Who Watches the Waymos? I do [video] • Hacker News Board

Re: Who Watches the Waymos? I do [video]

#31

Post by ceroxylon » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 4:26 AM UTC

dang wrote: post #6

Mawr wrote: post #2

[flagged]

Could you please review and follow the site guidelines? "Oh, who cares." is not an ok way to respond to someone's work on HN, and is particularly bad when a thread is just getting underway. " Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something. " https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html (of course I understand that it's disappointing when you'r…

You changed my life with considerate moderation like this, so thank you for all that you do, thank you for keeping the ship on course.

Re: Who Watches the Waymos? I do [video]

#32

Post by rossjudson » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 4:55 AM UTC

This is actually rather beautiful to look at, covering a full day/night cycle. Well done.

Re: Who Watches the Waymos? I do [video]

#33

Post by rossjudson » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 5:00 AM UTC

HolySE wrote: post #5

That art fixture's placement at the Mission Waymo Depot is kinda cool. It's evocative of a future in which humanity lives a life of indolence propped up by automation.

It makes me think that we need more representations of humans on and in our cities, to remind us about who they are for. We can shift a small amount of architectural scale towards the human.

Re: Who Watches the Waymos? I do [video]

#34

Post by 0x38B » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 5:40 AM UTC

HolySE wrote: post #5

That art fixture's placement at the Mission Waymo Depot is kinda cool. It's evocative of a future in which humanity lives a life of indolence propped up by automation.

Reminds me of the half-buried in the sands of time sculptures in Blade Runner 2049; the surrounding self-driving auto depot only adds to the resemblance to some far off future.

Re: Who Watches the Waymos? I do [video]

#35

Post by nutjob2 » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 6:21 AM UTC

lateforwork wrote: post #9

Seeing all these Waymos together like this... is depressing. You get a sense of the scale at which machines are replacing humans. This could be a scary movie made in 1970s about the robotic future... and that future has now arrived. What will the world look like 10, 20 years from now? What would a scary movie made today contain?

Robots and technology have been replacing humans for many decades. It's a positive thing and change is a natural part of life. It's hardly depressing, it's progress.

It's not like humans are somehow put on this earth only to do certain jobs or the same job forever. Contrary to 100+ plus years of predictions, humans will never become obsolete.

Re: Who Watches the Waymos? I do [video]

#36

Post by akanet » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 6:31 AM UTC

Animats wrote: post #23

properbrew wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually quite liked it, was somehow soothing, especially the car park that was used as a temporary location during the night.

If you like that sort of thing, see "AGV Garden".[1] (This is the port of Rotterdam, ten years ago. Sped up about 3x. Most big ports look like that now. Automated driving works really well when all those pesky humans are out of the way.) [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm_rlLyelQo&

Very nice, quite enjoyed that.

Re: Who Watches the Waymos? I do [video]

#37

Post by vasco » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 6:39 AM UTC

dllu wrote: post #22

dvrp wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you get in?

These were parked on Hudson Ave, which is a public street, and not inside the fenced area of the depot. So I just walked up to them.

Your Transamerica pyramid picture is incredible among really cool pictures you have there. Quite cool to photograph for wikipedia like this, the world needs more people like you!

Re: Who Watches the Waymos? I do [video]

#38

Post by atonse » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 6:48 AM UTC

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #30

HolySE wrote: post #5

That art fixture's placement at the Mission Waymo Depot is kinda cool. It's evocative of a future in which humanity lives a life of indolence propped up by automation.

I don't think the goal is indolence. The goal is freedom. We want a post-need society propped up by automation. That doesn't mean that we should spend our reclaimed time idling, though, but certainly we could.

This is how I describe financial freedom. It’s not a particular number, it’s the freedom from thinking about money.

And which number gets you there depends on your lifestyle.

And taking a job without any consideration of pay.

Re: Who Watches the Waymos? I do [video]

#39

Post by blueblisters » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 6:51 AM UTC

Surreal. Almost like an optimistic science fiction film.

After all, self driving cars have some of the highest positive to negative externality ratio of any modern technology

Re: Who Watches the Waymos? I do [video]

#40

Post by nomilk » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 7:08 AM UTC

Love the moonrise! Beautiful shots.

When most road transport is automated it will seem crazy that everyone had to drive for themselves, or sit in the car with a complete stranger, who may prioritise their comfort over the traveller's with regard to audio, navigation noise, air 'fresheners' / diffusers, temperature. Perhaps analogous to having a flatmate; it's mostly done out of necessity rather than choice.