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Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

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331–340 of 651 posts

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

#331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest problem with cleaning is that compared to Uber where there's a human driver, the autonomy factor will almost certainly lead to more people fucking shit up simply because they can. Look at anything else that goes unattended in the public way: ebikes, delivery bot things, scooters... nasty combo of "I want to fuck with The Man" and "haha nobody is here watching I don't need to be as careful with my messy sa…

Thats silly. The cars are private property and full of cameras being monitored by a tech giant. I’m sure the account agreement is going to require you to to accept being charged egregious bills for damaging or dirty-ing the cabin

It is indeed silly. And yet every taxi driver has plenty of horror stories, and that's with a human sitting there.

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

#332

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.

Then why go to office in the first place? :P

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

#333
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> So smooth they apparently opt to blow red lights instead of stopping abruptly. Surprised traffic lights aren't updated to communicate with cars directly. Why not have traffic lights broadcast 'stop' message along with turning red? I suspect traffic lights, roads and cities will have to be updated to work with driverless cars.

It does. It uses a specific band on the electro magnetic spectrum commonly supported by most receivers

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

#334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was there a law against being armed in the airport dropoff/pickup area there?

No, I added the pick-up locationbut to make it clear the driver knew I was unarmed as I was coming off a flight, since one can't legally fly with a gun.

In most countries, including US and all EU member states, one can legally fly with firearms and ammunition. There are some rules that must be followed. Sure, you can not take them to the cabin.

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

#335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be clear: Waymo can take you to basically any address in those city limits, but it doesn't do so by taking the freeways like 101 and 280 that pass through it.

I saw a Waymo on 280 the other day. Maybe it was being driven by hand, but the lidar was spinning.

It's always good to collect up to date map data. If I were the architect, I'd make sure we were always collecting.

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

#336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 us…

> Waymos smelling like meth or fentanyl

Granted in my work I've never made the attempt to smell fentanyl, but it isn't one with a reputation of having an odor. I assume you mean the smell of recreational users of fentanyl.

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

#337
post #151
post #11

Add freeways and airport rides, both of which they are very close to doing, Waymo will become much more of a complete service and a true Uber/Lyft replacement. In a year's time, we could genuinely see them operating at scale in 6-8 major cities (SF, Phoenix, LA, Austin and new cities), especially with their new dedicated robotaxi from Zeekr. A possible hold up would be China import tariffs imposed by the US governmen…

1: Airport rides are already available in Phoenix between 10PM and 6AM. 2: I have never seen a Waymo on the freeway without someone driving it (not monitored self-driving, but physically driving it). Take this with a grain of sand but it is my understanding that full self-driving on highways is still far away given the limited range of the (relatively) small sensors and the speed of travel required. That is: the sens…

Freeway driving is more straightforward in many ways compared to urban driving, but the problem is that the impact of screwing up is a LOT more severe.

If you screw up at typical speeds in SF, probably nobody will die. On a freeway, odds are a lot higher.

If a car is confused in an urban area, stopping in the middle of the street isn't 100% safe, but it's not super dangerous, whereas stopping in the middle of freeway suddenly is obviously extremely dangerous.

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

#338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[flagged]

No, it's true. If you're too feeble to walk, you're probably too feeble to drive.

Of course, people who are just paralyzed from the waist down are a different story.

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

#339
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

[flagged]

> They suffered and died.

Actually, societies that are more walkable usually have healthier old people and longer lifespans.

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

#340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be clear: Waymo can take you to basically any address in those city limits, but it doesn't do so by taking the freeways like 101 and 280 that pass through it.

I saw a Waymo on 280 the other day. Maybe it was being driven by hand, but the lidar was spinning.

They've announced that they've started testing fully driverless on freeways IIRC. No passengers yet though, I think.
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