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Self-driving Waymos secure final clearance for expansion beyond S.F

sfchronicle.com

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Re: Self-driving Waymos secure final clearance for expansion beyond S.F

#11

Post by pier25 »

yazzku wrote: post #4
steelframe wrote: post #2

Cool. Can I take one without my identity and travel patterns being tracked? Like, suppose I want to get picked up from work and dropped off at my girlfriend's house in San Mateo. Something I might not want my soon-to-be-ex's lawyer to be able to subpoena. There's one of those machines onboard that are all over the place in supermarkets where I can feed bills right? Or maybe not. Okay then, Luxor Cab it is. Cheaper, b…

Obviously you do surrender all of your travel privacy to the data broker. That's why they are making self-driving cars in the first place. But you're already doing all of that by carrying an Android phone.

> That's why they are making self-driving cars in the first place

It is?

I thought they wanted to disrupt transportation.

Re: Self-driving Waymos secure final clearance for expansion beyond S.F

#12

Post by Me1000 »

tanvach wrote: post #7

We recently started using Waymo more often: - Quality of Lyft and Uber rides have gone down significantly. - Consistently spacious, clean and quiet cars. You know what you'll get. - AC always works and not up to the whim of the driver. - No chatty driver to disturb our sleeping baby. Negatives: - Rides have usually 10% mark up over Lyft and Uber. - Pick up and drop off tend to be a small walk from requested locations…

> Rides have usually 10% mark up over Lyft and Uber.

I found that to be true as well, but when you factor in the tip to the driver they come out to more or less the same price.

Re: Self-driving Waymos secure final clearance for expansion beyond S.F

#13

Post by mistercheph »

tanvach wrote: post #7

We recently started using Waymo more often: - Quality of Lyft and Uber rides have gone down significantly. - Consistently spacious, clean and quiet cars. You know what you'll get. - AC always works and not up to the whim of the driver. - No chatty driver to disturb our sleeping baby. Negatives: - Rides have usually 10% mark up over Lyft and Uber. - Pick up and drop off tend to be a small walk from requested locations…

> No chatty driver to disturb our sleeping baby

San Fransisco slave-owning class misanthropy on display.

I'm sorry that the poor tried to talk to you instead of shutting up, and performing his digi-task without disturbing your innocent baby.

Is it any wonder that the same upper-middle class NPC's that treat human beings like machines also (in error) dream of a future where machines will replace human beings?

Re: Self-driving Waymos secure final clearance for expansion beyond S.F

#14

Post by Me1000 »

seeknotfind wrote: post #3

Wooooooo! Goodbye Lyft and Uber. Honestly, I get a bag driver, use the AI for a while. Feels too sterile, switch back, get some interesting drivers. Waymo has everything going for it but good company. Love it.

Unfortunately Waymo still wont operate on freeways or at SFO. But I long for the day when I can take a Waymo between SF and Berkley or to SFO, those are my most frequent reasons to call a Lyft.

Re: Self-driving Waymos secure final clearance for expansion beyond S.F

#15

Post by tdb7893 »

mistercheph wrote: post #13
tanvach wrote: post #7

We recently started using Waymo more often: - Quality of Lyft and Uber rides have gone down significantly. - Consistently spacious, clean and quiet cars. You know what you'll get. - AC always works and not up to the whim of the driver. - No chatty driver to disturb our sleeping baby. Negatives: - Rides have usually 10% mark up over Lyft and Uber. - Pick up and drop off tend to be a small walk from requested locations…

> No chatty driver to disturb our sleeping baby San Fransisco slave-owning class misanthropy on display. I'm sorry that the poor tried to talk to you instead of shutting up, and performing his digi-task without disturbing your innocent baby. Is it any wonder that the same upper-middle class NPC's that treat human beings like machines also (in error) dream of a future where machines will replace human beings?

Lmao I can't tell if this is satire or not but calling people NPCs always reminds me of this XKCD I once had up in my cubicle. https://xkcd.com/610/

Re: Self-driving Waymos secure final clearance for expansion beyond S.F

#16

Post by 8f2ab37a-ed6c »

Waymos are fantastic, I actually look forward to riding them every time. It's a quiet, peaceful space where you can relax for a bit on the way to your destination. Haven't had any issues with them except for one time where the car was super hot on the inside for whatever reason and the AC was not working.

Re: Self-driving Waymos secure final clearance for expansion beyond S.F

#17

Post by AzzyHN »

ortusdux wrote: post #5

I'm still surprised that they, and most of their competitors, chose to start off in such difficult to navigate regions. I would have started off in a retirement community or the like.

They did some driving in some Arizona suburbs too, iirc. The reasoning for having so much driving in SF is twofold

1. Silicon Valley, both for the workers and the general public's willingness to embrace fancy new tech 2. SF is DIFFICULT to drive in. If you follow all driving laws & drive super defensively, you'll never get anywhere on time. If an AI can learn to effectively navigate around traffic, construction, stopped rideshare and foodshare cars, large crowds, etc etc, it can drive anywhere.

SF also gets a lot of rain and dense fog, good for testing low-visibility conditions

Re: Self-driving Waymos secure final clearance for expansion beyond S.F

#18

Post by firloop »

tanvach wrote: post #7

We recently started using Waymo more often: - Quality of Lyft and Uber rides have gone down significantly. - Consistently spacious, clean and quiet cars. You know what you'll get. - AC always works and not up to the whim of the driver. - No chatty driver to disturb our sleeping baby. Negatives: - Rides have usually 10% mark up over Lyft and Uber. - Pick up and drop off tend to be a small walk from requested locations…

A rarely discussed negative to Waymo is that they drive slower than human drivers. Anecdotally they can be 10-25% slower than the rest of traffic, and it's not uncommon to see human drivers do unsafe moves to pass a Waymo.

Re: Self-driving Waymos secure final clearance for expansion beyond S.F

#19

Post by TigeriusKirk »

tanvach wrote: post #7

We recently started using Waymo more often: - Quality of Lyft and Uber rides have gone down significantly. - Consistently spacious, clean and quiet cars. You know what you'll get. - AC always works and not up to the whim of the driver. - No chatty driver to disturb our sleeping baby. Negatives: - Rides have usually 10% mark up over Lyft and Uber. - Pick up and drop off tend to be a small walk from requested locations…

I'm curious why they can't pick up and drop off at exact locations, as long as the location is in their operating boundaries.

Re: Self-driving Waymos secure final clearance for expansion beyond S.F

#20

Post by wanderingstan »

TigeriusKirk wrote: post #19
tanvach wrote: post #7

We recently started using Waymo more often: - Quality of Lyft and Uber rides have gone down significantly. - Consistently spacious, clean and quiet cars. You know what you'll get. - AC always works and not up to the whim of the driver. - No chatty driver to disturb our sleeping baby. Negatives: - Rides have usually 10% mark up over Lyft and Uber. - Pick up and drop off tend to be a small walk from requested locations…

I'm curious why they can't pick up and drop off at exact locations, as long as the location is in their operating boundaries.

In my experience they are very strict about finding a “safe” place to pick up and drop off, which often means turning onto a small side street or looking for a gap in parked cars. They won’t block traffic like a Lyft/Uber driver might.
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