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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

#511
post #155
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.

Competing anecdata: Yesterday I was running downtown and a Waymo stopped for me at a green light because it wasn't sure if I was gonna jaywalk (jayrun?). Only once I stood still for a few seconds did it continue to make its turn. This was in a turn-left-only intersection with a separate pedestrian light. Maybe the Waymo got confused and thought I also had green.

I sometimes wait on pedestrians when turning right on a green and pedestrians do a little dance on the corner that makes it hard to tell if/when they're gonna cross.

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

#512

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…

[flagged]

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

#513
post #508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've ridden the 22 through the Mission at midnight every Tuesday for much of the last seven years. I assure you that's exactly as much as I thought I do.

You might be magic. Crazy, crazy shit goes down on Muni. I used it to commute from outer Richmond to downtown for years and the bystander effect was fully powered up on many of those rides. And it wasn't always the homeless people, little old Asian ladies could be hella scary.

I might be. I also commuted downtown from the outer Richmond for years, on the 31, the 38, the 1, and the 5. Oh, I've seen plenty of crazy stuff, but only one assault.

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

#514

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Public transportation is not a true panacea even where it’s seen most favorable. Car ownership increased 14% in Europe from 2012 to 2022, across the board:

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/d...

The future will be a combination of trains, a more extensive robotaxi network for the last mile, which can be cars or vans, and a much smaller percentage of personal vehicles compared to today. Buses as they are today will decline.

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

#515
post #508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might be magic. Crazy, crazy shit goes down on Muni. I used it to commute from outer Richmond to downtown for years and the bystander effect was fully powered up on many of those rides. And it wasn't always the homeless people, little old Asian ladies could be hella scary.

I might be. I also commuted downtown from the outer Richmond for years, on the 31, the 38, the 1, and the 5. Oh, I've seen plenty of crazy stuff, but only one assault.

Okay, the point I think the poster up there was trying to make is that there are degrees of assault. I never saw anyone murdered, and only twice some sort of physical struggle. The number of times crazy yelling broke out is uncountable by me, though.

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

#516

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…

The possibility of "character" is always my biggest dread when getting into a taxi or an Uber.

I just want to get from point A to point B without having to make small talk or delicately navigate a political discussion with a stranger. A stranger who both controls the vehicle and, in the case of Uber/Lyft, will be giving me a rating at the end of the ride.

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

#517
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Highly recommend people read how Waymo's fleet response works before throwing out phrases like "remote drivers take over cars": https://waymo.com/blog/2024/05/fleet-response/

There is someone to take over as soon as the car encounters something it cannot handle. It's not self driving. By definition it's not driverless, there is always a driver assigned who will take care of it if needed. One of the reason they cannot scale beyond small areas.

It would go against their operating license for a remote driver to completely take over control of the car. The car is always in ultimate control even when it's getting "assistance" from a remote operator.

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

#518
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.

Why? That would be expensive and the cars are designed to understand the lights as they are.

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

#519

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"A fan-boy would never call Musk a narcisstic a*hole." FWIW - You definitely come off as as irrationally in favor of tesla, regardless of reason. Nobody missed any of your points, they just don't agree with most them or believe the rest follow from your points.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ffhD_dNzoM0 Any driver that makes this kind of move is typically in the top 5%ile of driving skills. Yes, it's an asshole and slightly illegal move, but the level of intelligence that needs to be applied for this move is all you need to know about Tesla's advantages. I have been extremely critical of Musk's reliance on only cameras, but I'm impressed with the progress they have made bec…

> Any driver that makes this kind of move is typically in the top 5%ile of driving skills.

Hard disagree.

It's pretty clear the car just didn't understand what the line of cars was doing.

> level of intelligence that needs to be applied for this move

If you were a human making this move, I would judge your intelligence as below average.

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

#520

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.

Life is just a giant story we tell ourselves. This is no different. Who knows what tomorrow's story will tell!
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