Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Waymo One doubles service area in Phoenix, continues growing in SF

blog.waymo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 520 posts

Re: Waymo One doubles service area in Phoenix, continues growing in SF

#121

Post by isubkhankulov »

boulos wrote: post #40

For folks that are interested, the discussion at /r/selfdrivingcars [1] picked out some of the salient numbers. Brad Templeton also did his own write up at [2]. I mainly hope that people take away that this service exists now. You can download the app and just use it in Phoenix. As mentioned in the post, we're doing thousands of trips per week of non-employee rides. There are some great (and not so great!) examples p…

Thanks for those links.

This claim in the Forbes article doesn't make sense to me: "It doesn’t need the money but it does want to learn from how riders interact with a service they are paying for."

Alphabet has been pressured to show more tangible financial results by activist shareholders[1]. Waymo has 2,500 employees. Waymo's annual budget for headcount alone include stock based compensation is over $1B by my estimate.

[1] https://www.ft.com/content/6daa5d29-8595-4630-a633-eb1f8b138...

Re: Waymo One doubles service area in Phoenix, continues growing in SF

#122

Post by ajcp »

austinkhale wrote: post #5

I live inside the original area in Phoenix where they did their training. I have to give kudos where it's due. I originally _hated_ their cars constantly driving around our neighborhood, but I was persuaded to try one a few weeks back. It completely changed my mind. They are now my favorite way to get around. I am a very happy, frequent customer and hope they keep adding coverage and more cars. This is absolutely the…

I live downtown PHX (Roosevelt Row) and beyond riding in them I MUCH prefer them driving around on the streets than actual human drivers. There isn't a day goes by that I don't see drivers make up 4-way stops, disregard the 4-way stops, flip a youey in the middle of an intersection, etc. Contrast that to the ever predictable Weymo, just quietly going about their little self-driving existence.

Only problem I've seen with them is people don't realize that just because you wave them through doesn't mean they will proceed. If a Waymo sees a human on the corner that looks like they will cross it will stop and wait until the heat-death of the universe for them to cross.

Re: Waymo One doubles service area in Phoenix, continues growing in SF

#123

Post by r00fus »

tedivm wrote: post #38
melling wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10,000 trips in electric vehicles. Self-driving EV’s in all major cities would be a big win for the climate and the air quality.

Climate yes, but air quality not by as much as you'd think. Multiple studies have come out showing that the weight of EVs puts more pressure on tires and breaks, which in turn increases the particles they dump in the air. > As a result, total PM10 emissions from EVs were found to be equal to those of modern ICEVs. PM2.5 emissions were only 1–3% lower for EVs compared to modern ICEVs. Therefore, it could be concluded…

One thing that caught my eye is the study is simply modeling the increased PM10 and PM2.5 based on hypothesised influence of weight difference using gas and diesel cars (from 2013) as a basis.

Obv. I haven't read anything but the summary but the core assumption means it's an extrapolation and not measuring actuals.

For example, while EVs accelerate faster, regen braking massively reduces brake wear - the lack of mention of regen in this extrapolative study seems a huge miss. Also EVs typically don't have the same tire material - they use low rolling resistance tires which do better on particulates.

Re: Waymo One doubles service area in Phoenix, continues growing in SF

#124

Post by hcazz »

boulos wrote: post #46
danvoell wrote: post #23

Is there any sort of road map for how they plan to roll this out beyond the two cities?

We post updates on our blog or Twitter account from time to time. There isn't an explicit, public roadmap of "On this date, we will open in ", but we have announced LA [1] as our next city for Waymo One (the name of the ride hailing service): > Los Angeles will be Waymo’s next ride-hailing city, joining Phoenix and San Francisco as we expand to more locations. Beyond the official service , we also do testing in multi…

I understand it's interesting to announce accomplishments (such as increased areas for testing), but as someone who lives in West LA, it's slightly annoying to see multiple announcements saying "testing is expanded, be on the lookout!". I'm nearly at the point where I'm just ignoring announcements for Los Angeles because the last two haven't amounted to any changes for someone that lives here and wants to use the service.

Re: Waymo One doubles service area in Phoenix, continues growing in SF

#126

Post by chroma »

tedivm wrote: post #38
melling wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10,000 trips in electric vehicles. Self-driving EV’s in all major cities would be a big win for the climate and the air quality.

