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Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

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

#221

Post by fragmede »

sangnoir wrote: post #213
ModernMech wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d say the same, maybe. But yesterday I had an Uber with a guy that had a degree in history and a love for SF lore, and told me about the tomb of Starr King, and then I went on a quest to find it with my friend. Just saying that there’s magic out there that’s not technological.

> Just saying that there’s magic out there that’s not technological. Dark magic too, I've been on one too many rides where the driver insists on monologuing on topics that range from detestable (politics) to alarming (the driver was armed, and had picked me up from the airport)

I have women friends who have been physically assaulted by human drivers.

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

#222

Post by Turing_Machine »

spankalee wrote: post #56
Turing_Machine wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Old and handicapped people have lived before cars, and in less car-centric cities forever. Walkable cities mainly mean that things are close to you so you _can_ walk to them. Actual car-free areas, like the access-controlled dense old towns in Europe, are possible (if built-out where they don't exist), but not necessarily to be walkable.

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

#223

Post by Turing_Machine »

jeffbee wrote: post #134
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> when you're old and quite possibly disabled, you might rethink the whole "walkable cities" thing Manhattan is incredibly senior friendly.

NY is an AARP top-10 most livable city alongside other pedestrian-centric cities like Boston and San Francisco. Orlando and Tulsa conspicuously absent. Aging in car cities sucks.

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

#224

Post by Turing_Machine »

jeffbee wrote: post #129
Turing_Machine wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Many more disabled people are disabled in a way that prevents them from driving a car than in ways that prevent them from walking. There is also a huge class of people who are physically capable of driving but legally barred from it.

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

#225

Post by fragmede »

dventimi wrote: post #209
pb7 wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a function of the filtered population. The cars are at full capacity day and night so the increased number of users won't affect a single car's cleanliness nearly as much as the type of people that will be riding in them.

What do you mean by the type of people who will be riding in them?

That's a loaded question, but sure, let's go there. The problem with public transportation is that the public is allowed to use them, and the rules, legal and social, are not well defined or enforced. Assaulting other passengers is generally tolerated by the system, depending on the type of assault. Physical assault is considered too far and doesn't go unnoticed, but chemical and audio assault on fellow passengers usually goes unreported. The types of people are those who would assault others on some fashion.

Whether this translates to Waymos smelling like meth or fentanyl when you get in them thanks to the previous rider remains to be seen. Or just needles, foil, or used condoms left behind. They record video, so Google could close the person's account so they won't be able to book Waymos with that account again, so we'll end up having to see how hard it is to create new accounts to use Waymo on to ban nuisance riders.

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

#226

Post by ra7 »

ajcp wrote: post #185
ra7 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I meant airport rides to the terminal at all hours of the day. Waymo is already giving driverless freeway rides to employees in Phoenix, so I don’t agree that it’s far away. It’s definitely a different challenge though.

Are they really? Only in Chandler or throughout?

I know from their announcements that they give freeway rides to employees in Phoenix area. They're also frequently spotted in Bay Area and Austin freeways, but with safety drivers.

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

#227

Post by mlyle »

mike_hearn wrote: post #206
mlyle wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cameras we are talking about have poor angular resolution, worse dynamic range than the human eye, and don’t do any direct depth sensing either.

Are we talking about Tesla's cameras or the "best" cameras? There are smartphone cameras that do depth sensing and HDR, and cameras are cheaper than eyeballs so composing them to get more angular resolution seems OK.

ToF/structured illumination cameras are honestly not that capable.

The maximum dynamic range of the eye is ~130dB. It's very difficult to push an imaging system to work well at the dark end of what the eye will do with any decent frame rate.

It's not as different as it used to be, but even so: the Mk. I eyeball does pretty damn well compared to quite fancy cameras.

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

#229

Post by wetpaws »

itsoktocry wrote: post #215
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…

I love how we've gone from "Taxis are gross and dirty, that's why I love Uber!" to "Ubers are gross and dirty, that's why I love Waymo!" in the span of 5 years. What do you think comes next? These cars are literally unsupervised.

>What do you think comes next?

Public transport, hopefully.

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

#230

Post by fragmede »

xnx wrote: post #57
tapoxi wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't the Ubers potentially be cleaner? Who's cleaning the Waymo between rides?

Waymo's have cameras inside the car to make sure the vehicles are clean: https://support.google.com/waymo/answer/9190819

Yeah they probably pipe that video to an algorithm that does background subtraction so they're able to assert that the vehicle is clear of foreign objects, but those cameras don't detect smell. If someone defecates and wipes it somewhere the camera doesn't see, then what?
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