But… why couldn’t we just build more and better trains?
NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF
21–30 of 348 posts
Re: NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's significantly more absurd to permit highly distractable, slow-reacting meatbags to operate the multi-ton high-velocity death barges in the close vicinity of pedestrians and other meatbags-cum-death-barge-pilots.
Why? We have what, like 50+ years of certainty as to how dangerous people are as drivers? They’re a known quantity and we know we can keep making cars safer to reduce the danger to drivers and passengers. Instead we’re going to YOLO a half-baked tech-bro fantasy onto the roads and hope for the best? Also “meatbags” has the same tone as “sportsball” imo.
> We have what, like 50+ years of certainty as to how dangerous people are as drivers
Yes, the answer is "very". Over one percent (1 in 93, National Safety Council, 2021[1]) of Americans will die in a car crash. That is insane.
The data so far is clear that autonomous vehicles are safer, and it isn't close.
> Also “meatbags” has the same tone as “sportsball” imo.
We're comparing humans to computers. Sue me.
[1]: https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/all-injuries/preventable-death-o...
Re: NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF
#23A concept I look forward to is not just a driverless car, but driverless "various size vehicles" from a 1-person car to a 100-person bus. In this future we could get the advantages of public transport and car-free living into rural and suburban areas, while in the city these systems could adjust and use AI to find optimal routes that are a lot less slower than current buses (or even trains that require 2 or 3 connections). All the while using electric and reducing energy per passenger and knocking over fewer cyclists :-).
Re: NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF
#24> The Waymo rides were affordable, ranging from $18 to $21 Goes to show you what world these journalists are living on that think that's totally acceptable for a five mile ride. I'll stick with public transit.
Compared to Lyft or Uber, that's a fine price. Those are its real competition.
Re: NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF
#25As a programmer, I won't put myself into that thing. I'm also not happy to be an unwilling participant in this experiment. Given the state of technology and our capabilities to write bug-free software (Seriously, we can't even get things like buying airline tickets correct), I think it's way too early to approve those vehicles on city streets.
Nobody expects self-driving cars to be bug-free-- why would we?
All that matters is, statistically, that the cars are better than humans at driving. And that's something that will eventually be achieved through a combination of software engineering, hardware engineering, and spending lots of money to build trust. Some number of people will still die in accidents even if the entire fleet is self-driving.
You might, if you do not already, find a like-minded crowd on the Risks mailing list, where they argue about 0.0000001% risks like "streetlights that turn green automatically when emergency response vehicles approach the intersection, fail at some rate because the designer didn't anticipate two emergency vehicles approaching the intersection at right angles" (which very very rarely causes an accident).
Re: NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF
#26> The Waymo rides were affordable, ranging from $18 to $21 Goes to show you what world these journalists are living on that think that's totally acceptable for a five mile ride. I'll stick with public transit.
[flagged]
Re: NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Clearly you're unwilling, but if you got in, wouldn't that make you willing? :-)
If you share the road with a self driving vehicle you’re part of the experiment.
If you are alive you are part of many experiments.
Among them being human driving, which hasn’t panned out well.
Re: NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF
#28> My ride was so smooth, the novelty began to wear off, turning a trip to the future into just another journey across town. This is the only nod in the article to how futuristic and revelatory this innovation. The journalists sound so bored. I wonder if this is a function of how “around the corner” this tech has felt for so long? Have we somehow become jaded to this innovation before it has even arrived? Were journal…
I felt this way too after my Waymo ride in Chandler, AZ. The ride to my destination was incredible, my family couldn't stop taking pictures and gushing when the car managed to deftly make turns and obey traffic.
The ride back from our destination we were just looking out the window and occasionally glancing at the car's 3D view.
Re: NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's significantly more absurd to permit highly distractable, slow-reacting meatbags to operate the multi-ton high-velocity death barges in the close vicinity of pedestrians and other meatbags-cum-death-barge-pilots.
Honestly, the safety bar set by human drivers is on the floor (and being run over by a "light truck").
Is it?
"""The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has released its latest projections for traffic fatalities in 2022, estimating that 42,795 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes. """
"""The number of vehicle-miles traveled on all roads in the United States decreased by some 1.55 percent to approximately 3.17 trillion in 2022. "
Ignoring some important details, that means americans drive 75 million miles before a person is killed. That seems .... awfully damn good to me.
Re: NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF
#30> The Waymo rides were affordable, ranging from $18 to $21 Goes to show you what world these journalists are living on that think that's totally acceptable for a five mile ride. I'll stick with public transit.
Do you have any concept how long it takes to go five miles on SF public transit? If both your stops aren't on a MUNI rail line, you've easily burned an hour.