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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

#131

Post by nmeofthestate »

nickparker wrote: post #118
Fifer82 wrote: post #107

I would like to see little leased pod cars which trundle around at the local speed within a certain range, and have the ability to go to a Bus Lane (I presume the bus is dead), and join a Magnetic Track of sort where they go 200 miles an hour. That would be pretty amazing. Why they are sticking shit all over 2 ton vehicles? If they are solving Fuel and Emissions and Driver, can't they just take the final step of a re…

Hyperloop One is working on this. Small self driving cubicles drive around the city and pop into larger pods that go 700 mph in the Hyperloop between cities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fze5spdN3nU

Seems a bit gimmicky (it's the hyperloop after all). If the self-driving car is the vehicular equivalent of a hot desk, why not just exit it and walk into the hyperloop pod, instead of transporting tonnes of weight of interchangeable self-driving car? Then just hop into a different one that's waiting at the other end.

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

#132

Post by tyingq »

TheGRS wrote: post #128
djsumdog wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder this about autonomous cars in general from any company. They're cool tech and in Europe, they can really help solve several last leg problems and cut down on car ownership (I really don't think people should be able to own self driving cars. They really need airplane style maintenance for sensors and companies need to work together so all fleets have the latest safety and security updates). However I don't r…

Haven't really thought about the safety and maintenance part of this before. If people own their self-driving cars I suppose there's also a chance they can opt-out of software updates, which would potentially be very dangerous. I do believe that the autonomous car future will have room for owned vehicles, but at this stage I don't think any of us really know how it will shake out.

I assume a lease program with baked in maintenance costs and a lockout if maintenance is skipped would suffice.

Edit: And I assume the car could drive itself to preventive maintenance appointments if it's something that can't be done OTA.

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

#133

Post by monkmartinez »

omg_ketchup wrote: post #45
monkmartinez wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are you so sure driverless cars will get into less accidents? Furthermore, how is this technology going to be make everything less expensive. Please explain. For the record, I think this technology will make the prices for these vehicles prohibitively expensive for the mass market.

Well for one, you don't need to own your car. You just use it. If you (or anyone you know) owns a traditional automobile, it sits unused for 90% of its life. In a driveway, on the sidewalk, in a parking lot, etc. You pay for 100% of the car, but only use 10% of it. If you could rent it out to others ('the grid') while you're not using it, they would share some of the burden, lessening yours. They make things safer be…

You know there is a whole legion of jobs that require a vehicle? All construction jobs for example. Most service techs require a bunch of expensive tools and need a secure place to keep them on site. The list literally goes on and on...

Can an hunter ride share the pacifica out to the forest with his/her hunting gear? How about bicyclists? People with kids know about activity shuffling... I am not sure that sharing will work for my families schedule.

Driving drunk isn't the bulk of the accidents I go to on a regular basis. If we could just eliminate texting while driving, we could see a significant drop in accidents.

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

#134

Post by yumraj »

tyingq wrote: post #83

Is Waymo clear about what the end goal is? I can't tell if they plan to launch an Uber like service, or a direct-to-consumer lease type service, or just to be suppliers (whole vehicles, components like lidar, software) to companies like Uber. Or maybe they are leaving all of that undecided for now? I'm not sure this rider trial thing strongly signals any of them. You would want real world end-customer experiences reg…

> Is Waymo clear about what the end goal is?

IMHO, it may be a little short sighted to look at Waymo and self-driving cars by itself, I believe it fits into the broader DL-AI initiatives within Alphabet as yet another DL-AI application. Whether it becomes an end in itself or simply feeds into other DL-AI initiatives is most likely still undefined.

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

#135

Post by QuercusMax »

diebir wrote: post #109
QuercusMax wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

s/selling/stealing/ (or maybe buying?); Levandowski allegedly stole data when he left Google, and brought it to Otto, which is now owned by Uber.

