on "self-driving" vehicles.

Hacking, equipment failures, environmental surprises and more will be sure to keep a healthy portion of the public skeptical and possibly downright hostile to the idea for at least a decade, post certification, in my opinion. "Self-driving" will be contained and tightly regulated.

What people on the coasts forget about is, really, the rest of the country. The people that actually enjoy driving, where parking isn't a problem, and congestion takes place in the morning and after work, but only lasts about 5 minutes. Metro areas of > 2 million people don't have much problems with traffic in flyover country... at least not when compared to the coasts.

The counter arguments to the piece are plentiful for the foreseeable future.

Re: Alphabet's Self-Driving Cars to Get Their First Real Riders

#29
post #20

I dream with the day that humans riding vehicles will be forbidden by law unless the driver would prove the need for human driving. So many deaths would be avoided.

have you thought the consequences of that?

No I'm very serious: we are unable to protect smart TVs. Networked smart cars (because let's be real - Google and co. would want to monetize this with Uber-like services, Ads in cars etc.) are a magnitude more likely to be hacked by both the state actors and rogue individuals (altho I don't see why we make this distinction...both are criminal acts).

The worst that can happen if your smart tv is hacked, is that they can listen and maybe watch you in your living room. If your car is hacked, they can probably kill you and hurt others while they are at it. If this happens on a large scale, it's extremely dangerous.

So while I have no problems with self driving in itself (or with Google for that matter of fact), I have a problem with banning human driving cars on the road without a viable (non-intrusive) alternative.

Re: Alphabet's Self-Driving Cars to Get Their First Real Riders

#30
post #7
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so?

Because Uber is ride sharing that is getting into self-driving vehicles, their money comes from the rides we take. Alphabet (Google) Is literally just testing and developing their own self-driving car technology. As far as we know they have no business model, yet.

Wow. How many people does Uber hire to troll on HN?
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