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

S.F. says incidents by Cruise, Waymo driverless taxis are ‘skyrocketing.’

sfchronicle.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

481–490 of 1001 posts

Re: S.F. says incidents by Cruise, Waymo driverless taxis are ‘skyrocketing.’

#481

Post by QuantumG »

tick_tock_tick wrote: post #85
laweijfmvo wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have similar experiences (as a pedestrian) crossing in front of Cruise cars, especially at 4-way stops when there aren't crosswalks explicitly drawn. It's odd because the cars are generally excruciatingly cautious, but for some reason as I'm crossing they seem to calculate exactly how fast they can take off such that they pass me right as I'm clear of their path -- whereas most drivers might wait for the pedestrian…

> whereas most drivers might wait for the pedestrian to reach the sidewalk before passing. You're joking right? No one wait for you to clear the street. Hell most driving start advancing when you're going to be clear by the time they make it to you. > What would happen if I "dropped" my wallet and turned around to pick it up? Same thing a human would; hit you or slam on the brakes. They'll just do it faster and harde…

So it's worth remembering that when the pundits say their self-driving car will be better than human drivers- that's a really low bar! Similarly, when they say it'll obey all the road rules, it means they will game them.

Re: S.F. says incidents by Cruise, Waymo driverless taxis are ‘skyrocketing.’

#482

Post by z3ugma »

projectileboy wrote: post #426
Aurornis wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A 60lb e-bike can also transport a 200 lb person whilst using far less resources (both to make the vehicle and to operate it) and space. E-bikes are great for the situations, climates, and people who can use them. E-bikes are not a substitute for the majority of people’s transportation needs. I think the young, healthy people who live in moderate climates with good weather, short commutes, and little need to haul a…

Go ahead and downvote me all to hell, but the comments in this thread from bike enthusiasts sound like Trump apologists - they are alike in their adamant refusal to acknowledge reality. Do you think any amount or quality of bike infrastructure is going to make most people willing to bike in harsh winter climates? And no, Copenhagen nor Amsterdam have harsh winter climates. Look, I too think it’s crazy that we’ve buil…

Finland is as snowy and as cold as Minnesota. Yet Oulu has 22% of all trips completed by cycle and 77% of people say they cycle at least occasionally.

It’s you who is not acknowledging reality.

Why Canadians Can't Bike in the Winter (but Finnish people can) https://youtu.be/Uhx-26GfCBU via @YouTube

Re: S.F. says incidents by Cruise, Waymo driverless taxis are ‘skyrocketing.’

#483

Post by QuantumG »

waldohatesyou wrote: post #93
jarjoura wrote: post #75

Laws are written and designed for humans who constantly try to push it to the limit and get away with things. These cars are all over the place and I've been caught stuck on a street in Bernal Heights because it couldn't quite fit and just froze in place. I had to back out of the street because there wasn't any room for me to go around it. Yes it may be following laws to the letter, but not only was I grumpy about ha…

Isn’t the gain that those folks can find another job that’s more useful?

Then we'll take that one away too.

Re: S.F. says incidents by Cruise, Waymo driverless taxis are ‘skyrocketing.’

#484

Post by [deleted] »

Aurornis wrote: post #234
cashsterling wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know why the other reply to this post got downvoted to hell. THe person has a point. Fully autonomous cars are cool... don't get me wrong. But electric cars and autonomous electric/gas cars are probably not the right solution to our person transport needs. using energy to move a 4000 lb vehicle to transport one or two 200 lb humans is not energy-efficient... most of the energy is spent just moving the vehicle…

> A 60lb e-bike can also transport a 200 lb person whilst using far less resources (both to make the vehicle and to operate it) and space. E-bikes are great for the situations, climates, and people who can use them. E-bikes are not a substitute for the majority of people’s transportation needs. I think the young, healthy people who live in moderate climates with good weather, short commutes, and little need to haul a…

[deleted]

Re: S.F. says incidents by Cruise, Waymo driverless taxis are ‘skyrocketing.’

#485

Post by alistairSH »

dcow wrote: post #452
nerdbert wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They work for the majority of people of all ages who live in cities where the infrastructure has been properly built to accommodate bikes. Most people rarely need to haul anything and can use carshare when they do. I've demoed a multistory house down to the bricks and re-built it from the outside in without a car. Hired someone to haul off a dumpster several times. For major materials deliveries, like beams or window…

> Most people rarely need to haul anything and can use carshare when they do. Heavy citation needed. I've been remodeling my home for the last 2 years and I'd say on regular (every other week or so) basis I've needed to pick up something from the hardware store that can't be biked home. When I buy groceries for the family for the week, I cannot bike those home. When I need to take a large package to the UPS store a b…

Most people don’t take 2 years to remodel their own home. Most people don’t remodel their home at all.

