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Next Stop for Waymo One: Los Angeles

blog.waymo.com

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Re: Next Stop for Waymo One: Los Angeles

#101

Post by minwcnt5 »

Goosey wrote: post #90

Can confirm having seen Waymo vehicle's driving in my hood several times this past week. I'm concerned that Waymo will never be able to drive "the LA way" and ultimately cause congestion. For example it's standard in LA that when the light turns yellow then two cars are able to make a left turn in time to not back up the perpendicular Lane. Or if you are turning left you should try to make room on your right, so that…

> Or if you are turning left you should try to make room on your right, so that those going straight can get around you. No way Waymo vehicles will be doing that.

Why do you say that? In this video you can see it doing exactly that, pulling to the side a bit to make room on the left for a vehicle doing a weird u-turn inside an intersection: https://youtu.be/rGfV_3HPnYE?t=442 If anything, common behaviors should be among the easiest for an AI system to learn.

Re: Next Stop for Waymo One: Los Angeles

#102

Post by aeternum »

ra7 wrote: post #33

Great news! It does seem like the 5th gen hardware will enable scale and real revenue generating operations for Waymo. The videos coming out of driverless rides in SF [1][2] and Downtown Phoenix [3] (both employee-only currently) look very impressive. So I don’t doubt they can crack LA. It will be interesting to see how Waymo progressively reduces deploy time in a new city. [1] https://youtu.be/ZBvce_eC28A [2] https:…

Employee-only with strict TOS so it's hard to tell how cherry-picked these videos are.

Re: Next Stop for Waymo One: Los Angeles

#103

Post by datguacdoh »

stirlo wrote: post #7

A big move for sure. The LA demographics are much less tech heavy than other cities. Hopefully they succeed and have a model where transportation become cheaper and more efficient and an individual owning a car becomes an option rather than a necessity.

I think the Hollywood market is actually an interesting one. Having a private door to door transportation option for celebrities is likely a very enticing option, and I would be curious to see if they specifically try to go after that market. I know I personally would choose a private waymo vs an Uber/Lyft/taxi even if it meant a few extra bucks. The ability to sit privately and not have to make awkward small talk is a big selling point IMO.

Re: Next Stop for Waymo One: Los Angeles

#104

Post by Sirened »

jeffbee wrote: post #81
GaylordTuring wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the person can just sit there and not continue to drive after an intervention. I don’t see why this video wouldn’t be possible or interesting.

My Honda Civic also proceeds in a more or less forward direction between driver interventions, but it is not self-driving.

recent civics do actually have decent driver assist beyond just having mostly aligned wheels ;)

Re: Next Stop for Waymo One: Los Angeles

#105

Post by [deleted] »

aeternum wrote: post #102
ra7 wrote: post #33

Great news! It does seem like the 5th gen hardware will enable scale and real revenue generating operations for Waymo. The videos coming out of driverless rides in SF [1][2] and Downtown Phoenix [3] (both employee-only currently) look very impressive. So I don’t doubt they can crack LA. It will be interesting to see how Waymo progressively reduces deploy time in a new city. [1] https://youtu.be/ZBvce_eC28A [2] https:…

Employee-only with strict TOS so it's hard to tell how cherry-picked these videos are.

[deleted]

Re: Next Stop for Waymo One: Los Angeles

#106

Post by tuatoru »

ElijahLynn wrote: post #2

Very exciting news, as more people use autonomous vehicles, the less parking needs there will be and hopefully more parking lots can be reclaimed with plant life, that benefits the whole earth with better air and calming energy.

> the less parking needs there will be

Why do you believe that? These taxis will increase the number of vehicles on the road, because

> more people use autonomous vehicles

Those "more people" will be bus riders and the housebound, and extra trips by people who already use cars in one form or another. The latter's own cars will be parked somewhere. Everyone commutes at the same time of day, no-one wants to share with randos.

Re: Next Stop for Waymo One: Los Angeles

#107

Post by sofixa »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #60
TremendousJudge wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely agree. And autonomous vehicles solve none of the issues of regular cars, except maybe injury rate. The rest is the same -- emissions, inefficiency, expense, noise, traffic congestion, unwalkable cities, and so on.

They're electric, so that solves the emissions and noise problems. Once self-driving cars are common people will figure out that it's safe to jaywalk in front of them, and nobody minds inconveniencing a robot, so I expect jaywalking to rise substantially too. A self-driving hire car isn't idle 23 hours a day like a normal car so that should solve some of the inefficiency and expense issues. All I'm left with on your…

> They're electric, so that solves the emissions and noise problems.

Past a certain speed, the majority of noise is coming from the tires, which also result in emissions. An EV is certainly better than an ICE, but there's no way to make a vehicle per person more efficient than a vehicle per tens/hundreds/thousands of persons.

Re: Next Stop for Waymo One: Los Angeles

#108

Post by bryanlarsen »

sofixa wrote: post #107
bryanlarsen wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're electric, so that solves the emissions and noise problems. Once self-driving cars are common people will figure out that it's safe to jaywalk in front of them, and nobody minds inconveniencing a robot, so I expect jaywalking to rise substantially too. A self-driving hire car isn't idle 23 hours a day like a normal car so that should solve some of the inefficiency and expense issues. All I'm left with on your…

> They're electric, so that solves the emissions and noise problems. Past a certain speed, the majority of noise is coming from the tires, which also result in emissions. An EV is certainly better than an ICE, but there's no way to make a vehicle per person more efficient than a vehicle per tens/hundreds/thousands of persons.

Part a certain speed, everything is noisy. An electric car is quieter than a train or a plane.

Re: Next Stop for Waymo One: Los Angeles

#109

Post by wrywring »

sokoloff wrote: post #70
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm assuming "surface parking" is mainly parking lots - and not counting street parking - which is close to half of all street & sidwalk surface area.

It doesn’t seem likely that parking is even half of street surface let alone street plus sidewalk. That would require more parking width than travel lane width on any given segment with parking (to account for areas where parking is not permitted plus intersections). Few streets have less travel width than parking. Many have a multiple.

>That would require more parking width than travel lane width on any given segment with parking

Not sure about Houston, but that is the case in many dense US city-suburbs. They'll have two-way roads with parking on both sides, and the roads will be about three cars wide. The result is cars parked on both sides, with drivers sharing the middle lane for both directions of travel.

When you see someone driving towards you, it's a game of chicken to see who will temporarily pull off into a vacant parking spot. It seems to happen because the lots aren't big enough for 2-4 car garages and driveways.

And for our friends across the ponds, yes: US households really do demand space for at least 2-4 cars per family.

Re: Next Stop for Waymo One: Los Angeles

#110

Post by xenospn »

ra7 wrote: post #51
colinmhayes wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Self driving cars don’t work in rain/snow

Waymo does work in rain and fog. They are permitted to operate in both of those conditions in San Francisco. They also do extensive weather testing, including areas with snow, so presumably they are close to cracking that as well. https://blog.waymo.com/2021/11/a-fog-blog.html

Driving in the rain in places that don’t usually have rain is a completely different ballgame.
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