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NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF

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Re: NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF

#101

Post by tzs »

jsnell wrote: post #89
abhayhegde wrote: post #57

> Though there’s no driver, each ride is supported by staff at a Waymo site that can be summoned if a car runs into trouble. Unless they have multiple rides looked after by a staff, what are they planning to save by not offering a driver? Also, is there any path to profitability given how many billions were poured into the technology? Not that I care so much though, Alphabet has enough profitable ventures to recoup o…

Of course there's not one on-duty staffer per car. You'd only need that many people if all rides required human support at exactly the same time. But in reality, most rides wouldn't require it at all. Even if there's likely to be some correlation between support requests, it'd be all cars on one street or block needing help at the same time, not all cars in the same city. > Also, is there any path to profitability gi…

> Of course there's not one on-duty staffer per car. You'd only need that many people if all rides required human support at exactly the same time.

Now I'm curious what happens when a lot of cars need support at the same time, and not enough support people are available. For instance say SF gets magnitude 8+ earthquake. That could cause a lot of problems for traffic, probably including many things that would confuse current self-driving systems.

So say you are in a Waymo, such a thing happens, and your Waymo is having problems. You decide you'd like to abandon the ride and proceed on foot. Is is safe to just open the door and leave? Or do you have to do something locally to tell the Waymo you want to immediately exit, so that it doesn't decide to start moving while you are getting out? Or does it automatically stop and stay stopped while the door is open?

Re: NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF

#102

Post by bitsage »

barbariangrunge wrote: post #21

But… why couldn’t we just build more and better trains?

I’m of the same mindset. A cab is still a cab to me, even if it’s autonomous. We’ll still have to deal with traffic all the same. Uber and Lyft showed us ride share even worsens congestion in cities. As a result, in dense locales, taking the train can often be quicker and cheaper than hailing or ordering a ride during rush hour.

While other developed nations show us it’s possible to reduce our accident rate per mile driven, we could also make progress on reducing the time spent in a car. So many suburbanites drive the whole way into the city for weekend trips here in my city because their local commuter rail stinks. I see missed opportunities all around.

If cities are increasingly considering offloading public transit burden off to private entities, they might as well consider introducing the private sector into rail…

Re: NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF

#103

Post by ycdavidsmith »

Waterluvian wrote: post #18
_acco wrote: post #14

> My ride was so smooth, the novelty began to wear off, turning a trip to the future into just another journey across town. This is the only nod in the article to how futuristic and revelatory this innovation. The journalists sound so bored. I wonder if this is a function of how “around the corner” this tech has felt for so long? Have we somehow become jaded to this innovation before it has even arrived? Were journal…

It took just two moon landings for people to get bored. I don’t think you need a technology to be fully functional for people to tire of it. It just has to be in the news for enough years.

It’s in the word: news. It must be new.

Re: NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF

#104

Post by prawn »

fastball wrote: post #75
quickthrower2 wrote: post #23

A concept I look forward to is not just a driverless car, but driverless "various size vehicles" from a 1-person car to a 100-person bus. In this future we could get the advantages of public transport and car-free living into rural and suburban areas, while in the city these systems could adjust and use AI to find optimal routes that are a lot less slower than current buses (or even trains that require 2 or 3 connect…

I just want a driverless RV that will drive me between all the National Parks in the US while I work remotely from the back via a Starlink dish mounted to the roof.

Just to moderate the dream slightly, if you're moving around at a solid pace and/or driving enough that you get actual work done, the fuel costs add up. I've had trips in RV/bus-scale vehicles have portions that work out at $100-250/day in gas. So, ideally you want an electric vehicle.

And to be honest, the actual driving is often a predictable and easy part of the equation. Finding camping/accommodation options near national parks, and then dealing with the hordes is a hassle that remains. If you can work on the road, in theory you're less rushed.

Travel with a partner and then at least one of you can work while the other drives.

Re: NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF

#105

Post by fastball »

prawn wrote: post #104
fastball wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just want a driverless RV that will drive me between all the National Parks in the US while I work remotely from the back via a Starlink dish mounted to the roof.

Just to moderate the dream slightly, if you're moving around at a solid pace and/or driving enough that you get actual work done, the fuel costs add up. I've had trips in RV/bus-scale vehicles have portions that work out at $100-250/day in gas. So, ideally you want an electric vehicle. And to be honest, the actual driving is often a predictable and easy part of the equation. Finding camping/accommodation options near…

Yes, definitely want the RV to be electric. Plus would cover the roof in solar to get a bit of extra charge.

Re: NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF

#106

Post by prawn »

fastball wrote: post #105
prawn wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to moderate the dream slightly, if you're moving around at a solid pace and/or driving enough that you get actual work done, the fuel costs add up. I've had trips in RV/bus-scale vehicles have portions that work out at $100-250/day in gas. So, ideally you want an electric vehicle. And to be honest, the actual driving is often a predictable and easy part of the equation. Finding camping/accommodation options near…

Yes, definitely want the RV to be electric. Plus would cover the roof in solar to get a bit of extra charge.

I don't think the rooftop solar makes a dent in the vehicle's power needs, but maybe that changes with time. I've driven a lot of the US, a lot of national parks, and the driving is the trivial bit. Everything else is a pain, IMO!

Re: NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF

#107

Post by Dylan16807 »

proc0 wrote: post #91
Dylan16807 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's how AI becomes transparent after wide adoption. I don't like this framing for video filters. Go back ten years and nobody thought of that kind of visual effect as AI. Then someone made an AI version, and people talked about that for a bit, then they went back to considering the actual effect. This is very different from situations where a task is inherently thought of as an AI task when people are anticipating…

Maybe not the best example, although I still remember filters became huge around the same time the AI versions started emerging. Video transcripts are another example, or even text translation at this point. These are widely used forms of AI but it's not what most people are talking about when they talk about AI.

I think a large part is because those uses are much more sensory than thinky. And for those sorts of uses they're good at using a huge corpus to clean up the details but straightforward algorithmic methods can get into the same ballpark.

Re: NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF

#108

Post by eklitzke »

tzs wrote: post #101
jsnell wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course there's not one on-duty staffer per car. You'd only need that many people if all rides required human support at exactly the same time. But in reality, most rides wouldn't require it at all. Even if there's likely to be some correlation between support requests, it'd be all cars on one street or block needing help at the same time, not all cars in the same city. > Also, is there any path to profitability gi…

> Of course there's not one on-duty staffer per car. You'd only need that many people if all rides required human support at exactly the same time. Now I'm curious what happens when a lot of cars need support at the same time, and not enough support people are available. For instance say SF gets magnitude 8+ earthquake. That could cause a lot of problems for traffic, probably including many things that would confuse…

There is a button in the app and also on touchscreens (accessible from both front and rear seats) that you can use to ask the car to pullover as soon as possible. You can exit the vehicle this way if you think it's unsafe.

Re: NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF

#110

Post by ChatGTP »

zzzzzzzza wrote: post #56
unyttigfjelltol wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a kind of Rube Goldberg contraption for getting around town..... The most complex gizmo possible for the most mundane of tasks.

humans in a nutshell

Am I supposed to get excited each time I get in one or something ?
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