Going to be very interesting to see how the Japanese people react to this. The service the taxi drivers provide when you take the taxi in Japan is on another level, such as waiting for you with the open door and closing the door for you as you enter. A driverless car will never be able to copy that. Japan also has very good public transportation reducing the need for a car for day to day travel so cost might be less of a factor.
Waymo will bring autonomous vehicles to Tokyo
11–20 of 129 posts
Re: Waymo will bring autonomous vehicles to Tokyo
#12[deleted]
Re: Waymo will bring autonomous vehicles to Tokyo
#13Going to be very interesting to see how the Japanese people react to this. The service the taxi drivers provide when you take the taxi in Japan is on another level, such as waiting for you with the open door and closing the door for you as you enter. A driverless car will never be able to copy that. Japan also has very good public transportation reducing the need for a car for day to day travel so cost might be less…
Plenty of cars with electric doors, including Tesla.
But true, even Uber is kinda flash with driver wearing white gloves.
Re: Waymo will bring autonomous vehicles to Tokyo
#14Going to be very interesting to see how the Japanese people react to this. The service the taxi drivers provide when you take the taxi in Japan is on another level, such as waiting for you with the open door and closing the door for you as you enter. A driverless car will never be able to copy that. Japan also has very good public transportation reducing the need for a car for day to day travel so cost might be less…
> waiting for you with the open door and closing the door for you as you enter
I know you meant more than this, but I'm sure automating opening and closing the doors will be a lesser challenge then developing autonomous self driving?
Re: Waymo will bring autonomous vehicles to Tokyo
#15Makes sense. High-tech country, robot-friendly, declining young population.
Re: Waymo will bring autonomous vehicles to Tokyo
#16Going to be very interesting to see how the Japanese people react to this. The service the taxi drivers provide when you take the taxi in Japan is on another level, such as waiting for you with the open door and closing the door for you as you enter. A driverless car will never be able to copy that. Japan also has very good public transportation reducing the need for a car for day to day travel so cost might be less…
> such as waiting for you with the open door and closing the door for you as you enter
Most taxis in Japan have driver-controlled doors. The driver doesn't have to get off the seat at all. Given it is already automated, it is trivial for a driverless car to do.
Re: Waymo will bring autonomous vehicles to Tokyo
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you elaborate on what is expected outside of being mandated?
In my experience the cars are highly regulated and very predictable on the main roads. Marked out lanes, low speed limits, many red lights. But pedestrians and bikes are everywhere , and they don't always obey the rules. I wonder how well collision detection handles sharing lanes with bikes without suddenly braking in the middle of the road.
I live in rural Japan, and in my experience, drivers are also crazy:
* They stop on the side of roads and streets whenever they feel like it without worrying about blocking the traffic.
* They don't turn the lights on no matter how bad the weather is. Super fun to be in the middle of a snow storm and people are driving white cars with the lights off.
* Whenever someone wants to turn right at an intersection, the cars behind will pass it on the left, without worrying if someone is coming the opposite direction, which is really dangerous. I am not sure about the Japanese law, but in my home country (Spain) that is highly illegal.
* Many people watch TV or anime while driving. I even saw one guy reading a book while driving, somehow holding it open over the driving wheel.
Add to this the awful state of most streets and roads, and I can see more accidents here in one year that I saw in 33 years in Spain.
Re: Waymo will bring autonomous vehicles to Tokyo
#18I guess the biggest challenge is gonna be not to get stuck in those narrow alleys that they call streets in Japan. Some of them can hardly take a kei car, let alone a sedan I can already see in my imagination all the jijis swearing when they see those cars stuck :)
The average motorcar still operating in japan is approximately 2/3rd the mass, and presumably volume, of the average personal vehicle in america. They also don't allow street parking on those "alleys".
Effectively they can be between 1/6th (2-lane) and 2/9th (1-lane) the width of a typical one-way american street and still have room for pedestrians along the side.
Re: Waymo will bring autonomous vehicles to Tokyo
#19Going to be very interesting to see how the Japanese people react to this. The service the taxi drivers provide when you take the taxi in Japan is on another level, such as waiting for you with the open door and closing the door for you as you enter. A driverless car will never be able to copy that. Japan also has very good public transportation reducing the need for a car for day to day travel so cost might be less…
> waiting for you with the open door and closing the door for you as you enter I know you meant more than this, but I'm sure automating opening and closing the doors will be a lesser challenge then developing autonomous self driving?
I don't think that would elicit the same feeling as a driver doing it
Re: Waymo will bring autonomous vehicles to Tokyo
#20Individual autonomous cars will solve all transportation issues. What's that? Trains? Trams? Efficient urban fabric? Things that Tokyo, gasp, already has? Bull.
/s.