I guess except that it's not about some stolen files, but rather about people. Uber has the guy who built the Google's self driver tech, which is what really matters.

bhhaskin's post said Uber was selling secrets, which is definitely NOT the case; I don't think I've heard anyone accusing them of that.

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

#136

Post by Dirlewanger »

monkmartinez wrote: post #28
AndrewDucker wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>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.

This is one of the most scariest points to me. Are any entities working on lobbying Congress about this? I've seen nothing on it, yet we already have a handful of these technologies on the road. One can retort with what offerings there are are "safer" than humans, but that's missing the point entirely.

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

#137

Post by ginko »

djsumdog wrote: post #94
tyingq wrote: post #83

Is Waymo clear about what the end goal is? I can't tell if they plan to launch an Uber like service, or a direct-to-consumer lease type service, or just to be suppliers (whole vehicles, components like lidar, software) to companies like Uber. Or maybe they are leaving all of that undecided for now? I'm not sure this rider trial thing strongly signals any of them. You would want real world end-customer experiences reg…

I wonder this about autonomous cars in general from any company. They're cool tech and in Europe, they can really help solve several last leg problems and cut down on car ownership (I really don't think people should be able to own self driving cars. They really need airplane style maintenance for sensors and companies need to work together so all fleets have the latest safety and security updates). However I don't r…

> I really don't think people should be able to own self driving cars. They really need airplane style maintenance for sensors and companies need to work together so all fleets have the latest safety and security updates

Couldn't this be solved as easily as you car telling you that while you're at work it will head over to the repair shop to get its sensors checked up?

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

#138

Post by Fifer82 »

nickparker wrote: post #118
Fifer82 wrote: post #107

I would like to see little leased pod cars which trundle around at the local speed within a certain range, and have the ability to go to a Bus Lane (I presume the bus is dead), and join a Magnetic Track of sort where they go 200 miles an hour. That would be pretty amazing. Why they are sticking shit all over 2 ton vehicles? If they are solving Fuel and Emissions and Driver, can't they just take the final step of a re…

Hyperloop One is working on this. Small self driving cubicles drive around the city and pop into larger pods that go 700 mph in the Hyperloop between cities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fze5spdN3nU

I didn't know about that (the pods bit!), thanks for the link.

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

#139

Post by monkmartinez »

rhino369 wrote: post #115
monkmartinez wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are you so sure driverless cars will get into less accidents? Furthermore, how is this technology going to be make everything less expensive. Please explain. For the record, I think this technology will make the prices for these vehicles prohibitively expensive for the mass market.

The additional hardware and software will be expensive as hell to develop, but once it's invented, the marginal cost should be fairly cheap compared to the price of a car. processing power = cheap software (marginal cost) = just gotta pay for updates and fixes sensor package = expensive now because nobody is making 6 million of them a month. Once they do, it'll be a lot more affordable. That doesn't mean it'll pay of…

> The additional hardware and software will be expensive as hell to develop, but once it's invented, the marginal cost should be fairly cheap compared to the price of a car.

Go talk to a pilot and ask them about Garmin products and the autopilot of their plane. Also ask them about update the software on these devices. Ask how much money they are asked to fork over for software...

Have a look at the self-driving tech of the John Deere tractors and how well that has gone for the farmers. I don't think the bulk of people here have really thought about this in a negative light.

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

#140

Post by danans »

Pigo wrote: post #58
ohstopitu wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It sounds like a nightmare to me. God forbid I live in a state that won't allow me the enjoyment of safely operating a vehicle. Maybe they can choose what I'm allowed to eat as well. Please relieve me of all this self-reliance big brother...

Nobody will prevent you from the enjoyment of driving, but just as it is now, you will probably be required to insure yourself against the externalized risk associated with operating your vehicle, and that risk will be measured relative to your other transportation options.

It's the same reason that you pay relatively high car insurance premiums when you are in your teens and twenties.

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