Turns out infinite money, lawyers, lobbyists and engineering time gets you pretty far
Funny how it didn't take Uber that far.
Uber is barely even profitable let alone infinite anything
How Waymo outlasted the competition and made robo-taxis a real business
161–170 of 415 posts
Re: How Waymo outlasted the competition and made robo-taxis a real business
#162As a proponent of good public transportation I'm a bit afraid that automated taxis will get big enough in USA that they will start influence city wide decisions on how to develop city transport network even in Europe when time comes for them to expand their business.
Taxis are a form of public transportation. After all, what's the major difference between a taxi and a bus other than capacity/driver attention?
Technically they are, yes, because they're open to the public.
But the impact of taxis on road traffic in a dense city is comparable to the impact of private cars - perhaps even more so as they're often travelling empty between rides. If every journey which was previously done with a car is done with a taxi, there's no reduction in vehicle traffic - meaning the same problems of congestion and pedestrian safety.
Driverless cars can probably drive closer on highways to increase throughput, but that doesn't really help in cities or residential areas. Ultimately if lots of people shift to driverless taxis to get around, there will be far more vehicles on our streets.
Re: How Waymo outlasted the competition and made robo-taxis a real business
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
What I’m really looking forward to is when autonomous taxis can run a net profit —- including maintenance and upgrades —- at which point, instead of letting Waymo take all the vehicle profit in the world, I want to start an autonomous taxi company and then find an appropriate legal construction/shenanigan to give ownership of the company to the cars! The philosophical dilemmas would easily make the initial investment…
Glossing over the part where you try to tell a judge a company should be owned by its assets, why do you think the 'autonomous' in autonomous cars means they would also be able to do hiring, planning, assign work etc?
If companies can do stock buybacks, they theoretically can buy back 100% of the stock, giving ownership of the company to itself, basically its own assets ? I dont see the problem.
Re: How Waymo outlasted the competition and made robo-taxis a real business
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
I live in SF, and I take it daily. It's cheaper than paying for the parking garage near the office. And it's cheaper than Uber: the base rate is similar to Uber's, but there is no need to add a tip. Waymo sometimes does weird, unexpected things - but safely. Once it seemed to change its mind about the optimal route a few times over the course of 10 seconds, switching safely between two lanes back and forth a few time…
>Once it seemed to change its mind about the optimal route a few times over the course of 10 seconds, switching safely between two lanes back and forth a few times before committing. It used its turn signal fine, and the lanes were clear, so it wasn't a problem, but this isn't something humans do. Oh, I disagree, this is something I observe and in fact do myself quite a lot. We all run it through our minds which rout…
Agreed on this - think wayve is attempting this - building out the tech to license to manufacturers. Honestly makes the most sense and love the idea that all cars can have this and take over driving in specific areas.
Re: How Waymo outlasted the competition and made robo-taxis a real business
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have kids and don't like Taxis, but I'm not sure I entirely agree with your take. The idea of a humanless Taxi showing up to my house sounds way more appealing to me. I can take my time to get car seats in and kids buckled, without feeling the pressure to hurry from the human driver. I don't have to feel like my kids misbehaving are going to annoy a human driver, or get me a bad review in Uber/Lyft. I don't have to…
How do you make sure there isn’t human semen or worse on the seats on which you and your children will sit? At least with taxis driven by humans you knew that there was someone making sure that won’t happen that often, but with driverless taxis all bets are off.
Surely they have cameras? I’d trust that a lot more than a taxi driver keeping their cab clean.
Re: How Waymo outlasted the competition and made robo-taxis a real business
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anecdata 2, I bike through SF almost daily, and much prefer a Waymo driving near me as opposed to your average SF driver.
that's cool. until it's not. it's very easy to release an upgrade of stopping less on stop signs and see data increasing profit and not increasing accidents. same with code updates that will make cyclist life worse, unless there's actual change in a kpi they track. you're not really their main concern, specially after they ipo and get acquired by Apollo or billionaire du jour
What does that even mean?
If Waymo hits a cyclist which leads to death, and Waymo is found to be at fault, that's definitely going to make headlines and potentially lead to a pause of the entire operation.
Re: How Waymo outlasted the competition and made robo-taxis a real business
#167Side question: when Tesla finally gets FSD working, will I be able to use my Tesla to make money by using it as a taxi? Or will there be licensing issues? In other words, will I own it or not?
I would be more worried about liability issues before anything else.
Also, I doubt there is a point in you "renting" your Tesla. Tesla the company has enough money to flood the road with their vehicles, and your vehicle is irrelevant. Have you heard any individual renting their personal Camry to a taxi company or a Uber driver?
Re: How Waymo outlasted the competition and made robo-taxis a real business
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have kids and don't like Taxis, but I'm not sure I entirely agree with your take. The idea of a humanless Taxi showing up to my house sounds way more appealing to me. I can take my time to get car seats in and kids buckled, without feeling the pressure to hurry from the human driver. I don't have to feel like my kids misbehaving are going to annoy a human driver, or get me a bad review in Uber/Lyft. I don't have to…
How do you make sure there isn’t human semen or worse on the seats on which you and your children will sit? At least with taxis driven by humans you knew that there was someone making sure that won’t happen that often, but with driverless taxis all bets are off.
As someone with kids... What if there is? The presence of dried Semen on a seat on which my kids sit will have zero negative impact on them. At all.
Is it Yuck? Yes of course. But it also seems extremely unlikely. And it's a lot less Yuck than thinking about what's in the sand in public playgrounds that all kids visit constantly. And while I have a reasonable chance of preventing them from licking the seats, I have no chance of preventing them from eating some sand.
This is just a bizarre irrational worry...
Re: How Waymo outlasted the competition and made robo-taxis a real business
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honest question out of curiosity, since you seem genuine and open to discussion… I agree with all of your points about Waymo vs. Uber-like ridesharing—the average Uber ride is so much less safe that it’s hard to argue for. But I also agree with your aside about the growing isolation of society—the longer term implications of every event, meal, and errand being separated by autonomous journeys are staggering. So the q…
If you're already inclined towards isolation, like I am sometimes, driverless taxies will help with that. But if you're inclined towards going out and doing things, which I also am sometimes, there are few incentives more alluring than a fast and cheap way to get from point A to point B. If labor and gasoline are removed from the equation there's no reason rides can't be ridiculously cheap, and spending $20 on a roun…
Cheaper, safer and more effective transportation seems likely to increase mobility and decrease isolation.
Re: How Waymo outlasted the competition and made robo-taxis a real business
#170Isthere a foom full of Waymo employees watching over it all remotely and making the hard decisions?