Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Next stop: Miami

waymo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 319 posts

Re: Next stop: Miami

#181

Post by triceratops »

entropi wrote: post #60

I feel like at this point someone needs to take a step back and think about the general vision and overall goals of this whole fully automated ride-hailing service thing. I mean, what is the exact problem that's being solved here? I don't mean "problem" like "solving the technical problem of making a car move autonomously in a chaotic city" sense. I mean what is the need that's being addressed here, exactly? Ride-hai…

> moving 1-2 people in private vehicles

Eliminating the driver opens up so many options:

1. Vehicles designed expressly for 1 or 2 people, so they take up less space 2. Dynamic mini bus routes that can run all hours of the day 3. Dynamic car pooling

Re: Next stop: Miami

#182

Post by ra7 »

sixQuarks wrote: post #162
tomp wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bigger question is, how can Tesla with it's non-working "full self driving" compete with Waymo's working actual self-driving.

How about this? Tesla’s latest FSD beat Waymo by 30 minutes. Same route and same time of day. https://youtu.be/CfX8Lu9MHa0?si=cOYWNXjPiYP9R6L_

> Same route and same time of day.

Just a small difference: one of them did it without a driver.

Re: Next stop: Miami

#183

Post by marcosdumay »

entropi wrote: post #60

I feel like at this point someone needs to take a step back and think about the general vision and overall goals of this whole fully automated ride-hailing service thing. I mean, what is the exact problem that's being solved here? I don't mean "problem" like "solving the technical problem of making a car move autonomously in a chaotic city" sense. I mean what is the need that's being addressed here, exactly? Ride-hai…

> I mean, what is the exact problem that's being solved here?

There are people that will pay you to give them a ride from point A to point B; Google has developed a cheaper and more scalable way to give people a ride from point A to point B.

> Ride-hailing workers were already often working for less than minimum wage.

And now Google made them way more productive, what leads to some combination of higher wages, lower prices, and higher profits. The government there has a moderate amount of control over the proportion, it's not clear to me what values it will pick.

> If the problem is efficiently moving people around in a city

Nah, it's certainly not. But if you solve that one, Google will be forced to pivot into efficiently moving people into and out of a city, and they can add a lot of value there.

Re: Next stop: Miami

#184

Post by Fricken »

rdsubhas wrote: post #108
pengaru wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Interesting random fact: when it rains, waymo turns on the windshield wipers The jaguar i-pace does this independent of the waymo use case.

The interesting part here is... the Waymo has no reason to. There is no driver. All cameras and sensors are outside. It's just for not freaking out the passenger :)

Waymo has wipers on it's LIDAR dome

https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying/comments/6biyr8/way...

Re: Next stop: Miami

#185

Post by CobrastanJorji »

entropi wrote: post #60

I feel like at this point someone needs to take a step back and think about the general vision and overall goals of this whole fully automated ride-hailing service thing. I mean, what is the exact problem that's being solved here? I don't mean "problem" like "solving the technical problem of making a car move autonomously in a chaotic city" sense. I mean what is the need that's being addressed here, exactly? Ride-hai…

> Ride-hailing workers were already often working for less than minimum wage.

That's the problem. People want taxis. Taxi drivers are both underpaid and also expensive. Removing the driver is a very expensive research process, but once you've done it and rolled out the solution nationally, you're saving a lot of money.

And you're also creating a huge moat against competition. Say Google "finishes" self-driving cars, stops needing to spend nearly as much money on researching/developing the software, and mostly has figured out scaling. It's now far cheaper for Google to drive around than Uber. They can easily charge less than basically everyone who isn't willing to spend billions developing self-driving cars.

Re: Next stop: Miami

#186

Post by Fricken »

Rebuff5007 wrote: post #134

I'm so curious about how the internal dev teams feeling about all this scaling. Four cities across 3 states -- surely there are differences in road signs, lane markings, emergency procedures, etc. Let alone the sheer volume of data of doing hundreds of thousands of miles ever week! Massive kudos to them if they are able to do all this without things being aflame on the inside...

Sundar Pichai recently claimed Waymo plans to be in 10 cities by the end of 2025.

Re: Next stop: Miami

#187

Post by mankyd »

1024core wrote: post #91
danielvaughn wrote: post #86

I’m sure they know much more than me and have thought this through, but it feels like Miami is an absolutely awful choice. Traffic is notoriously chaotic there. I’ve driven in LA, Chicago, NYC, Philadelphia, SF, Miami, etc. It’s by far the worst place to drive, moreso even than Manhattan.

But have you driven in Boston?

Nah. I live in Boston. I strongly prefer public transit, but I'll take driving here over most other cities, any day of the week.

The _road layout_ is awful, but drivers are pretty cooperative on the whole. Certainly more than my years driving in DC, for instance.

Granted, you need to be commmital here: if you put on your turn signal, drivers will generally make space for you to get in - briefly - but you need to be quick to take advantage of the gap. I could see Waymo being too slow to the draw for this, based on what I've seen online.

Re: Next stop: Miami

#188

Post by asdasdsddd »

timmg wrote: post #3

I wonder when they will be able to provide service in northern cities (that get snow). Once they can do that -- and (I guess) can prove profitable -- they could expand non-stop across the country.

They've been testing in Michigan for a while. I guess the only problem is that you can only test this stuff in a third of the year.

Re: Next stop: Miami

#189

Post by vel0city »

bedobi wrote: post #163
vel0city wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> trirail frequency increases can be done overnight Increasing the frequency can't necessarily be done overnight, unless they actually have the spare rolling stock just sitting around along with all the workers needed to operate and maintain the increased usage and the spare budget to cover the increased operations costs. Otherwise, they need to find the money to procure the rolling stock, actually place the order, w…

yeah, all of which can be done overnight

You can get expansions in funding approved, solicit bids from multiple firms to make the trains, analyze and approve the bid, get a factory to make potentially several to dozens more trains, ship them across the country (or potentially internationally), hire and train a lot of workers, in less than 24 hours?

Re: Next stop: Miami

#190

Post by asdasdsddd »

schiffern wrote: post #18
timmg wrote: post #3

I wonder when they will be able to provide service in northern cities (that get snow). Once they can do that -- and (I guess) can prove profitable -- they could expand non-stop across the country.

Anyone know the timeline for Waymo expanding to northern areas outside urban centers? Or are these underserved populations forever stuck waiting hours for an Uber that still cancels half the time?

People are clowning on you, but I think rural airport rides would be huge for waymo.
Post reply on HN