Yes, there are more driverless Waymos in S.F
sfchronicle.com
Yes, there are more driverless Waymos in S.F
1–10 of 61 posts
Re: Yes, there are more driverless Waymos in S.F
#2"Waymo operates about 300 driverless cars in the city, up from the roughly 250 robotaxis it used to start commercial service last August."
Sounds like a relatively small increase in actual cars over the last year despite a significant increase in use of those cars.
Re: Yes, there are more driverless Waymos in S.F
#3I wonder how far they are from profitability on a cost per ride basis. The biggest long term risk to self driving cars is probably that number being unreachable.
The super expensive base vehicles don't help either. They need lidar hats for the Kia Forte or whatever
Re: Yes, there are more driverless Waymos in S.F
#4You have to read carefully the article to extract the information. This is like the opposite of journalism.
tldr:
* 903,000 vehicle miles traveled during commercial driverless ride-hailing in May (57% increase from April).
* Waymo increased from 250 taxis last August to 300 in May.
So there's almost no new taxis, the increase comes from an increased utilization of the fleet.
Re: Yes, there are more driverless Waymos in S.F
#5I am curious how much support staff this fleet has, and how much work they do. The article mentions nothing about that.
Re: Yes, there are more driverless Waymos in S.F
#6I am curious how much support staff this fleet has, and how much work they do. The article mentions nothing about that.
I’d like to see the financial analysis.
This job competes directly with San Franciscans who pay taxes and commuting drivers who spend money on food and gas.
When we wipe them out and replace it with a tax-dodging multinational corporation what happens to our local economy?
Re: Yes, there are more driverless Waymos in S.F
#7I wonder how far they are from profitability on a cost per ride basis. The biggest long term risk to self driving cars is probably that number being unreachable. The super expensive base vehicles don't help either. They need lidar hats for the Kia Forte or whatever
Just a LIDAR on top is not NEARLY the instrumentation requirement. There are cameras and LIDARs all around, and many other changes made to the car. Designing a strap-on self driving kit that would actually work is likely impossible to make cost-efficient without the car manufacturer's help.
Re: Yes, there are more driverless Waymos in S.F
#8You have to read carefully the article to extract the information. This is like the opposite of journalism. tldr: * 903,000 vehicle miles traveled during commercial driverless ride-hailing in May (57% increase from April). * Waymo increased from 250 taxis last August to 300 in May. So there's almost no new taxis, the increase comes from an increased utilization of the fleet.
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Re: Yes, there are more driverless Waymos in S.F
#9I wonder how far they are from profitability on a cost per ride basis. The biggest long term risk to self driving cars is probably that number being unreachable. The super expensive base vehicles don't help either. They need lidar hats for the Kia Forte or whatever
Replacing ~minimum wage drivers in conventional cars with expensive cars backed by expensive software developers and operations staffs is almost certainly not a business model. There may be (probably will be) a business model behind autonomous driving technology in some undefined future. But there's no guarantee Waymo won't be another killed by Google in the interim. The thought from a decade ago that the average teenager wouldn't need to learn to drive is basically a fantasy.
Re: Yes, there are more driverless Waymos in S.F
#10I rode my first Waymo last weekend. It's _significantly_ better than an Uber. You get an almost 'white-glove' experience getting inside. Then, you have complete privacy. I could get work done in the car guilt-free. I was very surprised with the experience