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Cruise is running an autonomous ride hailing service for employees in SF

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Re: Cruise is running an autonomous ride hailing service for employees in SF

#11

Post by aetherson »

chubot wrote: post #6

It’s available across all of the mapped area of San Francisco where the test fleet operates, and the app works like any ride-sharing experience, mapping ride requesters with available cars. What area is that? Isn't all of San Francisco "mapped" 100 times over by this point? If the "mapped area" isn't all of San Francisco, does this speak to a limitation of their tech or a regulatory/deployment issue?

Probably they need more precise maps than are available from Google Maps or the equivalent. And other autonomous car companies aren't willing to provide their maps.

Re: Cruise is running an autonomous ride hailing service for employees in SF

#12

Post by maxerickson »

chubot wrote: post #6

It’s available across all of the mapped area of San Francisco where the test fleet operates, and the app works like any ride-sharing experience, mapping ride requesters with available cars. What area is that? Isn't all of San Francisco "mapped" 100 times over by this point? If the "mapped area" isn't all of San Francisco, does this speak to a limitation of their tech or a regulatory/deployment issue?

They may be creating their own highly detailed maps. In that case it would be a limitation of how much effort they have invested in generating the maps.

Re: Cruise is running an autonomous ride hailing service for employees in SF

#14

Post by miheermunjal »

chubot wrote: post #6

It’s available across all of the mapped area of San Francisco where the test fleet operates, and the app works like any ride-sharing experience, mapping ride requesters with available cars. What area is that? Isn't all of San Francisco "mapped" 100 times over by this point? If the "mapped area" isn't all of San Francisco, does this speak to a limitation of their tech or a regulatory/deployment issue?

100 times over, but by 100 different silo-ed datastores... so its hard to equivalent draw conclusions needed for AV's in a city.

not to mention the biggest complexity is still understanding deviations from said-detailed environments.

Re: Cruise is running an autonomous ride hailing service for employees in SF

#15

Post by abalone »

> Still, Cruise says those drivers have had to take over manual control of vehicles engaged in Cruise Anywhere service only on a few occasions

Not trying to pour cold water on this but.. it's all about those "few occasions". The difference between level 2 and level 4/5 autonomy is vast. Those "few occasions" would presumably be accidents without the intervention of the safety driver. A small corporate shuttle service that "only had a few accidents" would not be considered a very safe service.

So for a service that really only makes sense at level 4, the reporting really ought to focus on those "few occasions", the stringent safety standard that needs to be met to remove drivers, and the actual progress towards it. That's the real meat of the story.

Re: Cruise is running an autonomous ride hailing service for employees in SF

#16

Post by tyingq »

Sounds like the tech itself is in pretty good shape, but was surprised at the haphazard looking way it's grafted onto the car. Pretty sure I'm seeing zip ties and generic aluminum t-slot, with the front sensors sticking quite a ways out from the overall profile of the car. Pretty sure that's hitting someone's shin/knee as they exit the car at some point.

Not trying to make too big a deal of that, but now that they are offering something public facing, seems like a good time to address that. It doesn't convey a strong message of ready-for-prime-time. It's certainly less polished than the competition.

Re: Cruise is running an autonomous ride hailing service for employees in SF

#17

Post by burke »

abalone wrote: post #15

> Still, Cruise says those drivers have had to take over manual control of vehicles engaged in Cruise Anywhere service only on a few occasions Not trying to pour cold water on this but.. it's all about those "few occasions". The difference between level 2 and level 4/5 autonomy is vast. Those "few occasions" would presumably be accidents without the intervention of the safety driver. A small corporate shuttle service…

I'm not sure what those "few occasions" were, but I think there's another category of problem that these could fall into other than would-be accidents: If the car over-cautiously decided it didn't know what to do, came to a safe stop, and threw on the 4-ways while it waited for human input, that's not as terrible.

Re: Cruise is running an autonomous ride hailing service for employees in SF

#18

Post by delegate »

Self-driving cars will slowly (or quickly) make car ownership redundant.

Why own a car (pay taxes, insurance, parking), when you can have one at your door in a couple of minutes ? When you arrive at the destination, just exit the car - no need to look for parking or anything like that, let the car figure it out.

If technology can do that, then owning a car becomes more of a hobby than necessity. I hope GM's strategy is aligned with this, as the profits will not come from selling cars, but from providing the service.

Re: Cruise is running an autonomous ride hailing service for employees in SF

#19

Post by mFixman »

delegate wrote: post #18

Self-driving cars will slowly (or quickly) make car ownership redundant. Why own a car (pay taxes, insurance, parking), when you can have one at your door in a couple of minutes ? When you arrive at the destination, just exit the car - no need to look for parking or anything like that, let the car figure it out. If technology can do that, then owning a car becomes more of a hobby than necessity. I hope GM's strategy…

You can still do that with Uber. Why own a car today?

Re: Cruise is running an autonomous ride hailing service for employees in SF

#20

Post by sourceless »

mFixman wrote: post #19
delegate wrote: post #18

Self-driving cars will slowly (or quickly) make car ownership redundant. Why own a car (pay taxes, insurance, parking), when you can have one at your door in a couple of minutes ? When you arrive at the destination, just exit the car - no need to look for parking or anything like that, let the car figure it out. If technology can do that, then owning a car becomes more of a hobby than necessity. I hope GM's strategy…

You can still do that with Uber. Why own a car today?

You have to pay a human to take you. Humans are expensive.
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