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California Approves Waymo Expansion to Los Angeles and SF Peninsula [pdf]

cpuc.ca.gov

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Re: California Approves Waymo Expansion to Los Angeles and SF Peninsula [pdf]

#171

Post by cdogl »

Solvency wrote: post #102
austinkhale wrote: post #8

Fantastic news. I use them all the time in Phoenix. My mom uses them to get to her doctor appointments. I think people underestimate how much of a quality of life improvement these are for people even when compared to Uber/Lyft.

I feel like no one in this thread lives in LA. This is going to be an absolute catastrophe. Driving out here is like Thunderdome. There is zero way in hell I'd ever trust some Waymo car to make some insane left turn across 6 lanes of rush hour traffic out here, let alone the freeway.

As someone who doesn’t live in LA: I can’t imagine what your freeways are like given your characterisation of an ordinary road. Our “freeways” max out at 4-5 lanes each way. From what I can tell, getting from A to B is a stressful full time job for the people of your good city.

Re: California Approves Waymo Expansion to Los Angeles and SF Peninsula [pdf]

#172

Post by whimsicalism »

dangus wrote: post #56
whimsicalism wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having a car to yourself is honestly just way better, maybe I'm just antisocial Like I will easily pay a premium to have self-driving most of the time. I can play my music on the speakers, I can work more comfortably in the car, etc. etc. Also, I find Uber drivers are pretty bad drivers often - comparative advantage

Owning a car yourself is the most costly option, so I would hope that it is the “best.” Purchase price, depreciation, maintenance, insurance, fuel. Edit: to be clear I’m putting “best” in quotes because personal car ownership is pretty terrible in terms of value.

owning a car in sf is miserable, i lasted 1 year

Re: California Approves Waymo Expansion to Los Angeles and SF Peninsula [pdf]

#173

Post by standardUser »

dangus wrote: post #48
NewJazz wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah that one comes to mind. Personal safety is often a factor influencing public transit decisions as well.

Private transit*. Uber and Waymo are private transit. Something to note is that actual public transit (buses and trains) has something like 10x fewer annual deaths than private vehicles, because fatal accidents almost never happen in them. Personal safety is a much less statistically relevant concern compared to personal injury.

Most of this country is a sprawling mess that does not lend itself to traditional mass transit options. Yet those same spaces have an abundance of well-maintained roads. At a certain point we need to accept we are not Europe and we need transit solution suited to our multi-trillion dollar pre-built infrastructure. Self-driving cars are likely to be a big part of that.

Re: California Approves Waymo Expansion to Los Angeles and SF Peninsula [pdf]

#174

Post by JumpCrisscross »

b112 wrote: post #81
singleshot_ wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t need to be given a numeric rating by my chauffeur on how well I sit in the back of a car. The social play-acting part of ridesharing apps became exhausting to me (admittedly: an introvert) sometime during the first ride.

[flagged]

> love it... downvotes

To be fair, this is why I flagged.

From the guidelines: “Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.”

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: California Approves Waymo Expansion to Los Angeles and SF Peninsula [pdf]

#175

Post by s17n »

crawshaw wrote: post #142
tempest_ wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> people underestimate how much of a quality of life improvement these are for people even when compared to Uber/Lyft I do underestimate it. What are quality of life improvements? Seems to be the same thing from a customer perspective. I guess if you are concerned for your safety from the uber driver it is an improvement but it is the only one that comes to mind.

Safety is the most important point across all customers. But as someone who is less concerned with safety, I still get enormous value out of Waymo. Let me try to explain: Consider the distribution of Uber/Lyft drivers you have had. All the way from smooth driving, well-maintained car, through to erratic behavior and unpleasant environment. Imagine if the next time you got a driver you really like, you said "this driv…

That's because the cars are all brand new Jaguars that are impeccably maintained. If Waymo succeeds in becoming a widely used service that is price competitive with Uber, the experience won't be this good forever.

