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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

#51

Post by vineyardmike »

perfectstorm wrote: post #9
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…

do you have to tip the 'driver'? jokes aside, i would be happy to take them once the expand to SFO region so i can have a consistent experience.

I’d love to take it to the airport, but I imagine it’ll be a mess trying to pull up and park at departures. It’s already incredibly chaotic with the way humans are, and I don’t expect they’ll even pretend to extend any curtesy to a robot.

Maybe I’m wrong though? I think they go to the airport in phoenix, I just haven’t heard any reports on the experience.

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

#52

Post by vineyardmike »

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.

Because they have courtesy to not block traffic. Anecdotally, drivers are also MUCH more aggressive near them, so I’d be pretty nervous as a pedestrian getting in/out of one near heavy traffic. I’m not handicap in any way, and I’m totally fine walking to the corner of a city block to get in it, in exchange for a much safer ride than an Uber.

I’ve never had it be more than a few hundred feet - usually it’s 2-3 cars away where it can parallel park on the other side of an intersection in the WORST case. Oh I guess they do avoid some of the intense AF hills but I’ve had Uber drivers do the same.

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

#53

Post by ra7 »

vineyardmike wrote: post #51
perfectstorm wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

do you have to tip the 'driver'? jokes aside, i would be happy to take them once the expand to SFO region so i can have a consistent experience.

I’d love to take it to the airport, but I imagine it’ll be a mess trying to pull up and park at departures. It’s already incredibly chaotic with the way humans are, and I don’t expect they’ll even pretend to extend any curtesy to a robot. Maybe I’m wrong though? I think they go to the airport in phoenix, I just haven’t heard any reports on the experience.

Allowing Waymo at SFO is a political mess because the airport owned by the city and the city hates robotaxis. Waymo did apply for a permit to operate at SFO, but were denied.

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

#54

Post by firloop »

rainsford wrote: post #48
firloop wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Is that a negative of Waymo or a negative of the aggressive/illegal way many humans drive? My assumption is the anecdotal speed difference you notice is Waymos actually following the speed limit, and I imagine Waymo isn't really looking to program their cars to break the law while they're trying to expand their ability to operate.

Yes, most human drivers go above the speed limit. I agree that it can be unsafe, but wouldn't a self-driving car be safer at going above the speed limit than humans? I feel like it should be OK for it to go 5-10 miles over, especially if that's what the flow of traffic is.

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

#55

Post by vineyardmike »

athoun wrote: post #29
tanvach wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We actually prefer safer and slower ride, some Lyft/Uber drivers drive way too dangerously for no reason.

I could definitely see that. If you're not pressed on time it can be a smoother ride for sure. But if you're trying to get somewhere fast or efficiently like going to the airport, you'd want to get a regular Lyft/Uber otherwise you might miss your flight. It would be cool if you can configure the ride preferences for how aggressive you'd like it to drive.

Well it doesn’t go to the airport today, because it doesn’t go on highways or out of the city. So i don’t think anyone has missed their flight.

I suspect with their new permits approved, you’ll see them drive on the highway soon, which will result in much faster trips where applicable.

I am really glad it’s not aggressive at driving - they drive how humans are supposed to - cautiously. Humans kill people regularly from aggressive driving.

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

#56

Post by steelframe »

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.

> But you're already doing all of that by carrying an Android phone.

I'm not.

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

#57

Post by vineyardmike »

Me1000 wrote: post #14
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.

Well they just got the permit to expand, so you shouldn’t have to wait too long. That said, I think the plan was first to expand down the peninsula.

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

#58

Post by steelframe »

currymj wrote: post #22
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…

interestingly the NYC yellow cabs were recording all this data for a while and released it in an "anonymized" dataset, which turned out to be pretty easy to deanonymize because people tend to be picked up or dropped off near their homes or workplaces. https://agkn.wordpress.com/2014/09/15/riding-with-the-stars-... i think the answer is just that you don't have much meaningful privacy when using a taxi service in a no…

My trick is to walk a block or two on either end of the trip.

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

#59

Post by lacker »

firloop wrote: post #18
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.

If they're really safer than human drivers, like the Google-funded studies claim they are, then this seems like a positive rather than a negative. Perhaps we humans should be slowing down and driving more carefully?

But I'm not sure if we can trust these studies. I'd really like to see a completely independent evaluation, of how the safety of Waymo cars compares to human drivers, and to the safety other companies like Zoox.

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

#60

Post by asphodel_gray »

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…

10%? you’re lucky. Every time I check the app it’s usually twice the price of an Uber or Lyft.
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