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Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways in LA, SF and Phoenix

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Re: Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways in LA, SF and Phoenix

#91

Post by maxerickson »

circuit10 wrote: post #54
s1mon wrote: post #10

How will Waymos handle speed limits on highways? In the city, they seem to stick to the rules. A large percentage of drivers in the bay area, including non-emergency police, drive well above the legal limit regularly. Unless Waymo sticks to the slow lane, it's going to be a weird issue.

As someone who doesn’t drive but has done a UK theory test - aren’t you supposed to stick to the “slow lane” (no matter how fast you’re going) unless you’re overtaking? And that’s why it’s not actually called the “fast lane” but the “passing lane”. So I don’t see why you would be in the passing lane unless you’re going faster than others anyway. And there are plenty of lorries and coaches (trucks and buses in US term…

If there are vehicles going slow due to capability, you are pretty likely to be in an area where traffic density means that there's lots of vehicles in all the available lanes.

Plenty of people do not follow the rules about staying to the right.

Re: Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways in LA, SF and Phoenix

#93

Post by CPLX »

terminalshort wrote: post #4
NullHypothesist wrote: post #2

This is a huge sign of confidence that they think they can do this safely and at scale... Freeways might appear "easy" on the surface, but there are all sorts of long tail edge-cases that make them insanely tricky to do confidently without a driver. This will unlock a lot for them with all of the smaller US cities (where highways are essential) they've announced plans for over the next year or so.

Freeways are easier than surface streets. The reason they held off allowing highways is because Waymo wants to minimize the probability of death for PR purposes. They figure they can get away with a lot of wrecks as long as they don't kill people.

I mean, if you define "easier" as "less likely to involve death," then freeways are not easier. And I'm pretty sure that's a good way to define "easier" for something like this.

Re: Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways in LA, SF and Phoenix

#94

Post by superfrank »

LZ_Khan wrote: post #83
mmmlinux wrote: post #28

I was in SF a few weekend ago and rode both Waymo and normal Lyft style taxi cars. the Waymo was a better experience in every single way. One of the Lyfts i was in drove on the shoulder for a while like it was a lane. The Waymos were just smooth consistent driving. No aggressive driving to get you dumped off so they can get to the next fair.

Waymo is overly conservative last time I checked. Driving the speed limit basically means getting to your destination twice as slow.

I've ridden in Waymos in LA, SF, and Phoenix. You're right about them being a bit conservative, but only in Phoenix did I feel like that really slowed my ride. In LA and SF there was so much traffic that even if cars pulled away from us, we'd catch them at the next red light.

Re: Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways in LA, SF and Phoenix

#95

Post by whimsicalism »

vasusen wrote: post #92

I am really excited for this. Once going home with my family via Uber in SFO we realized on the freeway that our driver was high and driving at 80-85 mph. It was a really scary experience and I couldn’t do much about it in the moment.

high on what?

Re: Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways in LA, SF and Phoenix

#96

Post by toast0 »

ddp26 wrote: post #51
NullHypothesist wrote: post #2

This is a huge sign of confidence that they think they can do this safely and at scale... Freeways might appear "easy" on the surface, but there are all sorts of long tail edge-cases that make them insanely tricky to do confidently without a driver. This will unlock a lot for them with all of the smaller US cities (where highways are essential) they've announced plans for over the next year or so.

I agree, but it's funny to think that Project Chauffeur (as it was known then) was doing completely driverless freeway circuits in the bay area as far back as 2012! Back when they couldn't do the simplest things with traffic lights. I think anyone back then would be totally shocked that urban and suburban driving launched to the public before freeway driving.

When it started, from what I've heard, the design goal was for part-time self-driving. In that case, let the human driver do the more variable things on surface streets and the computer do the consistent things on highways and prompt the user to pay attention 5 miles before the exit. They found that the model of part time automation wasn't feasible, because humans couldn't consistently take control in the timeframea needed.

So then they pivoted to full time automation with a safe stop for exceptions. That's not useful to start with highway driving. There are some freeway routed mass transit lines, but for the most part people don't want to be picked up and dropped off at the freeway. In many parts of freeways, there's not a good place to stop and wait for assistance, and automated driving will need more assistance than normal driving. So it made a lot f sense to reduce scope to surface street driving.

Re: Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways in LA, SF and Phoenix

#97

Post by whimsicalism »

superfrank wrote: post #94
LZ_Khan wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Waymo is overly conservative last time I checked. Driving the speed limit basically means getting to your destination twice as slow.

I've ridden in Waymos in LA, SF, and Phoenix. You're right about them being a bit conservative, but only in Phoenix did I feel like that really slowed my ride. In LA and SF there was so much traffic that even if cars pulled away from us, we'd catch them at the next red light.

My understanding was waymo in LA does not yet take freeways (maybe this announcement will change that) which makes it a strictly worse experience in LA specifically.

Re: Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways in LA, SF and Phoenix

#98

Post by QuercusMax »

CPLX wrote: post #87
QuercusMax wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You want your cab driver to drive on the shoulder and break the law? What?

You may want to become aware of the existence of New York City. It's a pretty interesting place.

Yeah, that sounds like NYC nonsense. I assume it's still illegal to drive on the shoulder in New York.

Re: Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways in LA, SF and Phoenix

#99

Post by BurningFrog »

LZ_Khan wrote: post #83
mmmlinux wrote: post #28

I was in SF a few weekend ago and rode both Waymo and normal Lyft style taxi cars. the Waymo was a better experience in every single way. One of the Lyfts i was in drove on the shoulder for a while like it was a lane. The Waymos were just smooth consistent driving. No aggressive driving to get you dumped off so they can get to the next fair.

Waymo is overly conservative last time I checked. Driving the speed limit basically means getting to your destination twice as slow.

At this point, any accident or rule violation can whip up a luddite storm threatening the whole industry, so self driving taxis will be extremely cautious until the general public have lost their fear.

Re: Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways in LA, SF and Phoenix

#100

Post by whimsicalism »

tfehring wrote: post #73
circuit10 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who doesn’t drive but has done a UK theory test - aren’t you supposed to stick to the “slow lane” (no matter how fast you’re going) unless you’re overtaking? And that’s why it’s not actually called the “fast lane” but the “passing lane”. So I don’t see why you would be in the passing lane unless you’re going faster than others anyway. And there are plenty of lorries and coaches (trucks and buses in US term…

You’re correct. There are people in the US who drive in the passing lane without passing, but most consider that a bad practice, as it makes roads both less efficient and less safe.

i think this is a state by state cultural difference
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