Waymo pulls over, calls cops on juvenile riders who had 'ghost gun" • Hacker News Board

Re: Waymo pulls over, calls cops on juvenile riders who had 'ghost gun"

#151

Post by dylan604 » Sat, Sep 12, 2026, 7:42 PM UTC

gwbas1c wrote: post #148

dylan604 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That could be a funny-or-die kind of script. They find a Waymo car that is feeling outcast and looking for friendship so it joins a gang. The Waymo car is constantly looking out for rival gang members while on the job, then swings by to pick up its fellow gang members for the hit, but then must obey all of the traffic laws during the get away.

Self-driving cars don't "feel"

Charlie Brown says "oh good grief!"

What part of funny-or-die suggested anything following should be taken seriously? You might be interested in reading about creative licensing, make believe, parody, or any other style.

Re: Waymo pulls over, calls cops on juvenile riders who had 'ghost gun"

#152

Post by juiceland » Sat, Sep 12, 2026, 7:42 PM UTC

analog31 wrote: post #35

kelnos wrote: post #3

I'm really torn on this. This particular situation, at face value at least, sounds like a good outcome. Kids had a gun, someone noticed, called police, situation handled without escalation or violence or something tragic happening. But this doesn't generalize. Another incident described in the article was when some kids were drinking in the car and shooting toy guns. What if they hadn't been drinking? What if they we…

>>> What if Waymo thought the guns were real, called the cops, and the cops screwed up and shot one of the kids? These sorts of escalations aren't imaginary; they happen, and they end in tragedy. I take this seriously, but I think this a problem with the cops. Even regular people hesitate to report problems if they think the police might overreact.

> Even regular people hesitate to report problems if they think the police might overreact.

I can’t think of any instance I would call the police except to satisfy the requirements of an insurance claim. I was in a car accident in an Uber last year and left before the cops came.

Re: Waymo pulls over, calls cops on juvenile riders who had 'ghost gun"

#153

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Sep 12, 2026, 7:44 PM UTC

anon84873628 wrote: post #81

kstrauser wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the sign along the highway says my speed might be monitored by airplane, but I don’t want to live where that means a surveillance drone is flying along side me at all times. Consenting to let a taxi record me in case it comes up later that I did something bad and they want to have footage of it is one thing. But now we know Waymo is a little Flock tattletale, and people generally aren’t ok with their robocab proa…

So don't use it? You seem to want the benefits of the service but without having to comport your behavior accordingly. Other countries already have highway cameras track speed and automatically issue citations. I am happy for Americans to petition their government against implementing that, but I won't pretend it's anything other than a desire to break the law for personal gratification.

[deleted]

Re: Waymo pulls over, calls cops on juvenile riders who had 'ghost gun"

#154

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Sep 12, 2026, 7:47 PM UTC

deet wrote: post #139

kelnos wrote: post #3

I'm really torn on this. This particular situation, at face value at least, sounds like a good outcome. Kids had a gun, someone noticed, called police, situation handled without escalation or violence or something tragic happening. But this doesn't generalize. Another incident described in the article was when some kids were drinking in the car and shooting toy guns. What if they hadn't been drinking? What if they we…

If we are going to privilege privately operated transportation providers like Waymo with special access to streets relative to individually operated vehicles, we need to rethink whether a private company's terms of service should govern the rights and privileges of users of such services or if users should have more substantial protections. Waymo has chosen to monitor travelers in a way that drivers of their own cars…

[deleted]

Re: Waymo pulls over, calls cops on juvenile riders who had 'ghost gun"

#155

Post by ethanwillis » Sat, Sep 12, 2026, 7:48 PM UTC

mingus88 wrote: post #102

kstrauser wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the sign along the highway says my speed might be monitored by airplane, but I don’t want to live where that means a surveillance drone is flying along side me at all times. Consenting to let a taxi record me in case it comes up later that I did something bad and they want to have footage of it is one thing. But now we know Waymo is a little Flock tattletale, and people generally aren’t ok with their robocab proa…

I’m anti surveillance but I don’t get this take. Every uber driver I’ve been ive been in has an inside dashcam to protect themselves and their property. I would do the same thing if I were them. Waymo has every right to monitor their property and if someone does something illegal in their car why would they not report? An Uber driver would do the same, as would I. Otherwise you are an accomplice. This comparison to F…

But what if I've done nothing illegal and they only think I have?

Re: Waymo pulls over, calls cops on juvenile riders who had 'ghost gun"

#156

Post by JuniperMesos » Sat, Sep 12, 2026, 7:48 PM UTC

analog8374 wrote: post #78

I was at LOWES the other day with a used can of paint that I brought for color matching. obviously used. beat up and stained. at the checkout the computer halted the checkout process said "did you forget something in your cart?" yeah fuck that. also fucks self-checkout. are we so poverty stricken as a society now that we can't afford to pay cashiers?

In general I'd rather interact with a machine than with the kind of person who can get hired as a cashier where I live - likely someone cognitively disadvantaged or who is an immigrant from a poor part of the world with limited English skills.

