CEO of Waymo John Krafcik is leaving • Hacker News Board

Re: CEO of Waymo John Krafcik is leaving

#11

Post by meteor333 » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 6:22 PM UTC

endisneigh wrote: post #6

That's sad. I must be the only one who thinks full self driving will not happen before year 2100. Is there an example of anything that's completely automated that's dangerous? I cannot think of a single thing. At best things are partially automated and need humans still. The thing is, if you have "partial" self driving, you might as well just drive yourself IMHO. The consequence of being wrong with a car is literally…

Even for airplanes and trains, we still have pilots and humans behind the controller with 100% attention.

Re: CEO of Waymo John Krafcik is leaving

#12

Post by iujjkfjdkkdkf » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 6:22 PM UTC

I'm curious about the co-CEO thing. That seems like it is universally something that doesn't work and is just what happens when nobody wants to make a tough decision. Is there any context on why it might be the right move here?

Re: CEO of Waymo John Krafcik is leaving

#13

Post by 908B64B197 » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 6:23 PM UTC

mrpippy wrote: post #8

It'll be interesting to see where he goes next and if any info comes out about why he's leaving. Brief summary of his jobs: - NUMMI (GM/Toyota), 1984-1986 - MIT, 1986-1990 - Ford, 1990-2004 - Hyundai America, 2004-2013, left as president/CEO - TrueCar, 2014-2015 - Google/Waymo, 2015-2021

Apparently Apple is rumored to be working on a car...

Re: CEO of Waymo John Krafcik is leaving

#14

Post by blihp » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 6:23 PM UTC

andrewcl wrote: post #4

bertil wrote: post #2

Am I the only one to read like an acknowledgement that Waymo didn’t achieve what it was supposed to do and he was asked to go for lack of performance?

The CEO lists several accomplishments in the press brief. It doesn't appear to say that he's being let go specifically for performance concerns.

It rarely does unless there's been a very public screw up on the part of the executive that results in bad PR the company.

Re: CEO of Waymo John Krafcik is leaving

#15

Post by dmitrygr » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 6:26 PM UTC

endisneigh wrote: post #6

That's sad. I must be the only one who thinks full self driving will not happen before year 2100. Is there an example of anything that's completely automated that's dangerous? I cannot think of a single thing. At best things are partially automated and need humans still. The thing is, if you have "partial" self driving, you might as well just drive yourself IMHO. The consequence of being wrong with a car is literally…

> I must be the only one who thinks full self driving will not happen before year 2100.

Nope. Me as well. I think self driving is AGI-complete, and we are as far from AGI now as when we were living in caves, banging rocks together.

Re: CEO of Waymo John Krafcik is leaving

#16

Post by cbanek » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 6:27 PM UTC

iujjkfjdkkdkf wrote: post #12

I'm curious about the co-CEO thing. That seems like it is universally something that doesn't work and is just what happens when nobody wants to make a tough decision. Is there any context on why it might be the right move here?

I can only think of The Office: "It doesn’t take a genius to know that any organization thrives when it has two leaders. Go ahead, name a country that doesn’t have two presidents. A boat that sets sail without two captains. Where would Catholicism be without the Popes?"

Re: CEO of Waymo John Krafcik is leaving

#17

Post by bumby » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 6:27 PM UTC

endisneigh wrote: post #6

That's sad. I must be the only one who thinks full self driving will not happen before year 2100. Is there an example of anything that's completely automated that's dangerous? I cannot think of a single thing. At best things are partially automated and need humans still. The thing is, if you have "partial" self driving, you might as well just drive yourself IMHO. The consequence of being wrong with a car is literally…

There’s a decent amount of factory automation that is essentially fully autonomous with the exception of a “big red emergency shutdown” button for a human to press if all the other safeties fail. Many operate without continuous oversight and in the cases where a human is positioned to watch its usually for economic reasons rather than safety (e.g., to stop the operation if there is a quality issue that will render the product unusable)

Edit: downvoting is fine but please at least add to the discussion by stating why you disagree. I’m speaking only from my personal experience working in factory automation and realize there’s probably a lot of differing experience

Re: CEO of Waymo John Krafcik is leaving

#18

Post by jeffy90 » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 6:28 PM UTC

endisneigh wrote: post #6

That's sad. I must be the only one who thinks full self driving will not happen before year 2100. Is there an example of anything that's completely automated that's dangerous? I cannot think of a single thing. At best things are partially automated and need humans still. The thing is, if you have "partial" self driving, you might as well just drive yourself IMHO. The consequence of being wrong with a car is literally…

I wonder if perhaps we can't get self driving cars, but maybe we can can't self driving train carts and move completely away from cars?

Re: CEO of Waymo John Krafcik is leaving

#19

Post by piptastic » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 6:28 PM UTC

endisneigh wrote: post #6

That's sad. I must be the only one who thinks full self driving will not happen before year 2100. Is there an example of anything that's completely automated that's dangerous? I cannot think of a single thing. At best things are partially automated and need humans still. The thing is, if you have "partial" self driving, you might as well just drive yourself IMHO. The consequence of being wrong with a car is literally…

I don't know about 2100 but I've made some bets that self driving cars won't be available in the next 5 years.. 2 years ago.

Re: CEO of Waymo John Krafcik is leaving

#20

Post by endisneigh » Fri, Apr 02, 2021, 6:29 PM UTC

bumby wrote: post #17

endisneigh wrote: post #6

That's sad. I must be the only one who thinks full self driving will not happen before year 2100. Is there an example of anything that's completely automated that's dangerous? I cannot think of a single thing. At best things are partially automated and need humans still. The thing is, if you have "partial" self driving, you might as well just drive yourself IMHO. The consequence of being wrong with a car is literally…

There’s a decent amount of factory automation that is essentially fully autonomous with the exception of a “big red emergency shutdown” button for a human to press if all the other safeties fail. Many operate without continuous oversight and in the cases where a human is positioned to watch its usually for economic reasons rather than safety (e.g., to stop the operation if there is a quality issue that will render th…

My understanding is that with factory automation usually it's designed to the human is not in danger (usually they aren't even present at all). Are there factories that exist that are automated in a way where the human is exposed to a potentially lethal injury?