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Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

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Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#51

Post by dkarl »

iwanttocomment wrote: post #4
NullHypothesist wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 In SF, when Cruise & Waymo were both operating at the same time, there was a lot of animosity towards autonomous vehicle driving behavior (especially emergency vehicles). Both companies got lumped in together, but this seemed to stop as soon as Cruise paused operations. It's nice that Austin will get a chance to see Waymo first, and have the ability to differentiate between the performance whenever Tesla launches.…

Austin already had Cruise until Cruise operations shut down in late 2023.

I tried Cruise in Austin, and it was nothing more than a curiosity. What should have been a ten minute ride took almost forty minutes because the car took a circuitous route with lots of backtracking, presumably because the cars were programmed to stay away from certain intersections and avoid left turns. It was my first time in a self-driving car, so the cool factor was definitely there, but it was far from being a real product.

Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#52

Post by skyyler »

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.

Trains and busses are far denser than cars, and that's part of the appeal. You can move more people around with less space needed.

"Train brain" is working just fine for China and Japan, I think it would work great in the US. Why can't I get on a train from Columbus to go to Philly? I should be able to.

Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#53

Post by renewiltord »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #13

As a consumer, I think this is great. As for its impact on society, I worry. Famous investor Jeremy Grantham said recently "If the government does not smooth out the benefits of AI, you will have either starvation or revolution." Huge numbers of people rely on driving for their income. More importantly, automated driving can only lead to even more concentration of wealth. With human drivers, most of the income genera…

A thing we could do is tax everyone who uses or makes software and give the money to people who used to use paper processes. For example, we could pay DMV workers 10x what they currently make by placing a small $1k tax on everyone in tech in the US.

Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#54

Post by pmg101 »

jennyholzer wrote: post #45
Swizec wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

I would bully the fuck out of any Waymos I saw on the road

Why?

Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#55

Post by ra7 »

erikerikson wrote: post #42
tene80i wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the advantage of owning the full stack? Some margin on the base machine? Is that that huge a factor?

Ask Apple?

Apple doesn’t own any factories to make their hardware. Their vertical integration goes as far as hardware design and software.

Pretty much exactly what companies like Waymo are trying to do.

Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#57

Post by askl »

GuinansEyebrows wrote: post #40
xnx wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How are self-driving cars public at all?

Well, they are owned by a public company, right? /s

Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#59

Post by xnx »

skyyler wrote: post #52
xnx wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Trains and busses are far denser than cars, and that's part of the appeal. You can move more people around with less space needed. "Train brain" is working just fine for China and Japan, I think it would work great in the US. Why can't I get on a train from Columbus to go to Philly? I should be able to.

> Trains and busses are far denser than cars, and that's part of the appeal. You can move more people around with less space needed.

This is true only for contrived examples comparing the vehicles directly. Comparing the real-world throughput of a highway vs. a rail line (in the US) and the density advantage goes away.

> Why can't I get on a train from Columbus to go to Philly?

The US has a different approach to property rights than China, so constructing a new right of way through thousands of private properties is much more expensive. Building new rail lines has massive environmental costs (it's a lot of steel and concrete!). Even once built, it's very hard to compete with a $100 flight that gets you between Columbus and Philly faster.

Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#60

Post by throwawayffffas »

ajmurmann wrote: post #21
throwawayffffas wrote: post #16

> Starting today, riders who request an UberX, Uber Green, Comfort, or Comfort Electric could be matched with a Waymo fully autonomous all-electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicle – at no additional cost. That made legit laugh out loud. No additional cost? Are you for real Uber? It should be significantly cheaper.

Have you taken a Waymo before? The car and ride in general is much nicer than your average Uber or Lyft ride.

I have not and I believe you. But seriously, the incentive for automating anything is cost. Even if it's nicer, the removal of the driver does not make it a "premium" service, it makes it an automated service. The expectation is lower cost not higher. I know that supply and demand and competition right now might be at a place where the same price for eventually the same service is expected. But still "at no additional cost" read hilarious.
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