How is this legal?
Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel
11–20 of 634 posts
Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel
#12How is this legal?
The laws governing self-driving cars in Arizona are extremely lenient, perhaps the most in the nation. Additionally, it appears as if each ride is being monitored in real time remotely by a Waymo employee, who can intervene if something goes wrong, or if the riders request.
Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel
#13>>> "Waymo will be operating a fully autonomous ride hailing service without any humans at the wheel ... Waymo wants to broaden the geographic scope of its trial, starting with expansion in the near-term to cover the entire Phoenix metro area, which represents more acreage than the whole of the Greater London area, he noted"
My family is mostly in Tempe / Mesa area (near Chandler, AZ) and during my last few visits I've seen an increasing number of these autonomous (driver-at-the-wheel) cars on the streets. Note that Uber / Lyft also are very popular in the area.
Waymo's transition to a general-public/driverless service in the whole Phoenix area will be the first time that automated ride-hailing services go up against human-driven ride-hailing services. This will be a very interesting and perhaps disturbing experiment. I predict Waymo will price their service competitively, will ramp up to a large fleet, and that after a few months Uber / Lyft will be in trouble. The public will accept the perceived risks in driverless rides.
Over a longer term it will be interesting to see what impact there is on car-buying, congestion ... I wonder whether Waymo will provide ride-sharing as well.
EDIT: clarification; ride-sharing; car market; traffic congestion. ( Hmmm, also adding that "... after a few months Uber / Lyft will be in trouble" is probably too compressed, it realistically will take a longer time. )
Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel
#14I do a hit and run on a driverless car, assume its on its way to pickup a passenger, so no humans involved.
I hack a driverless car, again with no passengers, and make it do my bidding (hit that other [thing])
I follow driverless car back to its charging base and slash its tires?
I rearend a driverless car then leave the scene? (same as option 1 I guess - but could be applied differently)
A driverless car gets into its first fatal accident of a passenger, will that lawsuit result in the shutdown of the company? Who specifically will be held to account? Will the developer of the software? Will the engineer who didnt provide sufficient sensors? What if the driverless car looses traction due to black ice, and that results in the death of the passenger or another driver?
Im ubering from place A to place B and my phone dies early in the trip and the uber ride cant bill me?
What happens? There are a lot more questions that should be posed - and we should answer them all.
Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel
#15How is this legal?
Arizona's government has deliberately taken a very pro-autonomous vehicles approach. The governor's executive order [1] specifically allows driverless vehicles on the roads within the state, provided they follow traffic laws and there is a licensed driver somewhere who will take responsibility if something goes wrong.
[1] https://azgovernor.gov/file/2660/download?token=nLkPLRi1
Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel
#16How is this legal?
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Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel
#17I do a hit and run on a driverless car, assume its on its way to pickup a passenger, so no humans involved. I hack a driverless car, again with no passengers, and make it do my bidding (hit that other [thing]) I follow driverless car back to its charging base and slash its tires? I rearend a driverless car then leave the scene? (same as option 1 I guess - but could be applied differently) A driverless car gets into i…
You get arrested for leaving the scene of an accident, and probably sued for damages. This is no different than smashing a parked car with no occupants and then driving off, except that in this case the car's sensors guarantee that you'll get caught.
Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel
#18I do a hit and run on a driverless car, assume its on its way to pickup a passenger, so no humans involved. I hack a driverless car, again with no passengers, and make it do my bidding (hit that other [thing]) I follow driverless car back to its charging base and slash its tires? I rearend a driverless car then leave the scene? (same as option 1 I guess - but could be applied differently) A driverless car gets into i…
Your vehicle and face are recorded by half a dozen cameras on the self-driving car and uploaded to the local police department for the accident report.
Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel
#19Waymo’s tech requires the area to be meticulously mapped correct? Is this why the test is limited to a small geography?
The Ars Technica article says this is still the case:
> To aid with navigation, Waymo has built high-resolution three-dimensional maps of its service area. Self-driving software in each car can compare the objects identified by sensors to objects on the map, allowing it to quickly distinguish stationary objects like trees and buildings from mobile objects like cars and pedestrians.
> As Waymo expands its map and acquires more vehicles, it will also expand its service area. Before too long, Waymo expects to offer service across the entire Phoenix metropolitan area. Eventually, Waymo will extend service to other metropolitan areas using the same incremental approach.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2017/11/fully-driverless-cars-a...
Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel
#20I do a hit and run on a driverless car, assume its on its way to pickup a passenger, so no humans involved. I hack a driverless car, again with no passengers, and make it do my bidding (hit that other [thing]) I follow driverless car back to its charging base and slash its tires? I rearend a driverless car then leave the scene? (same as option 1 I guess - but could be applied differently) A driverless car gets into i…
There’s probably a ton of telemetry and data being recorded from any self driving car, so I doubt that would end well for you.