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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

#271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla, who use cameras only, have not demonstrated full self driving, despite trying for a decade. Elon Musk has stated "It is increasingly clear that all roads lead to AGI. Tesla is building an extremely compute-efficient mini AGI for FSD" [1] Waymo, who use additional sensors like lidar, have a driverless taxi service which needs no safety drivers. The evidence kinda speaks for itself, IMHO. [1] https://twitter.com…

Waymo does have safety drivers, they're just driving the vehicle remotely when it's in certain areas instead of being in the vehicle. So it isn't "full" self driving either. > Tesla, who use cameras only, have not demonstrated full self driving There are entire youtube channels with hours of continuous video showing Teslas driving around SF, but also other parts of California, with no human intervention.

No, Waymo is not driving remotely. Remote operators can only answer simple questions. They're at the point of commercialization so it's all about unit economics. There's no point in driving remotely especially since it does not scale cost-wise.

Waymo is geofenced, but within its geofence it requires zero human intervention. Tesla on the other hand is famous for mistaking the moon for a traffic light. Saying "Tesla has so many miles on YouTube" is hilarious because first of all there are channels with lots of Cruise & Waymo footage too, and more importantly it's not the # of miles that matters, but the # of non-trivial scenarios you can handle.

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

#272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla, who use cameras only, have not demonstrated full self driving, despite trying for a decade. Elon Musk has stated "It is increasingly clear that all roads lead to AGI. Tesla is building an extremely compute-efficient mini AGI for FSD" [1] Waymo, who use additional sensors like lidar, have a driverless taxi service which needs no safety drivers. The evidence kinda speaks for itself, IMHO. [1] https://twitter.com…

Waymo does have safety drivers, they're just driving the vehicle remotely when it's in certain areas instead of being in the vehicle. So it isn't "full" self driving either. > Tesla, who use cameras only, have not demonstrated full self driving There are entire youtube channels with hours of continuous video showing Teslas driving around SF, but also other parts of California, with no human intervention.

Are you saying that there are times when a Waymo car's ability to respond to events is at the mercy of a random Internet connection? What happens if the safety driver is steering remotely, from another town, and there's packet loss for a couple of seconds in the middle of a curve?

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

#273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Freeway driving is easier than surface streets. Maybe merging in is the hard part.

Fuckups are substantially worse though

that's the key point. a crash at 5 mph is inconsequential next to a crash at 50 mph.

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

#274
post #91

Genuine question -> - Elon (and his pro-analysts) heavily weight the future of the co's valuation on their ability to deploy a taxi network and has been promising it just around corner for years - Alphabet via Waymo seems to have "solved" robotaxis for city-proximity driving and has deployed as a business. Beyond the obvious "reality distortion field" argument is Tesla actually in a position to win here due to their…

The only selling point of FSD (Supervised) is that it (can) work "everywhere." This is because it only relies on navigation information and what the car can see. Waymo and similar companies all use HD Mapping. Ignoring the specifics, it can be thought of as a centimeter-level perfect reconstruction of the environment, including additional metadata such as slopes, exact lane positions, road markings, barriers, traffic…

I’ve watched Waymos navigate the Tenderloin. It doesn’t get any more random than that.

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

#275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drunk party goers on a Friday night, people smoking in the car on their way to Dolores, petulant teenagers…

I've been riding MUNI for 25 years. The only assault I saw was a drunk office worker on his way home on the 31AX.

I rode BART for a year, every day something bad happened

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

#276

You can definitely feel the fear from Tesla's competition recently, just ahead of Tesla's robotaxi unveil on 8/8 :) * Uber CEO dumps $70 million of shares this week * Google tries to steal the Tesla's media thunder by opening Waymo to everyone * GM brings in new leadership to revitalize Cruise * Rivian gets a huge cash injection

Seems like a massive stretch to insert Tesla into the conversation.

Waymo has been building up to this for years in San Francisco. Cruise has been looking for a new CEO for many months. Rivian has been in well known financial trouble.

I don’t think anyone’s worried about a Tesla robotaxi. It’s another vaporware in their long list of vaporwares. Going by their FSD track record, that thing won’t exist for a number of years.

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

#277

They solved the wrong problem. I still have to sit in a car for 30 minutes after work. If instead they made a robotic chef cook, that would actually save me 30 minutes every day.

Just work in your car using a mobile hotspot and leave work 30 mins earlier. Works for any white collar job assuming you have a reasonable employer.

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

#278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are freeways within the geofence in SF. My understanding is that Waymos will not drive on those freeways without a safety driver for now.

Freeway driving is easier than surface streets. Maybe merging in is the hard part.

uh, in southern california there used to be an unspoken rule: if you can't pass the driver's test with freeway included, you go to NorCo and take the test there. No freeway - the hardest thing is the "parallel park and reverse" which is just being told prior "when you pull over, take as long as you need to get as parallel as you can to the curb, then just go in reverse, look over your shoulder, and don't touch the wheel." Well, that and you automatically fail if you hit a cow.

Freeways in CA aren't the worst in the country (lookin at you, TX), but they're still not easier than surface streets, especially during off-peak hours.

Can you expand a bit on why you feel freeway driving is "easier"? the only thing i can think of is you're much less likely to get into a head-on[0] collision.

[0] apply directly

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

#280

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’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.

Yeah, I've ridden with two cool drivers with history degrees, one jazz musician from Ethiopia, and one who I'd already met elsewhere. Zero interest in riding in a Waymo. (Disclaimer: Alphabet shareholder)
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