381–390 of 520 posts
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To be fair, human drivers don't do terribly well on that front.
Drivers do fine if the infrastructure is designed for humans rather then for cars. The reason so many people die in US cities is because of policy, not because people can't drive inherently.
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> 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. I've had humans do this, when I had no intention of crossing the street because I was just standing at the corner waiting to meet somebody. At least the humans give up after a few seconds, with exacerbated expressions like I'm the one who did something wrong. It would b…
I do this all the time as a walker too! But I try to step away from the curb and signal clear dis-intent. That's bc when I'm driving the neccesary bias is to assume that all pedestrians could be erratic and go into the street at anytime. It's neccesary because even if it's only 10% you can't accept any errors. In other words, I'm trying to politely set the groundwork to say I think you are wrong if we assume having p…
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I feel like the increase in suburbanization due to self-driving cars is probably pretty small over person-driven cars. Given the low building density that human-driven cars create (read: parking lots) there's some hope that a large change in car parking behavior would lead to lots of infill development.
If your commute is "sitting in an office doing email or taking calls" instead of "having to babysit your car through traffic" you're gonna see some significant behavioral changes. The parking lot point is interesting, I hadn't thought about that. But it's not obviously better to me: commuting behavior is very time-of-day determined, and the cars are gonna have to be somewhere in between rush hours. You don't want the…
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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.
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> Imagine sinking all that money that's being blown on self-driving cars into pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure This does jack squat for getting across San Francisco or from corner to corner of Phoenix.
You can already bike from one part of SF to another, investment in bicycle infrastructure would make that easier and safer. Or, you know, public transit. Individual vehicles suffer from massive inefficiency compared to nearly any other form of transportation – look at Elon's fully autonomous tunnel.
I though this too until I looked at the true dollar costs or carbon impact per passenger mile. That doesn't even account for the externalities of particulate pollution and road wear. The buses in my city are also filthy diesel, belching thick, noxious, clouds of soot as they accelerate away from the stop, right at crowds of people who just got off the bus. Heavy buses also require special concrete pads at every stop and still do heavy damage to the road surface: rutting and exacerbating potholes.
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…
A hopefully not-too-annoying reminder that this isn’t a future that is sustainable or desirable to live in compared with alternatives. It’s really just better than the automotive hellscape you are used to. Phoenix is one of the most car-centric places to live in the country. The only reason anyone needs a service like this is because of the area’s complete failure in urban planning. Car-focused infrastructure is incr…
By the criteria I would use, Phoenix is a massive success in urban planning. The criteria I would use would be the willingness of people to move there.
In 1950, Phoenix was in the top 100 biggest US cities...barely. It was 99th, with a little over 100,000 people. NYC was the largest, with around 8 million.
In 2000, Phoenix was the 6th largest city in the US with 1.3 million people. NYC was the largest, with around 8 million.
In 2022, Phoenix was the 5th largest city in the US with 1.6 million people. NYC was the largest, with around 8.5 million. And NYC has been losing population for the last few years.
The people who moved to Phoenix didn't have guns to their heads. They moved there because out of all the cities in the US, Phoenix worked best for them. To me that points to an incredible urban planning success. They might have failed at building a city that you like. They might have failed at building a city that was hostile to people who want a single family home with a two car garage. But they didn't fail at building a city that people choose to move to.
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Do you have a source for these claims? > Toyota's or GM's advanced driving systems What advanced driving system? Do you mean lane assist with adaptive cruise control? That’s not even remotely comparable.
It doesn't matter what advanced driving systems you compare; Tesla is the world's worst in terms of accidents, injuries, and fatalities. For sources: NYT and WaPo both have a series of articles covering this; the NHTSA has released a report documenting over 100 Tesla advanced driving accidents.
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Maybe - Waymo has to recharge, clean and maintain a fleet of cars that they own (and which are depreciating and likely have no resale value, at least at the moment) - Uber's drivers effectively use their wages to cover all of those costs. I'm curious how Waymo is handling all of the fleet maintenance, recharging, cleaning, etc, and how they plan to scale that infrastructure. I also wonder how Waymo plans to handle 's…
> Uber's drivers effectively use their wages to cover all of those costs. I'm curious how Waymo is handling all of the fleet maintenance, recharging, cleaning, etc, and how they plan to scale that infrastructure. Probably large regional hubs that cars will drive themselves to for periodic maintenance (or get towed to if the vehicle becomes disabled). Much more potential to bring down total cost than the 'each driver…
Phoenix gets like 300 days of sunny weather, Bay area also has historically mild climate. Why is almost no comments mentioning this?
> Bay area also has historically mild climate Bay Area yes. San Francisco less so. Sure it doesn’t get snow but it is often rainy and foggy. Beyond that, the drivers are very aggressive along with pedestrians and cyclists. It is not a very easy place to drive. Are you suggesting that they should start development in a more extreme climate right off the bat?
Phoenix gets like 300 days of sunny weather, Bay area also has historically mild climate. Why is almost no comments mentioning this?
This doesn't suit the narrative that self-driving cars are close to taking over. Up in the northeast US, drivers are actually a lot better at controlling their vehicles than bay area and southwestern drivers thanks to the fact that everyone has to drive in ice and snow.