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Waymo to test its autonomous driving technology in over 10 new cities

reuters.com

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Re: Waymo to test its autonomous driving technology in over 10 new cities

#51

Post by someperson »

jedberg wrote: post #45
kart23 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they even profitable in SF or LA? I don't disagree with you, but if being profitable means charging more than Uber/Lyft and having slower trips on average than a human, thats not gonna work out too well. And these are the highest CoL cities in the us, meaning that if its not profitable there, might not be profitable anywhere.

Why do you think the trips are slower than a human? I've only taken one Waymo trip (and my wife two) but in each case it didn't feel any slower than a Lyft. But it felt a lot safer! They definitely drive better than any human Lyft driver I've ever had. And the prices seems to roughly match Uber/Lyft. Sometimes they're higher sometimes lower. The one ride I took I chose the more expensive Waymo just for the better exp…

Waymos are terrible at taking unprotected left turns into bumper to bumper traffic during peak hour.

They aren't aggressive like a normal driver when traffic is stopped and there's a clear but small gap that would result in the car being at an angle crossing traffic.

The lidar can't see any gap between cars when trying to turn into a more distant lane, so any obstruction to a close lane due to traffic kills them.

Source: been stuck in and observed Waymo in this situation for 10+ minutes several times.

A human driver is willing to make the turn much sooner.

Don't take a Waymo if you're in a hurry and the route will have such a left turns.

Re: Waymo to test its autonomous driving technology in over 10 new cities

#52

Post by strifey »

jedberg wrote: post #45
kart23 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they even profitable in SF or LA? I don't disagree with you, but if being profitable means charging more than Uber/Lyft and having slower trips on average than a human, thats not gonna work out too well. And these are the highest CoL cities in the us, meaning that if its not profitable there, might not be profitable anywhere.

Why do you think the trips are slower than a human? I've only taken one Waymo trip (and my wife two) but in each case it didn't feel any slower than a Lyft. But it felt a lot safer! They definitely drive better than any human Lyft driver I've ever had. And the prices seems to roughly match Uber/Lyft. Sometimes they're higher sometimes lower. The one ride I took I chose the more expensive Waymo just for the better exp…

Their wait times tend to be worse, but that's getting better too. The trip speed has also noticeably improved. I've taken about 50 over the past 2 years.

Even if they're sometimes slower in pickup or trip time, on average, I greatly value the consistency of the experience over everything else.

Re: Waymo to test its autonomous driving technology in over 10 new cities

#53

Post by strifey »

someperson wrote: post #51
jedberg wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think the trips are slower than a human? I've only taken one Waymo trip (and my wife two) but in each case it didn't feel any slower than a Lyft. But it felt a lot safer! They definitely drive better than any human Lyft driver I've ever had. And the prices seems to roughly match Uber/Lyft. Sometimes they're higher sometimes lower. The one ride I took I chose the more expensive Waymo just for the better exp…

Waymos are terrible at taking unprotected left turns into bumper to bumper traffic during peak hour. They aren't aggressive like a normal driver when traffic is stopped and there's a clear but small gap that would result in the car being at an angle crossing traffic. The lidar can't see any gap between cars when trying to turn into a more distant lane, so any obstruction to a close lane due to traffic kills them. Sou…

Anecdotally, they've gotten much more proactive at taking unprotected lefts in my experience.

Re: Waymo to test its autonomous driving technology in over 10 new cities

#54

Post by ElijahLynn »

actinium226 wrote: post #31
ElijahLynn wrote: post #23

The article does not actually list the 10 cities. Nor does it link to a source or say the source.

> In addition to ongoing trips to Truckee, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Upstate New York and Tokyo, the expansion includes testing in San Diego and Las Vegas, with more cities yet to be announced.

They list a few cities but not 10 cities.

Re: Waymo to test its autonomous driving technology in over 10 new cities

#55

Post by DCH3416 »

spankalee wrote: post #4
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #2

"In addition to ongoing trips to Truckee, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Upstate New York and Tokyo, the expansion includes testing in San Diego and Las Vegas, with more cities yet to be announced." Pitching my own book here, but I think Jackson Hole would be a great place for Waymo. It's clearly delineated, has basically no freeway driving, affluent residents and a constant influx of tourists for brand building. The on…

I imagine they'll need a ton of testing and adjustments for driving in snow for all the conditions the car needs to detect and plan around, like the wheels slipping, or the car as a whole sliding down a hill. This is probably a separate effort from mapping out a city, but then needs to be tested in the real world. I think Truckee and Tahoe offer this environment within reasonable driving distance to the main Waymo de…

Not so much snow, as you have rapidly changing road conditions such as ice and freezing rain. And then factor in poor road markings and not always abundantly clear path finding.

The nice thing about EVs like they're using now. The electric motors are pretty good at responding and handling different road conditions, much faster than ICE vehicles since you can never quite predict what the engine is doing at a given moment.

Re: Waymo to test its autonomous driving technology in over 10 new cities

#57

Post by RivieraKid »

dageshi wrote: post #20

I'm convinced that Waymo will quietly continue to roll out self driving taxi's to ever increasing areas in "beta" until one day they're covering a significant percentage of the most profitable areas to be a taxi in. Instead of trying for universal self driving, they're going to prioritise being self driving taxi's for the most profitable areas.

They're already covering 0.25% of total US paved road network per my napkin calculation.

Re: Waymo to test its autonomous driving technology in over 10 new cities

#58

Post by JumpCrisscross »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #47
_ea1k wrote: post #28

I've been poking at Uber forums and other places, and I'm noticing that a _lot_ of people are underestimating this. Waymo is growing by >100%/year at the moment and this is a significant part of that growth. It'll make a huge dent in demand for Uber/Lyft over the next five years.

Unless those companies stumble on competing solutions that they can use to level the playing field. Waymo doesn't have this market to itself in perpetuity. Uber and Lyft basically have lots of revenue and can afford to take some bets on experimenting with different partners for self driving at a relatively low risk. There are plenty of other companies experimenting with self driving taxis, cars, trucks, etc. And not…

> Uber and Lyft basically have lots of revenue

Waymo is level with Lyft in San Francisco [1].

> plenty of other companies experimenting with self driving taxis, cars, trucks, etc.

None with a track record. The only wild card is Tesla.

[1] https://www.ktvu.com/news/waymo-ridership-skyrocketed-in-sf-...

Re: Waymo to test its autonomous driving technology in over 10 new cities

#60

Post by RivieraKid »

someperson wrote: post #51
jedberg wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think the trips are slower than a human? I've only taken one Waymo trip (and my wife two) but in each case it didn't feel any slower than a Lyft. But it felt a lot safer! They definitely drive better than any human Lyft driver I've ever had. And the prices seems to roughly match Uber/Lyft. Sometimes they're higher sometimes lower. The one ride I took I chose the more expensive Waymo just for the better exp…

Waymos are terrible at taking unprotected left turns into bumper to bumper traffic during peak hour. They aren't aggressive like a normal driver when traffic is stopped and there's a clear but small gap that would result in the car being at an angle crossing traffic. The lidar can't see any gap between cars when trying to turn into a more distant lane, so any obstruction to a close lane due to traffic kills them. Sou…

When was the last time this happened to you?
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