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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

#181

Post by hypothesis »

mike_d wrote: post #159
josephcsible wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is evidence that most speed limits are too low. The proper speed limit on any given road is the 85th percentile of what drivers actually do.

Speed limits in California are capped at 65 mph by state law (or 55 mph for undivided roads). Any agency wanting to set a lower speed limit has to conduct a speed study and cannot set the limit lower than the 85th percentile of measured traffic speeds. Of course they can skip the speed study, or not repeat it every 5 years as required, but then tickets are effectively unenforceable on that road.

They can also increase the speed limit:

> Department of Transportation, with the approval of the Department of the California Highway Patrol, may declare a higher maximum speed of 70 miles per hour

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySectio....

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

#182

Post by twoWhlsGud »

helloworld wrote: post #123
lacker wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 lik…

A matched case-control analysis of autonomous vs human-driven vehicle accidents Published: 18 June 2024 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-48526-4 "The analysis suggests that accidents of vehicles equipped with Advanced Driving Systems generally have a lower chance of occurring than Human-Driven Vehicles in most of the similar accident scenarios. However, accidents involving Advanced Driving Systems occur mor…

Unfortunately, that seems to include data regarding Tesla's FSD function, which renders it useless for actual comparisons between human driving and responsible implementations of self driving technology.

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

#183

Post by mlyle »

akira2501 wrote: post #110
mgillett54 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cars already need to go out of services to recharge, they can just clean the cars while charging

The have multiple charging centers strategically placed throughout the city. These seem to currently only have security guards there. The logistics of having cleaning staff there and trying to match their schedule to expected charging times is probably not very difficult but also not very reliable either. The win they do have, that I did not consider is, they have cameras _in_ the car. So visible cleanliness is somet…

A. If the car needs cleaning acutely because of a mess, it can go to the centralized location, and top up charge a bit in the process.

B. If the car is reaching the point it needs cleaning without an acute mess, it can go to the centralized location next time it needs a charge.

C. They can also elect to have people at the charging centers at off-hours to clean a subset of cars, to reduce the amount of B you need to do.

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

#184

Post by Mawr »

josephcsible wrote: post #133
worik wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Waymo is 10-25% slower than the rest of traffic" actually means "Waymo drives at the legal speed limit for that location... Probably 100% safer too Speed is the most dangerous aspect of motor vehicles

> Speed is the most dangerous aspect of motor vehicles Not in the way you think. If you're going 55 because it's the speed limit, but everyone else is going 70, you're the most likely driver to cause a collision. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_curve

The mental hoops drivers go through to justify their unsafe behaviour...

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

#185

Post by rsingla »

I love Waymos compared to my ride sharing experience.

The base car is appealing (currently Jaguars). They're spacious for a >6 ft individual like myself. The user interface is intuitive and fun. There's a cool factor that exists.

Against ride sharing, given the lack of a driver, there's no variability in driver with regards to ambiance, scents, cleanliness, chattiness, and smoothness of the ride.

I am very much looking forward to this expansion.

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

#186

Post by estebank »

josephcsible wrote: post #137
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.

This is evidence that most speed limits are too low. The proper speed limit on any given road is the 85th percentile of what drivers actually do.

If the speed limit that was deemed safe for an area is lower than the 85th percentile driver speed, then that road is poorly designed. It should instead be redesigned such that people slow down themselves, regardless of what the sign says.

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

#187

Post by steelframe »

spankalee wrote: post #83
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…

In what was is Google a data broker? Where can you buy this data?

You can buy it from Google by becoming an app developer.

https://www.dli.tech.cornell.edu/post/facebook-and-google-ar...

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

#188

Post by [deleted] »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #140
ssl-3 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man. My daughter's head would sometimes detach from her body and fly around the room by itself. Strapping her down in a car seat and taking her for a drive usually rectified the situation. I look forward to a future where this process can become more automated. (/s, sorta)

It is automated. Has been for many decades. Hit up ebay and search for "swyngomatic." There are ones that are spring-powered and more modern ones use a couple of d-cells (or a wall wart if you're enterprising.) That and a white noise machine (set it low, their ear canals are very straight so they're sensitive to noise, although babies get used to noise around them given time and sleep through it, which is more practi…

[deleted]

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

#189

Post by elefanten »

underyx wrote: post #148
billjings wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a good friend who's a Lyft driver. According to him, all drivers are rated on cleanliness by passengers; if you're dinged for a weird smell, there are lasting financial consequences (even if it was for reasons outside of your control, e.g. using a Lyft provided rental while repairing from a traffic accident). We'll see how Waymo handles it! It will definitely be Waymo's problem to solve, though.

Their policy from an email sent out Oct 2023: > Many of our riders choose Waymo for the clean and consistent vehicle we offer. To ensure every rider gets this experience, we’ll be applying a vehicle cleaning fee for riders who leave a mess behind in the vehicle, such as vomit, excessive trash, and smoking odors. > For those that self-report their mess during their ride (not including smoking), the fee will be $50. Fo…

That’s an awesome policy. Compare to car share services (in SF.. apples to apples) such as Gig Car and Getaround which allow unsupervised general access (i.e. no driver there to witness car treatment)… those are generally pigsties. Blunt ash all over the dashboard, used kleenexes in the door handles and cupholders, trash on the floor. It always blew my mind that the perpetrators weren’t fined into the dirt. Good for Waymo.

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

#190

Post by willcipriano »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #140
ssl-3 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man. My daughter's head would sometimes detach from her body and fly around the room by itself. Strapping her down in a car seat and taking her for a drive usually rectified the situation. I look forward to a future where this process can become more automated. (/s, sorta)

It is automated. Has been for many decades. Hit up ebay and search for "swyngomatic." There are ones that are spring-powered and more modern ones use a couple of d-cells (or a wall wart if you're enterprising.) That and a white noise machine (set it low, their ear canals are very straight so they're sensitive to noise, although babies get used to noise around them given time and sleep through it, which is more practi…

> Putting your kid in a car (self driving or not) is putting them in the most dangerous situation they could possibly be in - car crashes are the number one cause of death for kids (in the US.)

It would follow that since no children die each year playing in active volcanos that's the safest thing they could possibly do. Kindergartens should be filled with magma.

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