Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

Post by scarface_74 » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 4:20 PM UTC

fixprix wrote: post #11

ddxv wrote: post #2

I love that this is landing in Austin before the cybercab. I think it will really drive the competition for Tesla to put out an (actual) self driving car. Or maybe they pivot to the next hype train.

The problem is neither Waymo or Uber make their own cars, and the cars they use weren't purpose built for self driving. Both of those points give Tesla a huge economic and competitive advantage in the long run. Uber/Waymo are the middlemen, once OEMs start building their own purpose built self driving vehicles there's a good chance Waymo/Uber get factored out of the equation.

Post by xnx » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 4:21 PM UTC

throwawayffffas wrote: post #32

xnx wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should a totally private ride with a safe driver cost less than a ride with a driver who might be drunk, tired, distracted, reckless, and/or rude?

"Safe driver" while the Waymo won't be drunk, tired, distracted, reckless or rude. It may fail in many other ways, from software bugs, ML errors, to hardware failure.

Post by jennyholzer » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 4:22 PM UTC

Swizec wrote: post #37

hsnewman wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, you had to call service to "get out"? What if there is an emergency and you need to get out?

> Wait, you had to call service to "get out"? In my SF experience, the car got stuck. Trying to leave my pickup spot into rush hour traffic and nobody would let it in. The car then called support and had a human driver do some city-appropriate aggressive driving to force its way into the lane. > What if there is an emergency and you need to get out? I could open the door at any time and leave. But was curious to see…

Post by askl » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 4:22 PM UTC

xnx wrote: post #33

askl wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the US, no. For normal countries maybe investment in public transit.

Self-driving cars are modern public transit. "Train brain" is old thinking that public transit should take billions of dollars and decades to make fixed-route trains that only get travelers part of the way to where they actually want to go.

Post by spelunker » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 4:23 PM UTC

thefourthchime wrote: post #18

I've been riding Waymo in Austin for several months as an early. They service the central Austin area. In that area, they've generally been available within 5-10 minutes. The routes it takes are optimized for safety, if you compare the time of arrival between Waymo and Google Maps it's typically 20-30% slower to get there. Most of the rides have been without issue, but I have had some things happen: - It hesitated in…