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Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

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Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#11

Post by fixprix »

ddxv wrote: post #2

I love that this is landing in Austin before the cybercab. I think it will really drive the competition for Tesla to put out an (actual) self driving car. Or maybe they pivot to the next hype train.

The problem is neither Waymo or Uber make their own cars, and the cars they use weren't purpose built for self driving. Both of those points give Tesla a huge economic and competitive advantage in the long run. Uber/Waymo are the middlemen, once OEMs start building their own purpose built self driving vehicles there's a good chance Waymo/Uber get factored out of the equation.

Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#12

Post by ra7 »

fixprix wrote: post #11
ddxv wrote: post #2

I love that this is landing in Austin before the cybercab. I think it will really drive the competition for Tesla to put out an (actual) self driving car. Or maybe they pivot to the next hype train.

The problem is neither Waymo or Uber make their own cars, and the cars they use weren't purpose built for self driving. Both of those points give Tesla a huge economic and competitive advantage in the long run. Uber/Waymo are the middlemen, once OEMs start building their own purpose built self driving vehicles there's a good chance Waymo/Uber get factored out of the equation.

Not if OEMs don't have the technology. Making cars is the easiest part of self driving. Once you have the tech, you can farm the manufacturing out to many OEMs (like Waymo is doing with Hyundai and Geely) and then OEMs become the middlemen.

Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#13

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

As a consumer, I think this is great.

As for its impact on society, I worry. Famous investor Jeremy Grantham said recently "If the government does not smooth out the benefits of AI, you will have either starvation or revolution." Huge numbers of people rely on driving for their income. More importantly, automated driving can only lead to even more concentration of wealth. With human drivers, most of the income generated stays within the community. With automated drivers, most of the income goes to much fewer places and people.

Look, driving is one of those tasks that I actually do believe to be a great thing to be automated away. But given the history of society since the Internet I have 0 confidence that we'll be able to deal with the giant impacts related to further concentration of wealth.

Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#14

Post by tene80i »

ddxv wrote: post #2

I love that this is landing in Austin before the cybercab. I think it will really drive the competition for Tesla to put out an (actual) self driving car. Or maybe they pivot to the next hype train.

Or an earlier one. Been a while since we heard any progress on how Hyperloop will own the future.

Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#15

Post by NullHypothesist »

ra7 wrote: post #12
fixprix wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is neither Waymo or Uber make their own cars, and the cars they use weren't purpose built for self driving. Both of those points give Tesla a huge economic and competitive advantage in the long run. Uber/Waymo are the middlemen, once OEMs start building their own purpose built self driving vehicles there's a good chance Waymo/Uber get factored out of the equation.

Not if OEMs don't have the technology. Making cars is the easiest part of self driving. Once you have the tech, you can farm the manufacturing out to many OEMs (like Waymo is doing with Hyundai and Geely) and then OEMs become the middlemen.

If Waymo continues to grow their OEM partner pool, then presumably they'd have a better ability to put cars on the road than Tesla. I'd say right now it's "advantage Tesla" but could easily see this flipped on its head if Waymo announces more partnerships soon. Could very easily see them partnering with major US automakers like Ford or Stellantis (lol maybe even GM, but that seems extreme)

Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#16

Post by throwawayffffas »

> Starting today, riders who request an UberX, Uber Green, Comfort, or Comfort Electric could be matched with a Waymo fully autonomous all-electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicle – at no additional cost.

That made legit laugh out loud. No additional cost? Are you for real Uber? It should be significantly cheaper.

Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#17

Post by tene80i »

fixprix wrote: post #11
ddxv wrote: post #2

I love that this is landing in Austin before the cybercab. I think it will really drive the competition for Tesla to put out an (actual) self driving car. Or maybe they pivot to the next hype train.

The problem is neither Waymo or Uber make their own cars, and the cars they use weren't purpose built for self driving. Both of those points give Tesla a huge economic and competitive advantage in the long run. Uber/Waymo are the middlemen, once OEMs start building their own purpose built self driving vehicles there's a good chance Waymo/Uber get factored out of the equation.

What’s the advantage of owning the full stack? Some margin on the base machine? Is that that huge a factor?

Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#18

Post by thefourthchime »

I've been riding Waymo in Austin for several months as an early. They service the central Austin area. In that area, they've generally been available within 5-10 minutes.

The routes it takes are optimized for safety, if you compare the time of arrival between Waymo and Google Maps it's typically 20-30% slower to get there.

Most of the rides have been without issue, but I have had some things happen:

- It hesitated in the middle of an unprotected left on Lamar and had a car honk at

- It used a bus-only lane.

- It stopped in the middle of the street to drop me off a couple of times, annoying other drivers.

- I've had it get stuck, and it called support to get it out.

Overall, they are great but imperfect right now; I'm sure they'll fix these as time goes on.

Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#20

Post by xnx »

throwawayffffas wrote: post #16

> Starting today, riders who request an UberX, Uber Green, Comfort, or Comfort Electric could be matched with a Waymo fully autonomous all-electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicle – at no additional cost. That made legit laugh out loud. No additional cost? Are you for real Uber? It should be significantly cheaper.

Why should a totally private ride with a safe driver cost less than a ride with a driver who might be drunk, tired, distracted, reckless, and/or rude?
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