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

blog.waymo.com

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

#161

Post by rahimnathwani »

boulos wrote: post #24
lopkeny12ko wrote: post #17

I can't for the life of me figure out how to sign up for the waitlist in SF. The app just says "you'll receive updates about San Francisco." Anyone been successful with this?

Sorry if that's unclear, if you set up the app, logged in, and are located in San Francisco when doing so, I think that's equivalent.

I see the same message on the app.

It's super unclear.

I think I signed up twice, a few months apart, because the message in the app didn't give me confidence that I'd signed up the first time.

Separately, the other day I turned right and there was a Waymo car blocking the lane, about to pick up some passengers. My car and the car behind me couldn't continue along the road until the passengers had reached the car had gotten in. They didn't seem like they were in a hurry.

Stopping a couple of extra car lengths away from the junction (or, better still, not blocking in the lane at all) wouldn't have paused other people's journeys.

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

#162

Post by icey »

dangus wrote: post #137
icey wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here (downtown Phoenix area) -- the driverless Waymos have been awesome. Occasionally they get confused but it seems pretty rare. They're better than a lot of the other drivers on the road out here. I'm mostly excited that they upped the allowed passenger count from 3 to 4. Usually we take a car if we're going out to dinner with friends but the 3 passenger limit made taking one of these a pain in the ass or impo…

It blows my mind that someone living downtown in a city the size of Phoenix (relatively large) needs to use a car at all. It’s really a shameful failure of urban planning.

I drive a couple of times a month... It's not the most walkable city but the downtown area is fairly walkable

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

#163

Post by sib »

dangus wrote: post #137
icey wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here (downtown Phoenix area) -- the driverless Waymos have been awesome. Occasionally they get confused but it seems pretty rare. They're better than a lot of the other drivers on the road out here. I'm mostly excited that they upped the allowed passenger count from 3 to 4. Usually we take a car if we're going out to dinner with friends but the 3 passenger limit made taking one of these a pain in the ass or impo…

It blows my mind that someone living downtown in a city the size of Phoenix (relatively large) needs to use a car at all. It’s really a shameful failure of urban planning.

Phoenix is like LA without the positives

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

#164

Post by ajcp »

jamiek88 wrote: post #141
ajcp wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 w…

>they will cross it will stop and wait until the heat-death of the universe for them to cross. There's something adorable and HHGTG about that whole thing! Reminds me of the robotic Star Liner that refused to take off because of the peanuts hadn't been delivered thus its checklist was incomplete. It had waited eons as its passengers withered to corpses securely locked into the cabin only stating that it was 'statisti…

It's funny because for some reason they definitely do feel adorable and polite. I know we shouldn't actively anthropomorphize them, but it's just the feeling you get when you see them go about their polite little way, adorably plotting our downfall.

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

#165

Post by MontyCarloHall »

stouset wrote: post #43
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'll contrast this with Cruise, which are driving autonomously in San Francisco. I hate them. At least in the area I'm in (the Inner Sunset), they often cruise around with no passengers while waiting for a request. While doing so, they circle around idling at 10-15mph, pausing for 30 seconds or more at stop signs. It's long enough where just when you decide they've completely stopped and start to go around, they "wak…

Driving in a chaotic dense urban environment like San Francisco is much harder than driving in a giant suburb like Phoenix, which is among some of the most car-optimized, easiest places to drive in the world.

Cruise also operates in Phoenix; it would be interesting to contrast its performance with Waymo there.

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

#166

Post by 0zemp2c »

School-Cotton wrote: post #156
dangus wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It blows my mind that someone living downtown in a city the size of Phoenix (relatively large) needs to use a car at all. It’s really a shameful failure of urban planning.

You’re right, but it’s a bit of a cherry-picked example. Phoenix is probably the most car-required major city in the world.

[flagged]

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

#167

Post by abecedarius »

dangus wrote: post #137
icey wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here (downtown Phoenix area) -- the driverless Waymos have been awesome. Occasionally they get confused but it seems pretty rare. They're better than a lot of the other drivers on the road out here. I'm mostly excited that they upped the allowed passenger count from 3 to 4. Usually we take a car if we're going out to dinner with friends but the 3 passenger limit made taking one of these a pain in the ass or impo…

It blows my mind that someone living downtown in a city the size of Phoenix (relatively large) needs to use a car at all. It’s really a shameful failure of urban planning.

Is a 20th-century mass transit system actually preferable to robocars once the technology is mature? My guess is it's the cities like Austin, planning new transit systems without designing for synergies with robocars, who are failing at urban planning.

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

#168

Post by sib »

parshimers wrote: post #12

I know they started testing a while back in LA, has anyone been in one there? I haven’t seen them around town like I have in SF.

Oddly, I've seen a lot of them in the past three days in LA, sometimes multiple in an hour. Wonder how close they are getting to launch?

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

#169

Post by dymk »

abecedarius wrote: post #167
dangus wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It blows my mind that someone living downtown in a city the size of Phoenix (relatively large) needs to use a car at all. It’s really a shameful failure of urban planning.

Is a 20th-century mass transit system actually preferable to robocars once the technology is mature? My guess is it's the cities like Austin, planning new transit systems without designing for synergies with robocars, who are failing at urban planning.

Good public mass transit is absolutely superior. Waymo cars don't solve traffic, it only partly solves parking and paying a human.

Having (on average) a single person take up 40 square feet of space on the road for travel is horribly inefficient. You do a few orders of magnitude better with a full train car or bus.

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

#170

Post by elbigbad »

kpw94 wrote: post #157
austinkhale wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- The cars are very safe, very conservative drivers - The interiors are nice, well air conditioned and don't smell - You don't have to talk to a person, which I don't always hate but have had some bad experiences. This just removes the roll of the dice from the equation entirely. - They are currently at par or cheaper with Uber/Lyft prices and typically it's faster for the car to arrive - You get to play your own mus…

> The interiors are nice, well air conditioned and don't smell If they scale, that will become a problem: - people puking in car - people having sex in car - people eating greasy fries in car These happen in public transportation too (the sex one not as often, but puking, eating smelly/gross food definitely), but the big difference here is that users won't be anonymous. The next waymo rider (or waymo staff if the car…

Geez this is some Grade-A FUD. Wow, I’m shocked.
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