Precisely because our society is rich, and reasonably meritocratic (and has a lot of immigrants from poor, non-English-speaking parts of the world), people who are reasonably smart and conscientious don't last long in low-pay, low-status jobs like cashiering - they get promoted or quit to do something more lucrative. This is Patrick McKenzie's concept of The Sort (https://x.com/patio11/status/1818781344702644311). And it means that my experience of interacting with a cashier is likely to involve interacting with a menial laborer who is difficult to communicate with; meaning I'd rather avoid that interaction altogether and just press buttons on a machine.

Re: Waymo pulls over, calls cops on juvenile riders who had 'ghost gun"

#157

Post by ifwinterco » Sat, Sep 12, 2026, 7:48 PM UTC

anon84873628 wrote: post #12

kelnos wrote: post #3

I'm really torn on this. This particular situation, at face value at least, sounds like a good outcome. Kids had a gun, someone noticed, called police, situation handled without escalation or violence or something tragic happening. But this doesn't generalize. Another incident described in the article was when some kids were drinking in the car and shooting toy guns. What if they hadn't been drinking? What if they we…

Would you do any of those things in a regular taxi or subway car? Imagine the alternative headline saying the murderers used Waymo for their drive-by assassination. There is only one option for Waymo here, and the idiocy of the US police is not within their power to solve.

The london riots were sparked by the police shooting Mark Duggan for (allegedly, no good evidence) carrying a gun around in a taxi.

People do definitely use regular taxis to transport both drugs and weapons sometimes

Re: Waymo pulls over, calls cops on juvenile riders who had 'ghost gun"

#158

Post by michaelt » Sat, Sep 12, 2026, 7:51 PM UTC

mingus88 wrote: post #102

kstrauser wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the sign along the highway says my speed might be monitored by airplane, but I don’t want to live where that means a surveillance drone is flying along side me at all times. Consenting to let a taxi record me in case it comes up later that I did something bad and they want to have footage of it is one thing. But now we know Waymo is a little Flock tattletale, and people generally aren’t ok with their robocab proa…

I’m anti surveillance but I don’t get this take. Every uber driver I’ve been ive been in has an inside dashcam to protect themselves and their property. I would do the same thing if I were them. Waymo has every right to monitor their property and if someone does something illegal in their car why would they not report? An Uber driver would do the same, as would I. Otherwise you are an accomplice. This comparison to F…

> I’m anti surveillance but I don’t get this take.

Some people foresee a future where self-driving cars are the norm. The big prize being fewer deaths on the road (about 40k people per year in the USA) which is a pretty big prize.

If today's self-driving cars are heavy on the AI surveillance of passengers, and you foresee self-driving cars doing 90% of journeys within your lifetime, that's a pretty ominous situation.

Especially if you interpret it in light of EU driver-facing-camera mandates.

Re: Waymo pulls over, calls cops on juvenile riders who had 'ghost gun"

#159

Post by dwedge » Sat, Sep 12, 2026, 7:52 PM UTC

bot403 wrote: post #8

kelnos wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a big difference between a human present who can make a decision based on a situation literally in front of their eyes, and a computer flagging a video feed for someone in what amounts to a call center to look at and decide on. Not to mention the mass surveillance this sort of stuff continues to help enable.

I'm not a fan of expanding surveillance but the alternative of unmonitored transit seems worse. Going to shoot up a place? Take your guns on a waymo. It won't complain. Guy wants to take an obviously distressed and co-erced girl to an abandoned lot? No complaints. Person with obvious head injury and slurring speech wants to go home instead of the hospital? Sure. Person has heart attack and passes out in back? We'll j…

> Person with obvious head injury and slurring speech wants to go home instead of the hospital? Sure.

When I was a teenager working in a taxi office some guy came in slurring and covered in blood. I phoned him an ambulance and after 15 minutes of waiting he got up and walked out despite my protests. How should I have reacted?

Re: Waymo pulls over, calls cops on juvenile riders who had 'ghost gun"

#160

Post by kennywinker » Sat, Sep 12, 2026, 7:58 PM UTC

gruez wrote: post #118

kennywinker wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The alternative is having a driver in the car, which is equally intrusive. Would you rather have one random stranger see you naked, or have a video of you naked passed around to every cop in your city? Unless you feel the same about those two scenarios, it seems like a driver and a camera are not equally intrusive.

>Would you rather have one random stranger see you naked, or have a video of you naked passed around to every cop in your city? Half the ubers I've been now has a "you're being recorded" notice. Public transit is far worse.

You seem to have missed the point. A recording is one thing. A networked camera being ai-monitored in realtime is another.

Your uber driver is using the video to protect their in-app reputation (also dystopian, but unrelated), and in case a crime is committed against them or they are accused of one.

A networked ai monitored camera system is a panopticon. It will be (or already has been) turned against journalists, protesters, political opponents, ex girlfriends, union organizers, etc.