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New Study: Waymo is reducing serious crashes and making streets safer

waymo.com

201–210 of 413 posts

Re: New Study: Waymo is reducing serious crashes and making streets safer

#201
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fellow SF cyclist: Even setting aside the malicious SF stuff, Waymo's have enormous advantages over humans relying on mirrors and accounting for blindspots. I never have to be concerned a Waymo hasn't seen me. I can't wait until the technology is just standard on cars, and they won't let drivers side-swipe or door cyclists.

> I never have to be concerned a Waymo hasn't seen me. Funnily enough that's exactly why I don't like them. Every time one rolls by me I know that tens of photos of me and even my 3D LIDAR scan get piled in to some fucking Google dataset where it will live forever :/ Their site is even proud of it: https://waymo.com/waymo-driver/ section titled “Keeping an eye on everything, all at once” “The Waymo Driver's perceptio…

> Funnily enough that's exactly why I don't like them. Every time one rolls by me I know that tens of photos of me and even my 3D LIDAR scan get piled in to some fucking Google dataset where it will live forever :/

It's not going to be stored forever.

That would be incredibly expensive.

Those cars are taking in TB of information each daily. Scale that to 10s of millions of cars.

It's just not going to happen.

Maybe an ultra compressed representation of you that shares maybe 1 bit in 1 weight somewhere in a NN will live forever.

Maybe.

Re: New Study: Waymo is reducing serious crashes and making streets safer

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Waymo can drive cars but it can't magick new roads into existence. If car usage goes through the roof, so will traffic jams.

Probably not, if they're all computer-controlled, and can communicate with each other. I posit traffic jams is mostly caused by idiot and reckless drivers...

Yup, and if every car is computer controlled and in communication with nearby cars you can safely reduce spacing. Most of that space between cars is due to human reaction time. (And even then that's not always enough. 40 years ago, I'm going along, geezer is being awfully slow about their left turn so I lightly apply the brakes. Geezer then proceeds to completely stop, utterly unaware that I'm heading right towards his door. I slam on my brakes. I was able to stop for said geezer but the woman behind me didn't have the usual warning of brake lights flaring and came up a couple of inches short in stopping. Geezer proceeds off, apparently completely unaware of the accident he caused.

(And that was not the only close call I had with that geezer at that corner.)

Re: New Study: Waymo is reducing serious crashes and making streets safer

#203
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Waymo already warns you if it detects road users when you open a door. They just don't actively prevent you from opening the door, but they could implement it in their next generation vehicles.

They won't have to if they use sliding power doors (the geely cars have them). They should have had them for the jaguar generation :) Dooring people aside, what do you do if someone just leaves the door open when they leave their ride?!

You charge such riders additional penalty fee on their account.

Waymo needs to have staff in SF anyway to pick up cars that malfunction (flat tire, or just close the door).

Re: New Study: Waymo is reducing serious crashes and making streets safer

#204
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's good to be skeptical of the source, but I can't remember seeing any substantive criticism of the methodology or conclusions.

Here is one, Humans drive in all weather conditions on all types of roads and also many types of personal vehicles of varying ages and conditions. Waymo is limited to few specific locations with decent roads and does not drive in poor weather and is limited to a relatively large and safer expensive SUV that is maintained professionally in a fleet. Studies like this rarely account for such factors , they are compare o…

> Waymo is limited to few specific locations with decent roads and does not drive in poor weather

the study is comparing Waymo to accidents occurred in the same cities where Waymo operates, and my understanding is that Waymo drives 7 days a week, 24h a day in those cities, so same roads, same weather. Seems a legit comparison

Re: New Study: Waymo is reducing serious crashes and making streets safer

#205
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I never have to be concerned a Waymo hasn't seen me. Funnily enough that's exactly why I don't like them. Every time one rolls by me I know that tens of photos of me and even my 3D LIDAR scan get piled in to some fucking Google dataset where it will live forever :/ Their site is even proud of it: https://waymo.com/waymo-driver/ section titled “Keeping an eye on everything, all at once” “The Waymo Driver's perceptio…

