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Waymo and Toyota outline partnership to advance autonomous driving deployment

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251–260 of 397 posts

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

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you're buying is not driving, by itself, fully.

Mine drove me from my house to the airport without my ever touching the steering wheel so what exactly do you mean?

All I’m saying is that starting FSD from park in my driveway and having it drive to my destination with my hands on my legs and then having it park itself when it gets there seems reasonable to call “full self driving” to me. I pay for the subscription and I would continue paying if it never got any better. I do live in a rural state, so maybe that’s why it works so well.

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

#252
post #226

The future of (public) transportation absolutely is driverless cars. Every time I'm stuck in traffic on an LA highway with 5+ lanes and I see the horrendously inefficient use of space this future becomes clearer. Waymos are also really confidence inspiring. They drive more safely and cautiously than any Uber/Lyft driver I've ridden with. If every car on the road was synced then they could drive more closely to each o…

I love AVs, but It would do jack shit for traffic and the horrible use of space until they become autonomous buses on dedicated bus lanes, or trains. You still gotta have spaces for pedestrians, and cars still make cities ugly and unpleasant. Even electric autonomous ones. Tire friction still makes noise and pollutes the air with microplastics.

They gotta supplement mass transit for dense cities, not replace it.

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

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you're buying is not driving, by itself, fully.

Mine drove me from my house to the airport without my ever touching the steering wheel so what exactly do you mean?

If you can't sit in the backseat and watch a movie, it's not self driving.

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

#254
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hybrids are a dead end. There’s already EV’s doing 1MW charging. That’s practically gas pump speeds while also being able to charge at home, and the underlying technology keeps improving. 8% of new cars in the US, 14% in the EU, and 27% in China are EV’s. Toyota’s EV sales are anemic by comparison.

Hybrids are the only choice for the vast majority of the country that doesn't have the needed infrastructure to support EVs. If you never leave your urban enclave, then sure, EVs are great. But hybrids are perfect for _right now_, even if EVs are the future. The Toyota hybrid engine is also rock solid and has been for more than a decade. They don't have a reason to abandon that right now when the industry is highly u…

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

#255
post #226

The future of (public) transportation absolutely is driverless cars. Every time I'm stuck in traffic on an LA highway with 5+ lanes and I see the horrendously inefficient use of space this future becomes clearer. Waymos are also really confidence inspiring. They drive more safely and cautiously than any Uber/Lyft driver I've ridden with. If every car on the road was synced then they could drive more closely to each o…

This “if cars were synced all would be well” fantasy assumes that the limited gains from scrunching won’t be a rounding error compared to the nearly unlimited additional trips that robots with infinite patience could start making.

Currently it’s got to be worth sitting at the wheel or paying a delivery driver… but if my robot says “6 hours to drive 10 miles”, I’ll think, “wow traffic is bad, whatever, it’ll get there when it gets there, beep, off you go! siri, text mom that the paint chip is on its way”, oh hmm actually maybe teal is better… “hey siri, get me another toyotaymo”

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

#256
post #226

The future of (public) transportation absolutely is driverless cars. Every time I'm stuck in traffic on an LA highway with 5+ lanes and I see the horrendously inefficient use of space this future becomes clearer. Waymos are also really confidence inspiring. They drive more safely and cautiously than any Uber/Lyft driver I've ridden with. If every car on the road was synced then they could drive more closely to each o…

This “if cars were synced all would be well” fantasy assumes that the limited gains from scrunching won’t be a rounding error compared to the nearly unlimited additional trips that robots with infinite patience could start making. Currently it’s got to be worth sitting at the wheel or paying a delivery driver… but if my robot says “6 hours to drive 10 miles”, I’ll think, “wow traffic is bad, whatever, it’ll get there…

If you're implying the marginal cost of a 6-hour AV errand is almost zero, I think you're describing a prosperous future.

This is also easily managed with congestion pricing.

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

#257
post #226

The future of (public) transportation absolutely is driverless cars. Every time I'm stuck in traffic on an LA highway with 5+ lanes and I see the horrendously inefficient use of space this future becomes clearer. Waymos are also really confidence inspiring. They drive more safely and cautiously than any Uber/Lyft driver I've ridden with. If every car on the road was synced then they could drive more closely to each o…

If you want to get rid of the space taken up by 5 lane highways you need to convert roads into walkways for pedestrians, bike lanes, and bus lanes.

There can still exist space for cars but they need to be last in priority rather than the first, second, and third consideration cars have today when it comes to infrastructure.

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

#258

Waymo has also partnered with a lot of the rest of the auto industry with little to show for it... I wonder if this time it'll be different now it looks like Tesla might finally get self driving to the mass market.

I think part of Elon's strategy is announcing being around the corner in order to scare off competitors and investment into alternatives because, well, Telsa is already so far ahead. This is why Tesla's "actuals" are delivered so many years after the dates of the initial pronouncements (for those few things that have so far been delivered at all).

In what way Tesla is ahead of Waymo ?

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

#259
post #226

The future of (public) transportation absolutely is driverless cars. Every time I'm stuck in traffic on an LA highway with 5+ lanes and I see the horrendously inefficient use of space this future becomes clearer. Waymos are also really confidence inspiring. They drive more safely and cautiously than any Uber/Lyft driver I've ridden with. If every car on the road was synced then they could drive more closely to each o…

I love AVs, but It would do jack shit for traffic and the horrible use of space until they become autonomous buses on dedicated bus lanes, or trains. You still gotta have spaces for pedestrians, and cars still make cities ugly and unpleasant. Even electric autonomous ones. Tire friction still makes noise and pollutes the air with microplastics. They gotta supplement mass transit for dense cities, not replace it.

> They gotta supplement mass transit for dense cities, not replace it.

Full agreement here. AVs are great for last-mile transit.

> horrible use of space until they become autonomous buses on dedicated bus lanes, or trains

This is where we disagree. The whole point of AV TaaS is that they can go where bus lanes and trains can't. Last mile transportation.

I also wouldn't say they do "jack shit" for traffic in the sense that they reduce the need for parking, and reduce accidents which are the source of a lot of unpredictable congestion.

Surely there are tradeoffs. They indirectly incentivize sprawl and taking more taxi rides overall. And I get the tire residue argument (especially since AV fleets are mostly electric with high torque generating more tire wear). But is tire noise really a fair complaint? They're just going where cars already go and tires are engineered pretty well to minimize noise...

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

#260

Ok, I appreciate that timelines in this space are long. But the opening phrase: "Toyota Motor Corporation (“Toyota”) and Waymo reached a preliminary agreement to explore a collaboration focused on accelerating the development..." reads a bit like a parody of corporate speak about a project nowhere close to happening. Did they agree to deploy? Or reach an agreement to collaborate? No, that's too strong. They will EXPL…

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