Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Waymo and Toyota outline partnership to advance autonomous driving deployment

waymo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 397 posts

Re: Waymo and Toyota outline partnership to advance autonomous driving deployment

#61

Post by JumpCrisscross »

chipgap98 wrote: post #49
sorcerer-mar wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. Can you describe what leverage Uber actually has in those partnerships? That's a deal of convenience for Waymo, trading a bit of margin for some velocity. It (or similar deals) are downright existential to Uber.

Uber is acting as an aggregator for all types of rides. Customers have the direct relationship with Uber. Unless Waymo completely runs away with autonomous driving then I think Uber has a lot of leverage.

Waymo has shown itself more than capable of going D2C [1].

It’s actually the one case where Google’s customer service beats the competition’s. Waymo customer service is still somewhat trash. But you need it so infrequently compared with Uber, and Uber and Lyft somehow manage to make Google look like a people company, that I find myself almost exclusively taking Waymo when I’m in a city where it is an option. (Via the Waymo app.)

[1] https://x.com/aleximm/status/1867257473671082356

Re: Waymo and Toyota outline partnership to advance autonomous driving deployment

#62

Post by daedrdev »

throwaway48476 wrote: post #58
mullingitover wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that Japan in general, and for national security reasons? AFAIK they're wholly dependent on China for crucial mineral components in EVs, and 'burning the boats' by abandoning internal combustion manufacturing would effectively turn them into China's vassal.

Rare earth's aren't rare.

China processes ~90% of rare earth raw materials into actual rare earths

Re: Waymo and Toyota outline partnership to advance autonomous driving deployment

#63

Post by sorcerer-mar »

n_ary wrote: post #55
sorcerer-mar wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. Can you describe what leverage Uber actually has in those partnerships? That's a deal of convenience for Waymo, trading a bit of margin for some velocity. It (or similar deals) are downright existential to Uber.

Uber probably has legal framework of operation, ability to quickly obtain permits for autonomous testing, local political connections, special ability to gather roads, traffic, mapping data and overall support with rapid deployment. For waymo to get into a new location/country, establish their presence, navigate the political and regulatory landscape etc will take very long and many difficult hurdles.

I doubt it. Uber is a 1000x more toxic brand to regulators than Waymo is. And I don't think Uber's maps mean anything to Waymo, though would be curious if someone else has direct insight into why they would.

Re: Waymo and Toyota outline partnership to advance autonomous driving deployment

#64

Post by JumpCrisscross »

jes5199 wrote: post #8

Toyota has been way, way behind on electrification. I suspect they’ve been Innovator’s Dilemma’d are are in a death spiral that they haven’t even noticed yet

> Toyota has been way, way behind on electrification

They’re Toyota. They can buy their way onto the winner’s table later.

Re: Waymo and Toyota outline partnership to advance autonomous driving deployment

#65

Post by bunderbunder »

thehappypm wrote: post #28
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can pretend that hybrids are enough but many markets are going full EV regardless while Toyota only has a half baked solution.

Not everyone wants an EV, especially in America. Unless EV’s can jump to 500 mile range and ubiquitous five minute charging, a lot of people are just gonna want a hybrid.

Just yesterday in the coffee shop the person next to me was having a conversation about his buyer's remorse over recently purchasing a full EV instead of a hybrid or plug-in hybrid. It sounded like he hadn't anticipated how much of a hassle it is to charge on road trips. Something about having to carefully plan around the locations of fast charge stations, and it really being a drag when you're just trying to get out of the city for a weekend.

My sense is that plug-in hybrids really are the sweet spot for a lot of people in North America. The shorter full EV range is still well within most people's needs for a typical day's worth of driving, but you can still travel to and through rural areas without so much stress about whether you'll get stuck killing time for an hour or two at a slow charge station.

Re: Waymo and Toyota outline partnership to advance autonomous driving deployment

#66

Post by 0cf8612b2e1e »

throwaway48476 wrote: post #54
thehappypm wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone wants an EV, especially in America. Unless EV’s can jump to 500 mile range and ubiquitous five minute charging, a lot of people are just gonna want a hybrid.

I want a range extended EV with a easily removable power pack. Unfortunately the EPA doesn't consider it an EV so no one will make one because there's no tax credit.

My dream is a little trailer gas generator. Give you infinite range for longer trips. Day to day, just leave it disconnected.

Re: Waymo and Toyota outline partnership to advance autonomous driving deployment

#67

Post by amanaplanacanal »

thehappypm wrote: post #28
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can pretend that hybrids are enough but many markets are going full EV regardless while Toyota only has a half baked solution.

Not everyone wants an EV, especially in America. Unless EV’s can jump to 500 mile range and ubiquitous five minute charging, a lot of people are just gonna want a hybrid.

In the US a plug-in hybrid seems like the best of both worlds. Once the charging infrastructure gets fully flushed out pure EVs will look a lot better.

Re: Waymo and Toyota outline partnership to advance autonomous driving deployment

#69

Post by BLKNSLVR »

quickslowdown wrote: post #18
jes5199 wrote: post #8

Toyota has been way, way behind on electrification. I suspect they’ve been Innovator’s Dilemma’d are are in a death spiral that they haven’t even noticed yet

Toyota had an incredible lead with the Prius that they completely squandered. It was a shamefully poor decision to stop investing in electric.

Like Nissan's lead in full electrification with the Leaf. Squandered.

Re: Waymo and Toyota outline partnership to advance autonomous driving deployment

#70

Post by SkyPuncher »

matt3210 wrote: post #30

If I can’t sleep while it drives me to work it’s not autonomous

I want a step before it right now.

Let me use my phone or watch videos on the highway. I’m okay with taking over with a small amount of warning. I’m also okay doing all non-highway driving.

I just want something that can keep me in my lane and avoid ramming the vehicle in front of me. If I need to drive at the start and end of my trip, that’s okay.

Post reply on HN