Waymo will bring autonomous vehicles to Tokyo

Post by GoatOfAplomb » Tue, Dec 17, 2024, 4:38 AM UTC

tkgally wrote: post #8

This will be interesting. As an aging nondriver living in Yokohama, I’ve been both hoping that self-driving cars become available here before I develop mobility issues and wondering how feasible they will be. Since I don’t drive, I don’t have a sense of what the roads here are like from the vehicle’s perspective. But many of the streets, including in the neighborhood where I live [1], are narrow, have no sidewalks, a…

Post by throwaway0729 » Tue, Dec 17, 2024, 4:40 AM UTC

Flux159 wrote: post #9

refactor_master wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 was in a Waymo last week in San Francisco that had a bicyclist cut in front of us, no hard breaking or jerk just a gradual decrease in speed. I would've hit the break relatively fast myself but Waymo handled it without issue in a very smooth way. Also see https://x.com/dmitri_dolgov/status/1868778679868047545 I don't know how it'll handle significantly more pedestrians, but I assume that they're confident enough in…

Post by GolDDranks » Tue, Dec 17, 2024, 4:41 AM UTC

pezezin wrote: post #17

refactor_master wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Dec 17, 2024, 4:44 AM UTC

refactor_master wrote: post #6

trhaynes wrote: post #4

Earlier 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.

Post by skhr0680 » Tue, Dec 17, 2024, 4:48 AM UTC

jdeibele wrote: post #22

opdahl wrote: post #11

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…

What I've read is that some/most taxis in Japan have an automatic back door for the passenger. https://musa4trip.wordpress.com/2014/04/04/taxis-in-japan-do... Searching, I see references to automatic doors preventing robberies but no explanations as to how that would be. Perhaps the barriers between the back seat passengers and driver prevent knife threats? I wouldn't expect robbers in Japan to have guns, like they w…