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Waymo: Google's self-driving car company

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Re: Waymo: Google's self-driving car company

#21
post #6

At least they could have given a more up to date report on what they are doing. 7 years passed since 2009 and all we've seen is a couple of promo videos with scant actual information. We have no idea how they compare to Tesla or other self driving car startups.

[deleted]

Re: Waymo: Google's self-driving car company

#22
More business info in this Forbes article:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2016/12/13/googles-s...

TL;DR:

> “We’re now an independent company within the Alphabet umbrella,”

> Google is currently equipping a fleet of 100 hybrid Chrysler minivans with its sensors and computing gear that will soon join its nearly 60 prototype autonomous vehicles. The company hasn't yet disclosed when and how it will begin generating revenue from its efforts and Krafcik declined to discuss specific business plans today.

Re: Waymo: Google's self-driving car company

#24
If you look at the cumulative miles driven, the slope has a tendency to increase, as you'd expect as you added more cars to your fleet.

In 2013, though, there's a regression in number of new miles logged, and it took until 2015 to catch up to 2012 numbers. Can anyone give insight into the cause?

Re: Waymo: Google's self-driving car company

#25
post #6

At least they could have given a more up to date report on what they are doing. 7 years passed since 2009 and all we've seen is a couple of promo videos with scant actual information. We have no idea how they compare to Tesla or other self driving car startups.

"how they compare to Tesla"

Given that Tesla doesn't even have emergency braking and auto-steering, I'd guess they compare quite favorably...

Re: Waymo: Google's self-driving car company

#26
Obviously this vision is compelling. I'm confused by the decision of their prototype car to not have manual control overrides (e.g steering wheel or something similar). Air travel has been revolutionized with autopilot, but there are clear overrides for safety in case systems crash. I don't think we need to be wed to the pedal + wheel paradigm - but having a manual override option seems critical to safety.

Re: Waymo: Google's self-driving car company

#28
post #24

If you look at the cumulative miles driven, the slope has a tendency to increase, as you'd expect as you added more cars to your fleet. In 2013, though, there's a regression in number of new miles logged, and it took until 2015 to catch up to 2012 numbers. Can anyone give insight into the cause?

Probably a shift from testing mostly on the highway (which was the initial proving ground for the program) to testing on surface streets

Re: Waymo: Google's self-driving car company

#29
post #6

At least they could have given a more up to date report on what they are doing. 7 years passed since 2009 and all we've seen is a couple of promo videos with scant actual information. We have no idea how they compare to Tesla or other self driving car startups.

"how they compare to Tesla" Given that Tesla doesn't even have emergency braking and auto-steering, I'd guess they compare quite favorably...

Presumably one would compare Google's fully autonomous prototype against Tesla's fully autonomous prototype, not what Tesla is shipping now.

Re: Waymo: Google's self-driving car company

#30
post #6

At least they could have given a more up to date report on what they are doing. 7 years passed since 2009 and all we've seen is a couple of promo videos with scant actual information. We have no idea how they compare to Tesla or other self driving car startups.

"how they compare to Tesla" Given that Tesla doesn't even have emergency braking and auto-steering, I'd guess they compare quite favorably...

Tesla will have 100,000 prototypes being trained in shadow mode for a billion miles per year across the globe within a year. Tesla will compare quite favorably
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