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Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel

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Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel

#251

Post by kyrra »

sudhirj wrote: post #164
a9a wrote: post #148

It will be interesting to see how Lyft's partnership with Waymo evolves given this tech announcement and Waymo's acknowledgment that they plan to offer their own ridesharing service. Lyft's approach to self-driving partnerships in general seems to rest on the assumption that self-driving providers will catch up to each other before any of them can fully handle everything a human driver can do. If this assumption is c…

Think it's unlikely that Waymo will build out and operate a full fledged ride service - there's a lot of other factors to work out like scheduling, routing, supply-demand management, optimal vehicle distribution, pooling etc that they could just delegate to Lyft for. They might just build a service to the extent of push a button and a vehicle will come, and take you where you tap. That's enough to work inside a contr…

Google already has a smaller ride sharing service with Waze. It differs from Lyft and Uber in that passengers only cover gas costs.

https://www.waze.com/carpool/

Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel

#252

Post by bamboozled »

aecs99 wrote: post #209
peoplewindow wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would self-ownership ever be the goal though? I can see people just moving en-masse to Lyft/Uber type services that use a mix of people and machines, with people eventually being phased out, and simply giving up their own cars (except for those who genuinely enjoy driving).

Interesting question. Like you, I too believe that a large population may prefer Lyft/Uber type services instead of dealing with the concerns of owning one (e.g., parking, requiring space for parking, insurance, time spent in fueling, maintenance, etc.). However, I tend to think that there still may be a decent size of population who'd prefer owning. Others mentioned the convenience of using cars for storage, being r…

Don’t forget off-road or very remote driving and camper vans.

Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel

#254

Post by LrnByTeach »

jedberg wrote: post #239
bitL wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you want to own a self-driving car? You'll just summon it from the nearest parking lot when needed.

My car doubles as a "everything I need when I take the kid out" storage. We always have: - diapers - changing pad - strollers - extra clothes - kids movies for the tv in the van, queued up to where we left off Sure, people in places like NYC just carry all that stuff with them when they take the kid out, but they also take the kid out less often or move to the burbs because it's a huge pain in the butt. I'd much rath…

I agree, say now you may have two CARS each costing $400/month ( AAA estimate ) Total cost of ownership ( Insurance, gasoline, Repairs, depreciation ).

Now when some thing is available for $200/month , you won ONE CAR like OLD way ( for Kids etc.. ), and your spouse may use FLEET CAR .

Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel

#255

Post by mavhc »

munificent wrote: post #240
saurik wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I store tons of stuff in my car so I can have it available at all of the various places I end up, and while I would happily believe I am not in the majority, this does not seem to be something that would be rare. While I don't feel the need to "own" a car (I literally rent a car continually, paying in 30-day cycles), it would be extremely annoying to not have consistent control over most of the storage space in a car…

It would be pretty easy for a fleet service to also provide a bin that you can persistently store your stuff in. When you summon a car, the system puts your bin in before it goes to get you.

I envisage systems of standardised storage lockers, you can pull the whole locker into your car, 4 fit in the car for 4 users, you can wheel them into work, or lock into cabinets around the place, when there's no car parks they'll be lots of free space, 1% can be for storage lockers.

Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel

#256

Post by fludlight »

jedberg wrote: post #239
bitL wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you want to own a self-driving car? You'll just summon it from the nearest parking lot when needed.

My car doubles as a "everything I need when I take the kid out" storage. We always have: - diapers - changing pad - strollers - extra clothes - kids movies for the tv in the van, queued up to where we left off Sure, people in places like NYC just carry all that stuff with them when they take the kid out, but they also take the kid out less often or move to the burbs because it's a huge pain in the butt. I'd much rath…

don't forget the bulky and heavy car seat(s)

Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel

#257

Post by emidln »

jedberg wrote: post #239
bitL wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you want to own a self-driving car? You'll just summon it from the nearest parking lot when needed.

My car doubles as a "everything I need when I take the kid out" storage. We always have: - diapers - changing pad - strollers - extra clothes - kids movies for the tv in the van, queued up to where we left off Sure, people in places like NYC just carry all that stuff with them when they take the kid out, but they also take the kid out less often or move to the burbs because it's a huge pain in the butt. I'd much rath…

When I lived in the Metro DC area (Bailey's Crossroads in NoVA) with a 1-2 year old we kept that stuff in the bottom of our stroller (mostly in a single medium-sized bag). We took the stroller everywhere via buses and trains. We very rarely drove our vehicle while living in DC since a couple grocery stores, several restaurants, and several department stores were within easy walking distance (about a mile) from our house. With the stroller, we used carabiners to hold bags on the walk back. For longer excursions (all day to a museum or zoo), I'd bring a backpack with misc stuff in addition to what was in the stroller. Our stroller had a detachable car seat integrated (the car seat set locked into the stroller when using it as a stroller), which allowed us to use taxis if needed.

Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel

#258

Post by jacquesm »

strin wrote: post #171

Levels of driving automation is an ill-defined concept. For example, L4 is defined as "mind-off". According to Wikipedia, "the driver may safely go to sleep or leave the driver's seat. Self driving is supported only in limited areas (geofenced) or under special circumstances, like traffic jams. Outside of these areas or circumstances, the vehicle must be able to safely abort the trip, i.e. park the car, if the driver…

> the driver may safely go to sleep or leave the driver's seat

That's going to be hard to do while you are wearing a seatbelt and I don't see seatbelt laws rescinded just because a vehicle is self driving until car accidents are exceedingly rare.

Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel

#259

Post by jdietrich »

dabeeeenster wrote: post #41
nwatson wrote: post #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'…

Why bother with ride sharing when the cost per mile would be so cheap?

A lot of low-income workers currently rely on informal ride-sharing schemes or shared taxis. They're not necessarily safe, reliable or legal, but they're very cheap and fill the gaps in official transit services.

Autonomous minibuses with AI dispatching could have a revolutionary impact on areas that are currently under-served by public transit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_van https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Share_taxi

Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel

#260

Post by pathorn »

kllrnohj wrote: post #110
rayiner wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These aren't "wacky what ifs." I don't know what things are like in the Valley, but here on the east coast something unexpected changes my commuting route a couple of times a month (multiply that by tens of thousands of drivers). "Do whatever the human would do, but more efficient" isn't an answer. These cars can't get on WTOP the day before and listen to the warning that the Pope is visiting and X, Y, Z streets will…

> "Do whatever the human would do, but more efficient" isn't an answer. These cars can't get on WTOP the day before and listen to the warning that the Pope is visiting and X, Y, Z streets will be blocked off. Well yes, they can. Planned closures like that are the easiest ones to handle. They are planned and broadcasted. They can simultaneously listen and account for all planned & broadcasted road closures. That's eas…

And yet Google Maps has on multiple occasions failed to recognize when a on-ramp to a major California Interstate was closed (even after the road work had been announced days in advance in huge street signs). I was forced to set my navigation to Avoid Highways for a bit to get it to consider an alternative.

And don't get me started on Germany. You don't stand a chance if you attempt to use Google Maps in Germany to navigate around construction (which is basically always happening somewhere)--at least that's how it was two years ago when going through country roads, despite the presence of well marked closure and detour signs.

My point is, these may be the "easiest" types of things to handle, but we have a long way to go on execution. Getting something to work in one locality (e.g. Arizona) is a far cry from making something work worldwide.

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