Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

waymo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 651 posts

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#61

Post by 999900000999 »

This is both amazing and horrifying. I'm actually confident this automation will save lives. Well of course any system can fail, Uber drivers are often distracted by 30 things, they're fiddling with the app, on personal calls, while navigating tricky traffic situations.

However I predict within a decade or so we're going to get to a point where gig work is no longer feasible. It'll take a bit of trickery, but I'm sure you could have restaurants opt in to putting their own food in the backseat of these. And then as a consumer you would just get your own food from the car .

So think about every delivery driver, and every Uber driver, and many other gig workers. All of these people are going to be out of work very soon. Plus tons of creatives will be replaced by AI. AI will reduce the need for junior software engineers .

I don't think the modern economy is ready for this. If I had one wish, it would be to at least decouple employment from health care. As is, let's say you have a serious illness that requires you to resign or otherwise not have employment for an extended period of time. You're now stuck with a serious illness and no health care. Depending on the state unless you're a child or parent you're not qualifying for Medicare period.

Has anyone figured out, who exactly gets sued when one of these Waymo's hits someone.

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#62

Post by vdnkh »

Turing_Machine wrote: post #42
kelsey98765431 wrote: post #19

I remember almost 10 years ago, maybe 8 i first saw one of these up in the city. It was parked and the technician was outside of it with an ipad, and i happened to strike up a conversation with the gentleman. I was just curious and at first he was remarkably cagey, i was quite confused and just continued to be friendly and express hope for the projects success and for automation in general. I got the feeling that man…

In the future, when you're old and quite possibly disabled, you might rethink the whole "walkable cities" thing. I mean, it's easy to say "just walk (or ride a bike)" when you're 22 years old and in prime health, but the population in most First World countries is rapidly aging.

Yeah I wonder what people do, and have done, around the world in walkable communities predating the car. Perhaps people in these communities are on average more mobile into old age because they frequently walked?

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#63

Post by pengaru »

prasoonds wrote: post #14

I highly recommend everyone try it out if you're in SF. It's an incredibly smooth and sure ride. The cars are really nice too (Jaguar I-Pace electric cars), clean and spacious. The first time you ride in one, it feels truly sci-fi. But within 5 minutes, you're almost bored of it - that's how good it is. If I had to choose between an Uber of questionable cleanliness and driver temperament and a Waymo with a slightly l…

So smooth they apparently opt to blow red lights instead of stopping abruptly.

source: I commute by skateboard in SF daily. Just yesterday an empty Waymo cruised straight through a fresh red, narrowly missing my entry into the crosswalk.

But don't get me started on what I've seen human drivers do on the same streets. Just annoyed that Waymo's aren't better.

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#64

Post by dventimi »

Abroszka wrote: post #37
ra7 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Highly recommend people read how Waymo's fleet response works before throwing out phrases like "remote drivers take over cars": https://waymo.com/blog/2024/05/fleet-response/

There is someone to take over as soon as the car encounters something it cannot handle. It's not self driving. By definition it's not driverless, there is always a driver assigned who will take care of it if needed. One of the reason they cannot scale beyond small areas.

How many someones are there per active vehicle?

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#65

Post by dventimi »

Abroszka wrote: post #34
xnx wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where did you get this information? There are definitely people ready to respond to any requests from the car or passenger when they come up, but I've never read anything to indicate that each ride is actively monitored by a person.

Search for "driver monitoring system". As soon as there is something unexpected there is an actual driver taking care of it. Also the reason why it's not level 5, but stuck at level 4 self driving.

How many cars does each person monitor?

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#66

Post by dventimi »

999900000999 wrote: post #61

This is both amazing and horrifying. I'm actually confident this automation will save lives. Well of course any system can fail, Uber drivers are often distracted by 30 things, they're fiddling with the app, on personal calls, while navigating tricky traffic situations. However I predict within a decade or so we're going to get to a point where gig work is no longer feasible. It'll take a bit of trickery, but I'm sur…

If gig work is such a good job perhaps you should consider doing it.

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#67

Post by gary_0 »

ra7 wrote: post #52
elforce002 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$300,000 per car. They're burning billions trying to go mainstream.

4 year old quote from their former CEO: "It costs as much as a moderately equipped S-class". That's around $150,000.

That's what I've read, about $150-200k: https://blog.dshr.org/2023/11/robotaxi-economics.html

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#68

Post by swozey »

mdorazio wrote: post #54
swozey wrote: post #32

Do these need a significant amount of local infrastructure (parking, charging, etc) specific to Waymo that would make them moving into a new city (Austin is next) a big investment? Like will there need to be a big Waymo fleet center/office built in each city? I'm not sure if these park and someone plugs them in or what, who maintains the actual Jaguars, etc. Can't wait to never have to drive a car again.

Depends on your definition of “significant”. They require at least one depot in each city where they operate. The depot handles charging, cleaning, inspection, repair, and parking during low-demand times. Each depot is different since they are generally leased buildings or lots in light industrial areas. You can search on YouTube to see them.

Thanks! Found the perfect video. He talks about the depots here, there are some that are full service and some that are not. These are actually a lot bigger than I was expecting and have a bunch of staff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QZ3e7mWD9E

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#69

Post by lucianbr »

ra7 wrote: post #45
Abroszka wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is someone to take over as soon as the car encounters something it cannot handle. It's not self driving. By definition it's not driverless, there is always a driver assigned who will take care of it if needed. One of the reason they cannot scale beyond small areas.

Assistance != taking over. It's driverless by definition because... there's no driver in the seat. The car is in control and is responsible for its safety at all times.

Regardless of the definition, I can't buy and own such a "driverless car" because I don't operate a supervision center with people available to "assist" the car. Whatever "assist" means. Nor can any company that's not large enough to operate the infrastructure.

I'm sure at least some of the hype is in regards to people owning such "driverless" cars.

It's driverless by definition because it does not have a driver, but it's not autonomous by definition, because it requires outside help to function. Cool hair splitting. It's an impressive technical feat for sure. In regards to perceived benefits for society, it's part of the way there, as it reduces the number of humans required to driver from 1 per car to 0.something per car.

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#70

Post by lucianbr »

Stevvo wrote: post #49
Abroszka wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> driverless taxis went from "it'll never happen" to "is this the default now?" That's still far away, these are not driverless cars, there is always a driver monitoring, but they monitor not one but many cars, ready to take over.

If you could rent/purchase a vehicle without a steering wheel, would you not want there to be someone available who can help out when the system runs into trouble? As long as there is no driver in the car, does it matter how it drives? Is that not just an irrelevant implementation detail that has no bearing on your passenger experience?

As long as it requires some humans to be available to "assist", I'm not sure anyone would sell or buy such a vehicle. Or rent in the "car rental" sense. Taxi service is what makes sense.

If I own the car, and I'm sending it to do errands for me while I work or sleep, seems like the cost of someone being available to "assist" it at short notice would be prohibitive. Unless it requires assistance once a month or so.

Post reply on HN