Waymo and Toyota outline partnership to advance autonomous driving deployment • Hacker News Board

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

#91

Post by bendoy » Tue, Apr 29, 2025, 11:55 PM UTC

floxy wrote: post #29

>"Toyota Motor Corporation (“Toyota”) and Waymo reached a preliminary agreement to explore a collaboration focused on accelerating the development and deployment of autonomous driving technologies. " The current HN title seems too definite.

Took me a minute to find it, but the title seems accurate to me based on the second paragraph in the blog post from Waymo.

"In parallel, the companies will explore how to leverage Waymo's autonomous technology and Toyota's vehicle expertise to enhance next-generation personally owned vehicles (POVs)."

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

#92

Post by ern » Tue, Apr 29, 2025, 11:55 PM UTC

ajmurmann wrote: post #38

dekhn wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Toyota makes hybrids that are excellent. I don't think they want to go full EV.

What is their beef with full-EV? First it was hydrogen fuel cells and now limitation to hybrid. Seems odd at best.

I suspect it's that they build excellent ICE vehicles, and were quick to go to hybrids but missed the rise of EVs. Everything we're seeing is a rearguard action to protect their ICE business.

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

#93

Post by makeitdouble » Tue, Apr 29, 2025, 11:56 PM UTC

ajmurmann wrote: post #38

dekhn wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Toyota makes hybrids that are excellent. I don't think they want to go full EV.

What is their beef with full-EV? First it was hydrogen fuel cells and now limitation to hybrid. Seems odd at best.

Not mature enough to Toyota's taste, probably.

Hydrogen fuel cell is more about diversification, and it is fully backed by the Japan gov so ROI would be through the roof even if it doesn't "win".

Also many countries aren't producing enough electricity (cough Japan and Germanycough) so EVs getting popular _at scale_ isn't going to happen tomorrow either.

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

#94

Post by mperham » Tue, Apr 29, 2025, 11:56 PM UTC

enahs-sf wrote: post #75

sorcerer-mar wrote: post #13

The world would be a lot better off if Tesla and Uber get smoked on this. Tesla's public testing of beta quality industrial control software and Uber's attempt to lilypad jump across the backs of financially unsophisticated drivers are contemptible. I'd be very glad to see neither strategy actually work in the end.

Tesla has minted a fortune on broken promises and vaporware. As someone who purchased FSD, would be glad to see them lose their shirts on this one.

The funny thing is that I've owned Gen 3 FSD for five years now and only in the last few months has it gotten noticeably better. It's actually respectable at driving around my city now, can handle roundabouts, make turns, etc.

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

#95

Post by dyauspitr » Tue, Apr 29, 2025, 11:56 PM UTC

porphyra wrote: post #89

enahs-sf wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla has minted a fortune on broken promises and vaporware. As someone who purchased FSD, would be glad to see them lose their shirts on this one.

As someone who also purchased FSD, I was able to drive hundreds of kilometers without any disengagements even though my car is an older HW3 with 12.6. I fully believe that with some Waymo-like conservative route planning and teleoperator backup, they will be able to achieve their robotaxi goals this year.

Tesla is going nowhere without LiDAR.

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

#96

Post by artursapek » Tue, Apr 29, 2025, 11:57 PM UTC

enahs-sf wrote: post #75

sorcerer-mar wrote: post #13

The world would be a lot better off if Tesla and Uber get smoked on this. Tesla's public testing of beta quality industrial control software and Uber's attempt to lilypad jump across the backs of financially unsophisticated drivers are contemptible. I'd be very glad to see neither strategy actually work in the end.

Tesla has minted a fortune on broken promises and vaporware. As someone who purchased FSD, would be glad to see them lose their shirts on this one.

I still can't believe they were taking one-time purchases for FSD like... 6 years ago.

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

#97

Post by htrp » Tue, Apr 29, 2025, 11:57 PM UTC

hurry up and give me a self driving rav4!

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

#98

Post by princevegeta89 » Tue, Apr 29, 2025, 11:58 PM UTC

m463 wrote: post #74

GloamingNiblets wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is 100% intentional, they have been clear that their strategic direction is hybrids, not pure electric. Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterlyon/2024/03/03/bucking-in...

> have been clear I disagree. They backed hydrogen / fuel cells for most of the years others were developing bevs.

The Hydrogen/fuel-cells were not mass-marketable for some reason, and also beyond that they have been hard to manufacture and sustain, especially when it came to setting up that network of fueling stations and adoptability for customers.

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

#99

Post by moeadham » Tue, Apr 29, 2025, 11:59 PM UTC

mperham wrote: post #94

enahs-sf wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla has minted a fortune on broken promises and vaporware. As someone who purchased FSD, would be glad to see them lose their shirts on this one.

The funny thing is that I've owned Gen 3 FSD for five years now and only in the last few months has it gotten noticeably better. It's actually respectable at driving around my city now, can handle roundabouts, make turns, etc.

lol the bar is so low

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

#100

Post by shreezus » Wed, Apr 30, 2025, 12:00 AM UTC

mperham wrote: post #94

enahs-sf wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla has minted a fortune on broken promises and vaporware. As someone who purchased FSD, would be glad to see them lose their shirts on this one.

The funny thing is that I've owned Gen 3 FSD for five years now and only in the last few months has it gotten noticeably better. It's actually respectable at driving around my city now, can handle roundabouts, make turns, etc.

I have noticed the same - Tesla FSD has improved remarkably in the last couple of versions, to the point where it almost never requires interventions.

That said, I still don't "trust" FSD to the point where I could comfortably be in the backseat taking a nap just yet. 99% is not "good enough" for something as critical as driving.