Re: California Approves Waymo Expansion to Los Angeles and SF Peninsula [pdf]

#176

Post by [deleted] »

sbuttgereit wrote: post #96
tempest_ wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> people underestimate how much of a quality of life improvement these are for people even when compared to Uber/Lyft I do underestimate it. What are quality of life improvements? Seems to be the same thing from a customer perspective. I guess if you are concerned for your safety from the uber driver it is an improvement but it is the only one that comes to mind.

I've used Waymo a couple of times now and absolutely find the experience superior. As mentioned, the driving is sane... with other taxi and taxi-like services that can be hit or miss. But it's more than that. When I get in taxi I can't help feel like I'm invading the driver's space in some way. The awkward conversations, the awkward silences, the music I'd never choose to listen to on my own, and that list goes on al…

[deleted]

Re: California Approves Waymo Expansion to Los Angeles and SF Peninsula [pdf]

#177

Post by raylad »

SeanAnderson wrote: post #41
afhjafh3883 wrote: post #7

Has anyone tried it recently? Does it work well? How does the price compare to Uber?

It's cheaper than Uber if you're the type of person to tip your Uber driver 20%. Very infrequently it's cheaper without tip, but usually it's a bit more expensive. Crucially, it doesn't care if you ask it to drive into heavy traffic. I'm so over Uber giving me an estimated time for pickup, having the driver get within range to learn additional details about the trip, then cancelling on me because it doesn't fit their…

I routinely see it priced at double Lyft or Uber in SF.

Re: California Approves Waymo Expansion to Los Angeles and SF Peninsula [pdf]

#178

Post by standardUser »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #74
dangus wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Private transit*. Uber and Waymo are private transit. Something to note is that actual public transit (buses and trains) has something like 10x fewer annual deaths than private vehicles, because fatal accidents almost never happen in them. Personal safety is a much less statistically relevant concern compared to personal injury.

> Something to note is that actual public transit (buses and trains) has something like 10x fewer annual deaths than private vehicles, because fatal accidents almost never happen in them. I've never had a fent zombie wave a knife in my face on private transit, but it has happened a couple of times on public transit. I get that it is technically "safer", but we have a long way to go before normal people will feel safe…

Some of my most terrifying moments in life have been in cars on the road. I've had a few dicey moments on public transit, which I use constantly, but nothing as truly life-threatening as the near misses I've experienced on the freeway.

Re: California Approves Waymo Expansion to Los Angeles and SF Peninsula [pdf]

#179

Post by abecedarius »

pkaye wrote: post #73
bossyTeacher wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In europe, you don't pay tips to uber drivers. Surely, if the tip is compulsory, it should be called a service fee

Uber didn't originally have tips but the US Uber drivers wanted tips and pushed to implement it.

How many of them really wanted it? To me when Uber added tipping it seemed to come out of the blue. (And it was stupid and bad for everyone except possibly Uber, because the equilibrium total fare in a marketplace with reputation tracking is not going to be raised by turning part of it into a tip, it just adds uncertainty and friction.)

Re: California Approves Waymo Expansion to Los Angeles and SF Peninsula [pdf]

#180

Post by accurrent »

dkjaudyeqooe wrote: post #84
matsemann wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While autonomous driving helps a bit on safety, that's just one of the many issues with the car dependence in our society. It might even expand the issues, if it ends up with less people using public transport and relying on these kinds of things.

Waymo is public transport, but you mean mass transit. People don't use mass transit because it sucks, blaming other modes of public transit doesn't cut it. The design and implementation of it is what keeps people from using it. The good news is automated vehicles will add flexible options for new types of public transport that are between single-trip taxies and mass transit and will lower costs to all kinds of public…

European and Asian nations tend to have perfectly usable mass transit (including developing countries). Sure there are some us cases for cars, but for daily commute its not needed.

To add to it mass transit is generally heavuly subsidized that means that less well off people can get to work/school at low costs. It reduces poverty and income inequality.

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