Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods • Hacker News Board

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#21

Post by daveguy » Thu, May 21, 2026, 5:12 PM UTC

Jabrov wrote: post #12

VoidWhisperer wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While this is going to be an overly optimistic scenario: Imagine how smooth a hurricane evacuation would go if _everyone_ used a self-driving car to do the evacuation - atleast there might be less gridlock than there is during any usual hurricane evacuations. And assuming the self driving cars don't do something stupid that causes every car behind it to essentially lock up and stop moving That said, I know a scenario…

Why would there be less gridlock if people were in a driverless car instead of a regular car?

Well, probably not the current generation of driverless cars. Those would be a nightmare. Contrary to what some want to believe self driving cars do random shit all the time.

But in the future, if there is a coordination standard among driverless cars, that could allow much higher density at higher speed. Coordination standards + higher density of self driving should reduce the self driving cars doing random shit too.

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#22

Post by steveBK123 » Thu, May 21, 2026, 5:12 PM UTC

Aboutplants wrote: post #7

jvanderbot wrote: post #5

Snark aside, there will probably always be conditions in which waymo is not the right answer. Are they going to do hurricane evacuation? I think removing the driver just necessitates this.

Evacuation is a use case in my mind. Having a fleet of shuttles on command to move people in preparation of a hurricane would be a benefit. They would obviously need to put weather limitations during actual storms because no one should be driving in a hurricane.

Evacuation you want to prioritized throughput - think of how little road space 100 people in a bus take up vs say 50 cars with 2 people each. Or even 25 cars with 4 people each.

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#23

Post by radiorental » Thu, May 21, 2026, 5:13 PM UTC

ge96 wrote: post #15

paxys wrote: post #13

Driving through an obviously flooded street thinking "I'll easily make it" and getting stuck in the middle? Yeah, these cars have achieved human level intelligence.

Just get a jeep snorkle

[flagged]

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#24

Post by loudmax » Thu, May 21, 2026, 5:14 PM UTC

Jabrov wrote: post #12

VoidWhisperer wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While this is going to be an overly optimistic scenario: Imagine how smooth a hurricane evacuation would go if _everyone_ used a self-driving car to do the evacuation - atleast there might be less gridlock than there is during any usual hurricane evacuations. And assuming the self driving cars don't do something stupid that causes every car behind it to essentially lock up and stop moving That said, I know a scenario…

Why would there be less gridlock if people were in a driverless car instead of a regular car?

Ideally, robot drivers will some day be better drivers than humans in all road conditions. They'll be able to coordinate fast lane merges and busy intersections by subtly adjusting speed without vehicles having to stop.

Imagine a busy intersection where all the cars fly past one another at 40 miles an hour without stopping but none of them crash. Humans can't do this, but machines could, if, and when the technology gets there. To be clear, there's still a way to go.

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#25

Post by cucumber3732842 » Thu, May 21, 2026, 5:14 PM UTC

Clearly they haven't actually had any serious problems getting stuck or anything because it'd be all over the news.

I don't think they're barreling into foot+ deep water.

I think they're driving into shallower "perfectly navigable but still deep" puddles at normal for the roads speed and this pizza delivery boy type behavior is making passengers clutch their pearls because they are expecting their robotaxi to drive like a high end chauffeur.

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#26

Post by Eji1700 » Thu, May 21, 2026, 5:15 PM UTC

VoidWhisperer wrote: post #8

jvanderbot wrote: post #5

Snark aside, there will probably always be conditions in which waymo is not the right answer. Are they going to do hurricane evacuation? I think removing the driver just necessitates this.

While this is going to be an overly optimistic scenario: Imagine how smooth a hurricane evacuation would go if _everyone_ used a self-driving car to do the evacuation - atleast there might be less gridlock than there is during any usual hurricane evacuations. And assuming the self driving cars don't do something stupid that causes every car behind it to essentially lock up and stop moving That said, I know a scenario…

The problem is they're not designed for that. They aren't spending resources on some master control networking system because in 99% of use cases that won't be useful anyways as most of the traffic being dealt with isn't other waymo's willing to communicate.

There might be some level of adoption where they would, but honestly we're back to "but what about trains/trucks?".

Half the problem with evacuations is people don't want to leave behind their stuff to get destroyed. You'd basically be better off getting a fleet of semi's with some quick and dirty cube system thrown up than a bunch of automated sedans.

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#27

Post by ge96 » Thu, May 21, 2026, 5:15 PM UTC

radiorental wrote: post #23

ge96 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just get a jeep snorkle

[flagged]

Yeah was a joke as I think most cars if you drive through that your car is f'd

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#28

Post by VoidWhisperer » Thu, May 21, 2026, 5:15 PM UTC

Aboutplants wrote: post #7

jvanderbot wrote: post #5

Snark aside, there will probably always be conditions in which waymo is not the right answer. Are they going to do hurricane evacuation? I think removing the driver just necessitates this.

Evacuation is a use case in my mind. Having a fleet of shuttles on command to move people in preparation of a hurricane would be a benefit. They would obviously need to put weather limitations during actual storms because no one should be driving in a hurricane.

> No one should be driving in a hurricane.

I agree, but there are a number of people here in Florida who will do it or die trying (emphasis on the die trying)

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#29

Post by ghaff » Thu, May 21, 2026, 5:16 PM UTC

steveBK123 wrote: post #18

VoidWhisperer wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While this is going to be an overly optimistic scenario: Imagine how smooth a hurricane evacuation would go if _everyone_ used a self-driving car to do the evacuation - atleast there might be less gridlock than there is during any usual hurricane evacuations. And assuming the self driving cars don't do something stupid that causes every car behind it to essentially lock up and stop moving That said, I know a scenario…

I mean the logical conclusion is a dedicated lane for automated cars.. At which point we've reinvented privatized buses with a last mile convenience vs greatly reduced throughput trade-off.

Just take away the sidewalk and bike lane :-/

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#30

Post by thewebguyd » Thu, May 21, 2026, 5:16 PM UTC

cucumber3732842 wrote: post #25

Clearly they haven't actually had any serious problems getting stuck or anything because it'd be all over the news. I don't think they're barreling into foot+ deep water. I think they're driving into shallower "perfectly navigable but still deep" puddles at normal for the roads speed and this pizza delivery boy type behavior is making passengers clutch their pearls because they are expecting their robotaxi to drive l…

There was one in Atlanta that made the local news where it went too deep and stalled out, was stuck for over an hour.