> Funnily enough that's exactly why I don't like them. Every time one rolls by me I know that tens of photos of me and even my 3D LIDAR scan get piled in to some fucking Google dataset where it will live forever :/ It's not going to be stored forever. That would be incredibly expensive. Those cars are taking in TB of information each daily. Scale that to 10s of millions of cars. It's just not going to happen. Maybe a…

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43863276

Re: New Study: Waymo is reducing serious crashes and making streets safer

#206
post #37

As someone who is often on SF city streets without a car - I bike and run a lot - I absolutely love Waymo. I am continuously seeing human drivers cut me off, perform illegal maneuvers (i.e. run red lights when I'm going through a crosswalk), and break various other traffic laws. All these things genuinely put people in danger. Just the other day, a guy started running a "no right turn on red" lane in SF, and when I p…

As a cyclist, this is the dream IMO, letting everyone be in cars while safely being able to ride my bike without fear of death or road rage.

Looking forward to this future.

Re: New Study: Waymo is reducing serious crashes and making streets safer

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you cannot brake you are following too close. I know everyone else does it (except 3/4ths of semis!), but you can be the one who maintains a long following distance and thus can stop in time. Every time setup the long following distance 5 cars jump into the gap - but then the gap remains as no more do.

what about when there's an idiot slightly ahead and in the next lane who decides to randomly swerve into my lane? do you also maintain a long following distance when there's a car right next to you in the next lane? I try to, because I don't want to stay in someone's blind spot, but sometimes it's not really possible to fall back.

> what about when there's an idiot slightly ahead and in the next lane who decides to randomly swerve into my lane?

You're safer hitting them head on while aggressively braking than attempting a microsecond swerve.

Re: New Study: Waymo is reducing serious crashes and making streets safer

#208
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fellow SF cyclist: Even setting aside the malicious SF stuff, Waymo's have enormous advantages over humans relying on mirrors and accounting for blindspots. I never have to be concerned a Waymo hasn't seen me. I can't wait until the technology is just standard on cars, and they won't let drivers side-swipe or door cyclists.

> I never have to be concerned a Waymo hasn't seen me. Funnily enough that's exactly why I don't like them. Every time one rolls by me I know that tens of photos of me and even my 3D LIDAR scan get piled in to some fucking Google dataset where it will live forever :/ Their site is even proud of it: https://waymo.com/waymo-driver/ section titled “Keeping an eye on everything, all at once” “The Waymo Driver's perceptio…

Good point

Re: New Study: Waymo is reducing serious crashes and making streets safer

#209
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fellow SF cyclist: Even setting aside the malicious SF stuff, Waymo's have enormous advantages over humans relying on mirrors and accounting for blindspots. I never have to be concerned a Waymo hasn't seen me. I can't wait until the technology is just standard on cars, and they won't let drivers side-swipe or door cyclists.

> I never have to be concerned a Waymo hasn't seen me. Funnily enough that's exactly why I don't like them. Every time one rolls by me I know that tens of photos of me and even my 3D LIDAR scan get piled in to some fucking Google dataset where it will live forever :/ Their site is even proud of it: https://waymo.com/waymo-driver/ section titled “Keeping an eye on everything, all at once” “The Waymo Driver's perceptio…

See non-Waymo, human driven car?

Fear not, your images and recordings will get piled on somebody's dashcam to do as their heart desires.

I got a dashcam in my Camry recording front and back everytime i drive. I have no interest in preserving those images outside of an accident, but who knows what sommebody else will.

We have no expectations of privacy in public spaces and ultimately I would trust Googles IT security more than some dude with a dashcam

Re: New Study: Waymo is reducing serious crashes and making streets safer

#210
post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Human drivers have dash cams, too. Maybe without as sophisticated a data ingestion system as google, but they could theoretically put their dashcam footage on youtube if they wanted to.

I will be sure to think of that the next time I see a human driver whose car has 29 dash cams, 5 lidars, 4 radars, and is using four H100s to process all of its realtime images of me: https://thelastdriverlicenseholder.com/2024/10/27/waymos-5-6...

What is someone doing with all that which they can't do with front and back dashcams?
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