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Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

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391–400 of 651 posts

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

#391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Taxis have basically no recourse if you just ditch. Waymo has a video of you, your full name, your billing address and your credit card on file.

Some taxis have that too. Where does it get them?

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

#392
i drove for uber around 7 years ago. it was the first time that i experienced first-hand a mass delusion. more on that later though. at the time i had just read the first samples of GTP output from openai and i immediately understood that we were probably going to experience an explosion of AI progress. and it weighed on me because i was afraid that the economic disruption caused by the resulting automation would ruin my life. i remember sitting in my car thinking that its completely pointless because they are just going to automate ubers… so today is a funny day for me because this really is the death of human uber drivers in SF, even if generative AI isnt at play here. that day has come where people who need a job to tide them over for a few years wont be able to drive ubers. one less option.

driving an uber costs about 20 cents per mile accounting for everything including gas, maintenance, replacement, insurance. including tips you are often paid around a dollar per mile. its just dead simple math. the idea that ubers lose money is a mass delusion fueled by outrage culture, echo chambers and the media. i made tons of money doing it. im screaming into the void and it wont change anyones mind

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

#393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That new group is people who aren't at the frontier of trying out new tech. The way this will manifest is the drunk idiot who'll puke all over the car. The bored asshole who carves his initials in the seat. The edgelord who gets their jollies out of destroying other people's stuff. Good chance you had some in the original group as well, but early adopters are usually mostly people who deeply understand tech. Once tha…

I don't know what 'deeply understanding tech' has to do with any of that. Plenty of people who 'deeply understand tech' get drunk and puke in places. Honestly, you sound like a Victorian-era petty lord looking down his nose at 'commoners'.

Bingo

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

#394
post #392

i drove for uber around 7 years ago. it was the first time that i experienced first-hand a mass delusion. more on that later though. at the time i had just read the first samples of GTP output from openai and i immediately understood that we were probably going to experience an explosion of AI progress. and it weighed on me because i was afraid that the economic disruption caused by the resulting automation would rui…

What’s the definition of tons of money in this context ?

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

#395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

You haven't driven on 101 in SF, I take it. 10 mph would be a great average speed, usually.

Based on my limited experience with Telsa model 3 FSD and my Toyota lane assist/radar cruise control, congested highways are the absolute sweet spot for self driving. Not much happening on the sides, and stop and go traffic being quite tedious for the human. It's happy to speed up and slow down over and over again.

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

#396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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

hm? Are you mixed up with Transit Signal Priority where Muni can request the light stay green a little longer?

I've never heard of the lights transmitting their timing

This article from SFMTA erroneously states that the busses use "GPS to communicate with the traffic signal", lol, what is the actual band used ?

https://www.sfmta.com/blog/green-lights-muni

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

#397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 wh…

There's fewer pedestrians that might or might not be about to step in front of the car. Less need to predict human actions. There's mostly no perpendicular intersections. Generally visibility is good, don't have to remember that there was a car getting ready to enter traffic behind the peach tree. No skate boarders.

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

#398

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 wonder if the cleanliness will be maintained over time? Presumably this requires humans to physically clean periodically, and it seems like this would suffer when the company starts to squeeze costs to improve margins.

Let me introduce you to WayGlo. They pivot to automated car cleaners...

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

#399
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These cars are not meant to be owned. They're part of a fleet. They are driverless and specifically L4 autonomous, which is the best autonomy you can get right now. The vehicles that can operate without any help doesn't exist. You'll be waiting for a long time if that's your expectation.

No, what you explained is 100% what I expected. Driverless cars for Google. For me, I'll be waiting a loong time.

Doesn’t seem impossible to offer remote assistance as a paid subscription. The real showstoppers are cost and maintenance of the self-driving hardware which is astronomical

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

#400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You haven't driven on 101 in SF, I take it. 10 mph would be a great average speed, usually.

Based on my limited experience with Telsa model 3 FSD and my Toyota lane assist/radar cruise control, congested highways are the absolute sweet spot for self driving. Not much happening on the sides, and stop and go traffic being quite tedious for the human. It's happy to speed up and slow down over and over again.

well, in that case they should drive on 101 in the City. No pedestrians (normally) as you said.

Of course, if you have an accident there, you piss off a whole lot more people than you would on a surface street.

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