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Waymo Safety Impact

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Re: Waymo Safety Impact

#271

Post by qwerty_clicks »

Ferret7446 wrote: post #241
cucumber3732842 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're over-playing how decisively a Waymo will move and under-playing how decent the average human is. I've ridden in Waymos. They don't exactly slap on the blinker and move at the limit of traction like someone about to miss their exit. If cut off they absolutely will go full brake rather than perform any sort of spicy lane change or turn.

I think you're humongously overselling the average driver. I mean, the stats for waymo vs human drivers speak for themselves.

In Houston the stats suggest that every driver should get into a crash at least once every. But many ppl haven’t been an crash all their lives and more have been in multiple

Re: Waymo Safety Impact

#272

Post by necovek »

int0x29 wrote: post #213
jeffbee wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Waymo's software has crossed multiple generations of sensors and vehicles over almost two decades. It does not seem to be tightly coupled to a particular device.

The new (as of now than a year ago) Waymo cars still had human safety drivers last I saw one (a month or two ago). I also don't see them taking customers. So they do seem to slow roll hardware rollouts.

A new version rolling out fast and starting to crash will likely kill the program altogether (like it did for some competitors).

10 years down the line, they won't have that risk.

Re: Waymo Safety Impact

#273

Post by qwerty_clicks »

bloppe wrote: post #163
motbus3 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When it happens, who will go to jail?

Nobody will. In fact, most car fatalities that are caused by humans involve zero criminal charges for anybody involved. In America, everybody from the courts to the media to society at large is primed to think of car accidents as normal. If you want to murder somebody in the middle of town in broad daylight, you can actually get away with it, as long as you do it with your car. At least with Waymo, it's much less fre…

Crashes are not accidents. Language matters. People should go to jail for harming others

Re: Waymo Safety Impact

#274

Post by necovek »

0x3f wrote: post #119
shawabawa3 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully if they ever go to Sri Lanka they get localised tuning because I was surprised to find out flashing your lights over there doesn't mean "go ahead", it means "if you don't get out of my way I will ram you"

I hate the countries that do this because it doesn't even make sense as a signal. We already have a horn. They are wasting a channel!

At highway speeds, engine, road and wind noise usually make horns inaudible.

In Serbia, on top of get-out-of-my-way, it's also used to signal go-ahead, but also "police with speed radars ahead" to incoming traffic.

Re: Waymo Safety Impact

#275

Post by JumpCrisscross »

rootusrootus wrote: post #181
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How do you get “stuck” behind someone doing the speed limit? "Only 46.5 percent of U.S. drivers consider going more than 15 miles per hour over the speed limit on the freeway to be "extremely" or "very" dangerous — with 40.6 percent openly admitting to doing it at least "a few times" in the last 30 days" [1]. [1] https://usa.streetsblog.org/2023/11/30/why-so-many-u-s-drive...

We have a lot of freeway speed limits that are holdovers from the last oil crisis decades ago. Cars have gotten quieter, smoother, more capable, to the point where 55 mph is kind of hilariously slow. When the legal speed limit does not reflect what most drivers think is reasonable, then we can stamp our feet and insist that the law must be right, or we could redesign the road or adjust the speed limit to more closely…

> we can stamp our feet and insist that the law must be right, or we could redesign the road or adjust the speed limit to more closely reflect conventional wisdom

Most Americans ignore speed limits. This stems from it being socially and legally problematic to permanently revoke our driver’s licenses. We should raise a lot of limits. But many others are fine and still sped through.

Re: Waymo Safety Impact

#276

Post by saalweachter »

rootusrootus wrote: post #177
1shooner wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On most US highways (i.e. multi-lane limited access roads), it's customary to leave a path in the left 'passing lane' for any traffic that wants/needs to go faster than you. If cars match speeds across lanes, it impedes faster traffic. The speed limit itself is a separate convention and regulation. In some places you can be cited for obstructing traffic by going the speed limit in the passing lane if you are matching…

> If cars match speeds across lanes, it impedes faster traffic. I think this undersells it a little. It does not just impede faster traffic, when the lanes are pacing each other it makes navigating harder -- simply switching lanes is more difficult. The highway moves so much more efficiently with a small but steady difference in speed between each lane.

> Results: A 5-mph increase in the maximum state speed limit was associated with an 8.5% increase in fatality rates on interstates/freeways and a 2.8% increase on other roads. In total during the 25-year study period, there were an estimated 36,760 more traffic fatalities than would have been expected if maximum speed limits had not increased—13,638 on interstates/freeways and 23,122 on other roads.

https://www.iihs.org/research-areas/bibliography/ref/2188

Re: Waymo Safety Impact

#278

Post by gboss »

I don’t use Waymo’s because they are really slow. At least for me. I get they’re safer. What’s new is everyone I know is complaining how expensive they are. Why are they so expensive? Is it because they are trying to make a profit on the total cost of ownership of a vehicle? They’re electric so it’s not gas. Uber and Lyft definitely outsource the cost odd maintenance onto the contractor.

Re: Waymo Safety Impact

#279

Post by efavdb »

cjk wrote: post #267

I was recently in a Waymo in SF. It was turning right from a busy street onto a narrow street. Mid-turn, the car slammed on the brakes. I sat there for a couple seconds like “???” wondering if we'd hit something. Then a dude on an e-bike _flies_ past the car in the bike lane. The car saw this dude coming from way down the street, flying, and was like “yeah, better stop.” Probably saved the biker from serious injury,…

The tldr for me from the report was Waymo is great and SF is a dangerous place to drive.

Re: Waymo Safety Impact

#280

Post by toast0 »

aworks wrote: post #200
toast0 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interaction with the common person is great. I wouldn't have know one could trim their toenails while driving otherwise.

Or that a taxi driver in Wuhan could answer his phone while shifting his manual transmission and smoking a cigarette.

Pretty sure that's part of the taxi exam.
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