Climate yes, but air quality not by as much as you'd think. Multiple studies have come out showing that the weight of EVs puts more pressure on tires and breaks, which in turn increases the particles they dump in the air. > As a result, total PM10 emissions from EVs were found to be equal to those of modern ICEVs. PM2.5 emissions were only 1–3% lower for EVs compared to modern ICEVs. Therefore, it could be concluded…

I'm suspicious of that paper. The largest source of non-exhaust emissions comes from brake pad wear[1] and EVs use brakes far less than combustion vehicles. Also the amount of particulate matter put into the air is highly dependent on vehicle speed. Densely populated areas have more traffic, which means cars drive slower and create less non-exhaust pollution.

And it's no longer true that EVs are heavier than comparable combustion vehicles. The Tesla Model 3 weighs 3,550-4,070lbs. The BMW 3 Series weighs 3,200–4,330lbs, though the lightest model is a two door convertible. While combustion vehicles don't carry heavy batteries, they do need exhaust systems, more complicated drivetrains, and bigger cooling systems. Also, more and more combustion vehicles are becoming hybrids to meet stricter emissions standards. That means adding weight for batteries, an electric motor, and a transmission that can handle both propulsion sources.

1. See figure 6 in this paper: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/12/2/190

Re: Waymo One doubles service area in Phoenix, continues growing in SF

#127

Post by mustacheemperor »

boulos wrote: post #40

For folks that are interested, the discussion at /r/selfdrivingcars [1] picked out some of the salient numbers. Brad Templeton also did his own write up at [2]. I mainly hope that people take away that this service exists now. You can download the app and just use it in Phoenix. As mentioned in the post, we're doing thousands of trips per week of non-employee rides. There are some great (and not so great!) examples p…

I really hope that I can get access in San Francisco soon. The closest grocery store to me in Bayview is a 30 minute walk across one of SF's riskiest pedestrian intersections and my neighborhood's only bus service is a corporate shuttle. Cruise just announced coverage for the "entire city" but it won't actually include my neighborhood. I've been well aware of Waymo for a long time, and been on the waiting list for over a year now! I've actually seen people getting in and out of Waymos near my apartment, and my limited experiencing riding the Cruise beta has me really excited to someday traverse SF in self driving vehicles. Can't wait.

Re: Waymo One doubles service area in Phoenix, continues growing in SF

#129

Post by mustacheemperor »

sprout20 wrote: post #93

I've had access in SF for the past few months and have been really impressed! The Waymo rides I've taken have been confident + a bit conservative (e.g. driving at the speed limit when traffic is flowing more quickly), but overall the team's done a great job with the experience. It's free for now so I've been using it regularly during commuting/rush hour and casual drives. Some quick thoughts: Advantages over Uber/Lyf…

Did you get access from the public beta sign-up list, or some other channel? I've been on the waitlist for over a year and have seen people utilizing Waymo near my apartment, but nothing's budged for me. I did get into the Cruise beta, and that just made me positive Waymo will almost completely replace other forms of car transit for me once it's available, but Cruise is very limited.

Re: Waymo One doubles service area in Phoenix, continues growing in SF

#130

Post by cyberax »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #60
melling wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10,000 trips in electric vehicles. Self-driving EV’s in all major cities would be a big win for the climate and the air quality.

Self-driving EV’s in all major cities would be a big win for the climate and the air quality. Counterpoint: no, they wouldn't. Moving towards self-driving automobiles merely props up an inefficient mode of transportation. Imagine sinking all that money that's being blown on self-driving cars into pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. The problem with cars is cars, not drivers.

Bike infrastructure is the ultimate boondoggle. It NEVER pays for itself in the US, it literally has nothing but negatives if you look at it objectively.

Bike lanes don't appreciable increase the percentage of trips by bike, they dis-proportionally slow down car traffic, and the bike commutes themselves are probably the worst transit mode in the US.

Heck, bike lanes almost never even _replace_ the amount of traffic that they displace.

All bike lanes do, is cater to a bike lobby that tries to force their hobby on everybody else, at the expense of practicality.

Post reply on HN