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Next stop: Miami

waymo.com

111–120 of 319 posts

Re: Next stop: Miami

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can handle heavy rain, see time 6:00: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Bm1A3aaQnh0 From their August 2023 blog post: > During this past winter season in California with its record rain, high winds, and thunderstorms, we were able to maintain 99.4% fleet uptime

How does it make out lane markings? Or is it all just GPS-based?

Maybe similarly how humans do it.

Re: Next stop: Miami

#112
post #60

I feel like at this point someone needs to take a step back and think about the general vision and overall goals of this whole fully automated ride-hailing service thing. I mean, what is the exact problem that's being solved here? I don't mean "problem" like "solving the technical problem of making a car move autonomously in a chaotic city" sense. I mean what is the need that's being addressed here, exactly? Ride-hai…

> If the problem is efficiently moving people around in a city; well to be honest I find this premise a bit ridiculous. Call me a European, but I find the idea that moving 1-2 people in private vehicles on roads being superior than public transit -preferably on rail- simply absurd. Much of the US like Huston and Miami is extremely lacking in public transit, and will likely never build the infrastructure. > Ride-haili…

Huston is in fact building transit. They have a large spread out city which makes it a hard problem, but if you carefully choose where you look you will find people living there who don't have a car and just rely on transit and don't notice any loss of lifestyle.

Re: Next stop: Miami

#113
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting random fact: when it rains, waymo turns on the windshield wipers

Plenty of south florida rain is not helped by windshield wipers. Anyway I wonder if waymo sensors actually have better visibility in such conditions than people do

I think the comment you are replying to is implying that it's a bit funny/weird that the wipers turn on, because there aren't any sensors that are looking out the window to see. (As others pointed out, it could just be default auto-wiper functionality, and of course passengers still like being able to see out the window, even if they aren't controlling the vehicle).

Re: Next stop: Miami

#114
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well that would cost Miami taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars, and this costs Miami taxpayers nothing. It would also take decades. This will be happening next year. Build all the transit you want. You need something for the next 30 years while you're doing that.

no it would save miami and the state and the federal government billions trirail frequency increases can be done overnight a greenway network can also be built quickly and cheaply metrorail extension would cost more but still less than it costs to build and maintain roads but they are too busy spending billions building even more car infra which will only make traffic and congestion even worse

> no it would save miami and the state and the federal government billions

Have you ever looked at the local budget of a US transit authority?

They typically lose $2+ per passenger trip, and get bailed out by the federal government.

Mass transit is not going to save Miami any money for decades until ridership approaches Hong Kong levels.

Unless you count passing on expenses to the Federal government as savings, and even then, it's still decades out.

Re: Next stop: Miami

#115

I’m sure they know much more than me and have thought this through, but it feels like Miami is an absolutely awful choice. Traffic is notoriously chaotic there. I’ve driven in LA, Chicago, NYC, Philadelphia, SF, Miami, etc. It’s by far the worst place to drive, moreso even than Manhattan.

Why do you think that makes a bad market for a driverless car?

If driving is miserable, that means lots of people that dont want to do it. If traffic is chaotic, that means a good place to improve their software.

Re: Next stop: Miami

#116
post #110
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bigger question is, how can Tesla with it's non-working "full self driving" compete with Waymo's working actual self-driving.

I’ve seen teslas full self driving drive me on surface roads, on the highway, and even navigate the lot, find parking, and park the car. In what way is it non working at this point? Waymo doesn’t even do highway.

> In what way is it non working at this point?

Because you're in the driver's seat supervising at all times? If it worked fully autonomously, you would be in the backseat.

Re: Next stop: Miami

#117
post #60

I feel like at this point someone needs to take a step back and think about the general vision and overall goals of this whole fully automated ride-hailing service thing. I mean, what is the exact problem that's being solved here? I don't mean "problem" like "solving the technical problem of making a car move autonomously in a chaotic city" sense. I mean what is the need that's being addressed here, exactly? Ride-hai…

As I see it, the biggest goal is safety - self-driving cars seem to reduce accidents per distance driven by at least one order of magnitude.

Citation needed. I've seen claims like that, but none of them from a source that stands up to scrutiny. Most such claims come from the people promoting self driving cars and so they have reason to "lie with statistics". Those who have unbiased data (ie governments) are not talking about it from what I can see.

I personally am significnatly safer than the average driver. This comes solely down to me not drinking alcohol and thus I never drive while drunk. The typical driver also isn't under the influence and thus is significantly better than the average. (I also try to follow other safety practices, but I'm not sure if I'm really better - I'm aware of and pay attention to one thing which makes me better - but what am I not aware of that others are doing?)

Re: Next stop: Miami

#118
post #110
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bigger question is, how can Tesla with it's non-working "full self driving" compete with Waymo's working actual self-driving.

I’ve seen teslas full self driving drive me on surface roads, on the highway, and even navigate the lot, find parking, and park the car. In what way is it non working at this point? Waymo doesn’t even do highway.

But not with a sufficient reliability and safety. You need that to do what Waymo does. Waymo could do highways 15 years ago, right now they use highways in autonomous mode but only with employees or empty, so they will presumably launch soon.

Imagine 2 drivers, one does something dangerous every hour, the other every 1000 hours. If you observe them for one hour, they may appear identical to you. Yet, one is 1000x better.

Re: Next stop: Miami

#120
post #110
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bigger question is, how can Tesla with it's non-working "full self driving" compete with Waymo's working actual self-driving.

I’ve seen teslas full self driving drive me on surface roads, on the highway, and even navigate the lot, find parking, and park the car. In what way is it non working at this point? Waymo doesn’t even do highway.

> I’ve seen teslas full self driving drive me ...

> In what way is it non working at this point?

It's killing people:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/18/24273418/nhtsa-tesla-ful...

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