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A look under our trunk: what's in our compute

waymo.com

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Re: A look under our trunk: what's in our compute

#51

Post by derektank »

rootusrootus wrote: post #46
malnourish wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bus was just fine in Portland, Seattle, and San Francisco.

> Bus was just fine in Portland Yes, if you live within about 1 mile of downtown and also work there. If you live downtown and your job is in Beaverton, you're likely in for a 90 minute commute. Or if you live in Beaverton and your office is downtown. Portland's mass transit is adequate for a subset of people and completely impractical for most. Source: I've lived in and around Portland for 50 years. Worked downtown…

Okay, but clearly there’s a difference between, “the bus makes sense if you live or work near downtown,” and, “people only ride the bus when there is no other option,” as the GP said.

Re: A look under our trunk: what's in our compute

#52

Post by derektank »

p-o wrote: post #2

They really are the impressive tech, it's really a shame that they aren't the one capturing all the media spotlight. I don't know if we'll get there eventually, but if we do, I won't be surprised if it's because of Waymo.

>it's really a shame that they aren't the one capturing all the media spotlight

This does seem at least a bit intentional on Waymo’s part. They appear to have adopted an under promise, over deliver mindset (unlike some other robotaxi alternatives that come to mind). They’ve seen a lot of their competitors (Uber, Cruise, etc) capture a lot of ultimately negative attention and folded as a result; I would probably try to avoid the limelight if I were them too. The tech speaks for itself.

Re: A look under our trunk: what's in our compute

#53

Post by cco »

belinder wrote: post #7

Would love to get them in nyc

I'm very open to being wrong about this, but will they actually work in NYC? Waymo requires some grace from other drivers and pedestrians in order to function and I just can't imagine New Yorkers will offer it.

Do you think they will?

Re: A look under our trunk: what's in our compute

#54

Post by cyberax »

laurencerowe wrote: post #49
xnx wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No contest when the bus is full, but the overall efficiency (/"greeness") of the system is much less clear considering: buses are rarely full, most buses are diesel, heavy buses tear up the pavement on their routes (especially near stops), and buses don't take riders directly to/from their destinations.

Most of the city buses in my UK home town are now battery electric double deckers. These carry up to 85-90 people (with 25 standing), weigh 11 tonnes, and is 10.5m long. A typical jaguar Waymo usually carries up to 4 people (usually just one), weighs 2.1 tonnes and is 5.2m long. So the double decker bus should be more environmentally efficient with maybe 5 passengers making independent journeys, though operational co…

> A typical jaguar Waymo usually carries up to 4 people (usually just one), weighs 2.1 tonnes and is 5.2m long.

A more reasonable taxi for single riders is going to weigh around 1.5 tons (e.g. the prototype Tesla Robocab).

You also incorrectly assume that the efficiency depends linearly on weight. It doesn't, it depends more on aerodynamics, speed, and the number of stops. London buses (11 tons) average around 2.2 kWh/mi, Tesla Model 3 is at 0.21 kWh/mi while weighing 1.8 tons.

Re: A look under our trunk: what's in our compute

#55

Post by matchbok3 »

egypturnash wrote: post #21
xnx wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps, but I can't think of why Waymo should be prohibited but not Uber or taxis.

Taxis and barely-legal app taxis both require a human to drive. Someone who's earning a living doing this, and paying taxes to NYC. Waymo is driven by a robot, owned by a company out in California, who has a lot of lawyers doing their best to avoid as much financial and legal liability as possible. Not that Uber and its ilk isn't doing the same thing but they've still got a tax-paying citizen in the loop. The current…

Nobody is keeping money in anybody's pockets. What you are advocating for is a tax on NYC people to force them to use human drivers instead of new technology. Just like the toll booth operators of the 90s.

It is so disappointing to see the tech class advocate for laws that keep jobs that are unhealthy and lead to nowhere (cabbies) instead of moving the country forward (and those people getting other, hopefully better, jobs). But again, that type of short-sighted, zero-sum/socialist thinking is becoming more common, sadly.

Re: A look under our trunk: what's in our compute

#56

Post by AndrewKemendo »

xnx wrote: post #5

Apologies for repeating myself, but it's hard to convey how far ahead Waymo is in every area: sensors, vehicles, training data, markets served, simulation, infrastructure, operations, regulatory. They're growing fast, but I do wonder what they see as the bottlenecks: municipal approval, training, manufacturing? It's really unfortunate that lobbying is slowing self-driving rollout in some of the biggest and most impor…

I’m glad you said it because as a 40 something nerd roboticist taking a Waymo is nothing short of a miracle to me.

I mean drafting code on my phone with chatgpt in a Waymo is legitimately some Jestons shit and I’m not hearing otherwise.

Amazing

Re: A look under our trunk: what's in our compute

#57

Post by jerlam »

derektank wrote: post #52
p-o wrote: post #2

They really are the impressive tech, it's really a shame that they aren't the one capturing all the media spotlight. I don't know if we'll get there eventually, but if we do, I won't be surprised if it's because of Waymo.

>it's really a shame that they aren't the one capturing all the media spotlight This does seem at least a bit intentional on Waymo’s part. They appear to have adopted an under promise, over deliver mindset (unlike some other robotaxi alternatives that come to mind). They’ve seen a lot of their competitors (Uber, Cruise, etc) capture a lot of ultimately negative attention and folded as a result; I would probably try t…

Every Waymo on the street is already an advertisement, especially since they're so distinctive with their LIDAR units and now they're driving Chinese cars. Every time a Waymo is remotely associated with anything bad, the media jumps on them anyway, like the times they've "hit" a pedestrian but literally after a human driver hit that same pedestrian.

Tesla Robotaxis need to hog the media spotlight because they're trying to prop up the stock price, not because they work.

Re: A look under our trunk: what's in our compute

#58

Post by jerlam »

munificent wrote: post #36

Interesting that the article uses "ML" everywhere instead of "AI". I'm sure some marketing person chose that term deliberately, and I wonder what went into that decision.

Apple did exactly the same thing a few years back:

Apple avoids “AI” hype at WWDC keynote by baking ML into products (2023)

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/06/at-ap...

Re: A look under our trunk: what's in our compute

#60

Post by m463 »

xnx wrote: post #5

Apologies for repeating myself, but it's hard to convey how far ahead Waymo is in every area: sensors, vehicles, training data, markets served, simulation, infrastructure, operations, regulatory. They're growing fast, but I do wonder what they see as the bottlenecks: municipal approval, training, manufacturing? It's really unfortunate that lobbying is slowing self-driving rollout in some of the biggest and most impor…

So are they? I know that tesla is behind, but they have so many simulation miles, several generations of their own hardware, and lots of people behind the wheel taking over.

I've also seen the autonomous waymo vans, which seem nice too.

Is there a "theoetical" ahead and a "practical" ahead?

How do the finances look and does financial solvency count? will someone run out of money first?

There have been two waymo articles (about sensors, and now about hardware), is this a sign they are worried?

I am actually wondering.

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