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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

#401

Post by cco »

alexambarch wrote: post #259
ra7 wrote: 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…

If these vehicles tackle the roads of Boston, there will be no stopping this company. That place has one of the most confusing road networks I’ve ever seen in addition to some of the most confused drivers. NYC is another obvious challenge but Boston seems like a challenging middle ground.

The issue is not a confusing road network, it's that Waymos require a modicum of grace in other drivers to operate. They aren't super aggressive, they'll defer to pedestrians and other drivers, they drive safely.

That I think is where they'll find problems when expanding to locales with less than conscientious drivers.

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

#402

Post by cco »

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…

They were trialing grocery delivery with Kroger in Phoenix about two years ago.

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

#403

Post by fragmede »

pengaru wrote: post #63
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.

Anecdata to say I've been in a Waymo and had it run a red.

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

#404

Post by fragmede »

dventimi wrote: post #393
Eisenstein wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

and you said it wasn't a loaded question. That was intellectually dishonest of you.

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

#405

Post by elbasti »

hyfgfh wrote: post #368
wetpaws wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What do you think comes next? Public transport, hopefully.

And mingle with the masses? in SF? Maybe if they re-invent trains or buses again

> Maybe if they re-invent trains or buses again

You joke, but I've heard more than one argument about how self-driving cars will drastically improve traffic because, for inter-city travel, they will be able to drive very close together on the highway in a long convoy, leaving almost no space between cars...

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

#406

Post by lmm »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #96
kungito wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber has partner drivers which have their own companies, their own rating, and can be punished for their behaviour. Once a company completely vertically integrates (like Google would like), meaning they have their own cars, they no longer want to punish themselves for bad behaviour/cars. Since they have to choose between short term cost of higher maintenance fee or long term cost of loss of quality of service their m…

Waymo is posiionting itself as a premium product. Defending that brand precludes letting the cars go to shit.

They may be trying to, but when has Google ever successfully positioned something as a premium product and defended that?

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

#407

Post by kajecounterhack »

diebeforei485 wrote: post #317
kajecounterhack wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ha…

I don't see why Tesla can't handle those scenarios if they also use remote operators. I wouldn't be surprised if they do. Btw Waymo is nowhere near achieving unit economics. Their cars cost like 5 times what Teslas cost, and the sensors require a lot of upkeep and maintenance.

Who’s to say what unit economics they’ve achieved but I’d hazard to guess that their investors wouldn’t support expanding their fleet and service unless the unit economics are at least close to break even. Cost for sensors and overall BOM keeps going down as more suppliers enter the market.

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

#408

Post by beaugunderson »

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…

took two waymo rides in SF and two nightmare cab rides in SF and memphis in the last couple of days.

one waymo was perfect, the other ran a red light then stopped in the intersection diagonally across two lanes of traffic until the light turned green. didn't endanger anyone but felt awkward!

on the cab ride to SFO my driver kept falling asleep and veering into the next lane, i tried talking with him to keep him awake but it was clear he'd been driving all morning and was exhausted.

the cab ride from memphis international was interesting, the cab was falling apart, driver was nice but he tried to convert me to christianity for the last ten minutes of the ride.

the waymos will end up safer but totally devoid of character.

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

#409

Post by Animats »

Dr_Birdbrain wrote: post #261
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 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.

> Presumably this requires humans to physically clean periodically.

That's a good robotics project. All the cars are the same. The cars do not have any objects inside that belong to the occupants and should stay. So robotic interior vacuuming could be quite practical, as a station in the car wash. A vision system can inspect for damage and route that car to the maintenance line.

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

#410

Post by kajecounterhack »

barbariangrunge wrote: post #333
linearrust wrote: post #299

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

SF traffic lights do not.
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