A cargo bike is more than adequate to pick up groceries or drop off a package. It might even haul the lawn mower, though I’ll concede a car might work better. But if you buy a lawn mower more than once every 20 years, you need to find a better mower.

Re: S.F. says incidents by Cruise, Waymo driverless taxis are ‘skyrocketing.’

#486

Post by unethical_ban »

[deleted] wrote: post #484
Aurornis wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A 60lb e-bike can also transport a 200 lb person whilst using far less resources (both to make the vehicle and to operate it) and space. E-bikes are great for the situations, climates, and people who can use them. E-bikes are not a substitute for the majority of people’s transportation needs. I think the young, healthy people who live in moderate climates with good weather, short commutes, and little need to haul a…

[deleted]

[flagged]

Re: S.F. says incidents by Cruise, Waymo driverless taxis are ‘skyrocketing.’

#487

Post by arcticbull »

Aurornis wrote: post #234
cashsterling wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know why the other reply to this post got downvoted to hell. THe person has a point. Fully autonomous cars are cool... don't get me wrong. But electric cars and autonomous electric/gas cars are probably not the right solution to our person transport needs. using energy to move a 4000 lb vehicle to transport one or two 200 lb humans is not energy-efficient... most of the energy is spent just moving the vehicle…

> A 60lb e-bike can also transport a 200 lb person whilst using far less resources (both to make the vehicle and to operate it) and space. E-bikes are great for the situations, climates, and people who can use them. E-bikes are not a substitute for the majority of people’s transportation needs. I think the young, healthy people who live in moderate climates with good weather, short commutes, and little need to haul a…

I disagree, I think they’re completely adequate for the majority of people. Between that and a backbone of busses and subways and trains, cars in the city basically don’t need to exist. They act as a crutch for shitty city planning, since you don’t have to (and sometime can’t) build communities where what you need is close to where you live.

Re: S.F. says incidents by Cruise, Waymo driverless taxis are ‘skyrocketing.’

#488

Post by civilized »

MontyCarloHall wrote: post #30

>Cruise and Waymo say city officials have mischaracterized their safety track records. Their driverless taxis, the companies say, have lower collision rates than human drivers and public transit. This is comparing the mean driverless incident rate to the mean human driver incident rate. This is disingenuous, since a small minority of human drivers cause the vast majority of incidents, thereby severely inflating the m…

> a small minority of human drivers cause the vast majority of incidents, thereby severely inflating the mean human incident rate.

Could you cite a source for this claim? I have tried many different searches and can't find any support for it.

Re: S.F. says incidents by Cruise, Waymo driverless taxis are ‘skyrocketing.’

#489

Post by saalweachter »

askafriend wrote: post #477
dekhn wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans drove 3.2 trillion miles in 2021 and 42,795 people died in traffic fatalities (both values are estimates, and likely do not include every single mile driven or fatality that occurred, depending on how you prefer to count). So humans drive average of 74 million miles before a person gets killed, and Waymo's driven somewhere above 20M miles but probably fewer than 74M. At this point, I'd expect no self-drivin…

Most of those miles are highway miles though.

The breakdown seems to be, 25% interstate, 47% arterial, 14% collector, and 14% local.

The fatalities for driving on local urban streets is 0.94 per 100 million vehicle miles, compared to 0.87 for rural interstates.

https://www.bts.gov/content/roadway-vehicle-miles-traveled-v...

Re: S.F. says incidents by Cruise, Waymo driverless taxis are ‘skyrocketing.’

#490

Post by cypress66 »

fragmede wrote: post #306

I will provide a dissenting voice. I was riding a Cruise with a friend the other night, leaving a bar - they only serve a nighttime crowd right now. suddenly a drunk hippie on Haight street started banging on the windows. Rather than get on our way and get us out of there like a Homan driver would, the cruise stopped, powered down - as in unlocked the doors, and called customer service. I shudder to think what would…

Yeah. That's why I much prefer an L4 car that you still own and sit in the driver seat with steering wheel, than a taxi I rent and have no control over.

(obviously there's no such L4 car yet, but I'm sure tesla/mobileye/etc will get there eventually)

If you're not going to have a steering wheel, then you should have a "keep summer safe" mode.

Post reply on HN