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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]

#341

Post by nox101 »

If Waymo was not too expensive and easy to get at rush hour in LA I'd certainly consider it. If I want to leave work between 5:30 and 6:30 pm, my commute can be 60 mins. At 8pm it will be 20 mins. That sucks but if I could use the 60 mins then it sucks less.

On the other hand, unlike Uber/Lyft, Waymo can't scale like they do. For them, demand pricing means more drivers with their own car driving when there's lots of people to pick up. For Waymo, they'd go broke trying to have enough cars for high demand times that would all sit idle (and have to drive somewhere to park) off peak.

Taking it up a notch. I'd be nice to redesign cars that have no driver. A bench, a desk, small buses for shared rides, or something.

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

#342

Post by rufus_foreman »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #340
rufus_foreman wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> oil change every 3 months or so That's just plain stupid.

How is an oil change every 3 months stupid? Every 3000 miles I get a change, and I had to commute a minimum of 70 miles a day. Comes out to 42 days per milestone, or 8-9 weeks if only counting weekdays. I felt like I always put it off and the math checks out. My driving went way down during the pandemic, but it's probably a better normal metric to measure my routine before a global anamloly. >600 a year on car washes…

I think I last got an oil change early on during the pandemic.

Sometime around then.

I do think my car needs a car wash. Not necessarily this month, but definitely within the next year or so. It costs $5 in quarters at the car wash. Maybe $10. Not $600 a year.

If you are spending $600 a year on car washes, I want to start a business, and I want you, specifically you, as my customer.

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

#343

Post by nox101 »

_acco wrote: post #117

I love Waymo and use it all the time. One aspect I'd still like to see them figure out: As a bike commuter, I share the road with Waymo often. When cycling, you're always checking the eyes of other drivers to confirm if they see you. I've had a couple incidents where I was a little thrown/unnerved because I couldn't confirm if a Waymo was registering me. It ultimately behaved fine, but I had to put my guard way up be…

There was a Honda concept car years back that had LCDs in front of the headlights. They used them to make eye expressions to signal things

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

#344

Post by Adj_and_Styles »

_acco wrote: post #117

I love Waymo and use it all the time. One aspect I'd still like to see them figure out: As a bike commuter, I share the road with Waymo often. When cycling, you're always checking the eyes of other drivers to confirm if they see you. I've had a couple incidents where I was a little thrown/unnerved because I couldn't confirm if a Waymo was registering me. It ultimately behaved fine, but I had to put my guard way up be…

Japanese already tested it, with googly eyes. It seems to work. Modern cars are expensive, some extra plastic and servos is not going to break the bank.

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3543174.3546841

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11250965/Jap...

https://videos.dailymail.co.uk/video/mol/2022/09/26/56244997...

British used a LED matrix. More "output" options (frowns and smiles, text), similar results.

https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/first-ever-uk-ghost-driver...

https://www.theengineer.co.uk/content/news/pedestrian-study-...

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

#345

Post by wilg »

accurrent wrote: post #180
dkjaudyeqooe wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Most trips in Europe are by car. 80% of passenger-km. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/e...

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

#346

Post by nmca »

The driving is extremely smooth in general --- much smoother than many taxi journeys I've taken in that past.

I found myself in a corner case recently, with an illegally parked car blocking the street, we got partially round, blocked by another vehicle and then a fire engine with sirens approached from behind, the waymo handled it excellently!

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

#347

Post by earthwalker99 »

ugh123 wrote: post #204
bagels wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How will waymo help with something like the super bowl? It's going to be overcapacity too.

> How will waymo help with something like the super bowl? It's going to be overcapacity too. Ability to scale the amount of Waymo cars to an area is immensely easier than scaling the amount of Uber/Lyft drivers available and willing to go to said area.

Simply not true. The US is constantly flooded with fresh immigrants who can get drivers licenses and drive for super cheap on unlivable wages.

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

#348

Post by fragmede »

aetherson wrote: post #327
bigyikes wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars are extremely cheap compared to their drivers.

I don't think that Waymo cars are.

Let's say the Waymo cars are $1 million each, which is probably high, given than a fully loaded i-Pace is $80k, which still leaves $920,000 for Google/Waymo devices and software costs to get to $1 million. Given the estimate for a human life at $7.4 million[1], I think they are.

[1]https://www.epa.gov/environmental-economics/mortality-risk-v...

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

#349

Post by acchow »

iancmceachern wrote: post #325
dataflow wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With Waymo? Or others?

Waymo and Cruise. I live right near Oracle Park where there was a big Cruise Yard, and there is a ton of traffic and cruise, zoox, etc self driving cars circling the neighborhood endlessly. It's not as if I've had a overtly terrible single incident. It's as though they're causing unsafe driving conditions for pedestrians, cyclists and other motorists regularly. Driving unreasonably slow and erratic, stopping in the m…

All of your descriptions perfectly match my experiences with Cruise but not at all my experiences with Waymo.

I bike by Oracle park almost every day.

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

#350

Post by toast0 »

montag wrote: post #288
bragr wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Joking, not joking: Cylon scanner [1] at the top the windscreen that locks on to you when it's giving way [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faukADr0_6g

Cylon + vehicle = KITT (Night Rider)

Both shows produced by Glen Larson. Some call it a Larson Scanner.
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