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Zoox robotaxi launches in Las Vegas

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Re: Zoox robotaxi launches in Las Vegas

#171

Post by Agraillo »

wedn3sday wrote: post #143
dingnuts wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no the bet is lost on every count 1 it's not fully autonomous, there's a remote operator 2 not a wide enough service area as defined in the bet 3 it's a pilot program, also excluded in the bet 4 it's also a year late and the bet is very much still lost lol but we're going to have self driving cars by 2015 guys!

Is the remote operator actually driving under normal conditions, or do they just step in during an exigent circumstance?

The latter, there's an article about this particularly [1]

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/09/03/technology/zo...

Re: Zoox robotaxi launches in Las Vegas

#172

Post by modeless »

pfooti wrote: post #145

These little front-back symmetric buses (as well as engineering-outfitted minivans) are pretty common in the mission in SF as well. I see them all the time in a very small (four or so blocks around 16th and folsom where my pottery studio is) area, but I think they're all still just test driving. As a waymo user, I'm looking forward to a little more competition in the market. I quite like waymo, but driving price down…

I see riders in them occasionally. I think they must be open for employee rides.

Re: Zoox robotaxi launches in Las Vegas

#174

Post by mosdl »

tartoran wrote: post #173

I like these futuristic little carriages. They're certainly useful in some scenarios but I hope to see something similar but obviouly bigger for public trasnportation.

They seem idle as last mile transport - taking people to the offices after using the Caltrain for example.

Re: Zoox robotaxi launches in Las Vegas

#175

Post by cyberax »

jerlam wrote: post #133
jewel wrote: post #52

The front-to-back symmetry is interesting. It may cause some confusion for other drivers, in some limited circumstances, when they can't tell which way the vehicle is facing. It appears, based on my study of the footage on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIRW8bfy4kE , that it could possibly switch which side is the front and the back by just changing the color of the lights. With RGB LEDs that would be pretty easy to…

I wonder if there are barf bags for the backwards-facing passengers.

Plenty of transit all around the world has backwards-facing seats.

Re: Zoox robotaxi launches in Las Vegas

#176

Post by cyberax »

ratelimitsteve wrote: post #125
maelito wrote: post #4

The most useful thing I expect from robotaxis is speed regulations. What's considered normal for humans, driving higher than the speed limits, will not for automatic cars.

I disagree wholeheartedly. I think the most useful thing about robotaxis is that you can count on them to pay attention and react within a given timeframe and that speed limits will either be expanded greatly, eliminated or calculated as a function of the capabilities of the individual hardware in question rather than our best guess as to how an average person would probably react. I'm looking forward to driverless c…

Speed doesn't matter at all in city driving on regular roads. Going from 35mph to 25mph doesn't materially affect the trip time.

Think about SF, its size is (famously) around 7 by 7 miles. So it'd take 12 minutes to cross (as the bird flies) from one side to another at 35 mph and 17 minutes at 25mph. Which is completely unrealistic, because real travel times are dominated by traffic lights and congestion.

This calculation changes only when we're talking about long-distance travel on freeways. But honestly, I expect that fast long-distance trains with seamless transfer to self-driving taxis would be a better idea.

Re: Zoox robotaxi launches in Las Vegas

#177

Post by stfp »

ratelimitsteve wrote: post #125
maelito wrote: post #4

The most useful thing I expect from robotaxis is speed regulations. What's considered normal for humans, driving higher than the speed limits, will not for automatic cars.

I disagree wholeheartedly. I think the most useful thing about robotaxis is that you can count on them to pay attention and react within a given timeframe and that speed limits will either be expanded greatly, eliminated or calculated as a function of the capabilities of the individual hardware in question rather than our best guess as to how an average person would probably react. I'm looking forward to driverless c…

You're talking about long highway trips? Parent is probably talking local trips, where 200+ mph is never going to be safe, and would not even be useful.

Re: Zoox robotaxi launches in Las Vegas

#178

Post by Fricken »

Zigurd wrote: post #134
martythemaniak wrote: post #11

What's interesting is that about 80% Tesla's entire valuation is FSD and Optimus, and the underlying assumption with FSD is that it'll magically turn on for all Tesla's in a day and they'll have a monopoly and extract all the profit needed for that valuation. Apart from any comparisons with Waymo, I suspect self-driving will broadly follow other AI tech, where we'll see a proliferation of competitive self-driving tec…

I would bet against the imminent commodification of autonomous vehicle technology. Way too early. No consensus on the technology approach. Here's a speculative but plausible take: Zoox and Waymo are both products of cloud computing and data gathering giants. Maybe that's the important factor.

>No consensus on the technology approach

Waymo, Cruise, Zoox, Pony.ai, Baidu's Apollo, Argo.ai and Aurora all have/had very similar approaches to the technology. Tesla is the major outlier and they haven't accomplished much in spite of the hype.

Re: Zoox robotaxi launches in Las Vegas

#179

Post by finolex1 »

dingnuts wrote: post #120
ricree wrote: post #56

Just about a year and a half too late for https://longbets.org/712/ Although from the article, it sounds like this might not be servicing a wide enough area to win the bet even if the time was extended a couple years.

no the bet is lost on every count 1 it's not fully autonomous, there's a remote operator 2 not a wide enough service area as defined in the bet 3 it's a pilot program, also excluded in the bet 4 it's also a year late and the bet is very much still lost lol but we're going to have self driving cars by 2015 guys!

This specific bet is very targeted, but we do absolutely have commerciallly available self-driving cars in 2025 in several cities, and the list of cities is rapidly expanding.

An 8-10 year delay from expectations is not too bad all things considered.

Re: Zoox robotaxi launches in Las Vegas

#180

Post by ARandumGuy »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #139
ARandumGuy wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that there isn't a rail line from the airport to the strip is wild. It would simplify travel for tourists dramatically, and get a lot of hotel shuttles and taxis off the street. There's a reason why even cities with bad public transit usually have a line to the airport, and it's wild that Las Vegas doesn't have one.

"The strip" isn't one place. It's several miles long. It's not walkable for people with luggage. To do what you propose, you'd have to not just build it to the strip, but along the strip, which is a whole different problem. There's not a lot of space to build a rail line there. It would have to be a block or two away at best. And then, well, the stuff on the other side of the strip is now three blocks away. For peopl…

Las Vegas Boulevard is like 8 lanes wide. Get rid of two car lanes and now you have plenty of room for a rail line.
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