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Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

techcrunch.com

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Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#311

Post by bitpush »

JimTheMan wrote: post #303
jimbo808 wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The huge disadvantage they have over people is that their cars cost $250k, require a workforce of people to retrieve and repair them, maintain them, clean them, monitor them, etc. They are more expensive to operate than a normal car with a human driver, so far. The break-even point requires a lot of problems to be solved, and even then, the upside is not looking to be astronomical in the best case.

Hard disk drives were the size of washing machines. I don't see how they will ever be practical!

[flagged]

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#312

Post by forgetfreeman »

mulmen wrote: post #251
fwip wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A flooded road is a very predictable event, though.

Is it? I have been driving for 25 years and never encountered one. Waymo seems to accept they can’t predict everything so they built a system that’s safe enough to operate in the real world and learn from experience.

You haven't been driving for 25 years anywhere east of the Mississippi river if you've never encountered road flooding. Accepting they can't predict everything sounds reasonable. Failing to account for a routine occurrence is negligent.

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#313

Post by rajbot »

HDBaseT wrote: post #309
dhbradshaw wrote: post #123

To me this doesn't seem like a disaster but just the kind of thing that happens as you role out a service and expose it to new challenges. Presumably they haven't had the chance to do a lot of flood training but now they have that chance. The huge advantage they have over people in general is that ideally if they figure this out then it will stay figured out. Then they can slowly role out and watch for the next hitch…

A human has to pass a test to be able to drive. A human (for the most part) doesn't just unknowingly drive into floods. Why aren't we holding computers to AT LEAST the same expectation as humans.

A Waymo is already a dramatically safer driver than a human, and it isn’t even close.

There have been, and will continue to be, many cases drive into flood zones and die.

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#314

Post by bitpush »

jsrozner wrote: post #307
robotresearcher wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked in the field, not at Waymo. Everyone in the business is acutely aware of weather, along with hundreds of other factors, many much less obvious. The engineers whose expertise you assume away are actually debating corner cases like the one we saw of someone carrying a bicycle on their skateboard. In fact the companies run test campaigns in shitty weather all over the country on purpose, at great expense.

Yeah maybe we should just stop doing that and invest in public transit infrastructure instead.

True. While we're at it, let's not fixing roads as well. Also electric cars. Also what's the deal with space exploration? Fix what's on earth first please.

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#316

Post by fwip »

mulmen wrote: post #251
fwip wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A flooded road is a very predictable event, though.

Is it? I have been driving for 25 years and never encountered one. Waymo seems to accept they can’t predict everything so they built a system that’s safe enough to operate in the real world and learn from experience.

I haven't encountered one as a driver either, but I'm pretty sure "Don't drive into roads with water on them" was a basic safety question on the permit test.

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#317

Post by robotresearcher »

jsrozner wrote: post #307
robotresearcher wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked in the field, not at Waymo. Everyone in the business is acutely aware of weather, along with hundreds of other factors, many much less obvious. The engineers whose expertise you assume away are actually debating corner cases like the one we saw of someone carrying a bicycle on their skateboard. In fact the companies run test campaigns in shitty weather all over the country on purpose, at great expense.

Yeah maybe we should just stop doing that and invest in public transit infrastructure instead.

These are companies. They can invest where they please.

Call your government reps.

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#318

Post by forgetfreeman »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #263
thrownthatway wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It can just mean that nobody though about flooded streets No one who works for them thought of flooded roads. That’s reassuring.

They were only in Arizona for a long time...

Assuming the rest of the continent is like Arizon also seems comforting...

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#319

Post by YarickR2 »

cm2187 wrote: post #242
dhbradshaw wrote: post #123

To me this doesn't seem like a disaster but just the kind of thing that happens as you role out a service and expose it to new challenges. Presumably they haven't had the chance to do a lot of flood training but now they have that chance. The huge advantage they have over people in general is that ideally if they figure this out then it will stay figured out. Then they can slowly role out and watch for the next hitch…

The final boss will be driving in Rome

Oh come on. Not even driving anywhere in Europe; higher difficulty levels would be Turkey , India, Russia, Egypt. Add countryside for extra points. Add harvest season in countryside for unique achievement. Add rainy/snowy season in countryside to master this game.

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#320

Post by thehappypm »

jimbo808 wrote: post #294
dhbradshaw wrote: post #123

To me this doesn't seem like a disaster but just the kind of thing that happens as you role out a service and expose it to new challenges. Presumably they haven't had the chance to do a lot of flood training but now they have that chance. The huge advantage they have over people in general is that ideally if they figure this out then it will stay figured out. Then they can slowly role out and watch for the next hitch…

The huge disadvantage they have over people is that their cars cost $250k, require a workforce of people to retrieve and repair them, maintain them, clean them, monitor them, etc. They are more expensive to operate than a normal car with a human driver, so far. The break-even point requires a lot of problems to be solved, and even then, the upside is not looking to be astronomical in the best case.

All cars require a workforce to maintain though.
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