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Waymo in Portland

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Re: Waymo in Portland

#201

Post by darrinm »

TheGRS wrote: post #190

I'm a little sad to see this because I'm moving northward to Seattle next month, I've lived in Portland proper for over 16 years, and Seattle doesn't have Waymo yet. Great timing lol. Portland will probably be a great testing ground for them because generally speaking you have a lot of tech curious and tech averse people here living together. When we got electric scooters there were both tons of people using them and…

They announced back in September that they’re coming to Seattle. https://www.king5.com/article/traffic/traffic-news/autonomou...

Re: Waymo in Portland

#202

Post by fsckboy »

starkparker wrote: post #127

For context, this is coming in as TriMet is laying off staff, reducing service frequency, eliminating bus lines, and cutting parts of light rail routes due to a $300M budget shortfall. The cuts were exacerbated by state Republicans getting a proposed payroll tax repeal onto the ballot next month; TriMet relies heavily on payroll taxes that are deeply unpopular among the self-employed and small business owners, so the…

>TriMet relies heavily on payroll taxes that are deeply unpopular among the self-employed and small business owners

just a point of clarification, the term "payroll taxes" refers to Social Security and Medicare taxes that are applied to your paycheck; you don't pay them, self-employed and employers pay those. Wage-earners do not pay them directly, but do collect the social security and Medicare benefits that they pay for later in life, so in that sense it's something of a deferred bonus to workers.

Everybody also pays income taxes which are a separate set of taxes, and they are equally hated by all.

"payroll taxes" are called that because they are applied to payrolls of people who pay payrolls. Payroll taxes would not pay for things like mass transit.

Re: Waymo in Portland

#203

Post by hitekker »

Seems like a hostile market for Waymo. Many Portlanders despise tech giants and are strongly anti-car & anti-AI, far more than SF. Not to mention Portland's political / governance / people problems already inclines the population to anger.

Re: Waymo in Portland

#205

Post by gigatexal »

Are they sure? Portland is a special kind of crazy. I can say this cuz I’m a native now living in Berlin. locals are going to trash the cars and do all sorts of damage.

Re: Waymo in Portland

#206

Post by lotsofpulp »

starkparker wrote: post #127

For context, this is coming in as TriMet is laying off staff, reducing service frequency, eliminating bus lines, and cutting parts of light rail routes due to a $300M budget shortfall. The cuts were exacerbated by state Republicans getting a proposed payroll tax repeal onto the ballot next month; TriMet relies heavily on payroll taxes that are deeply unpopular among the self-employed and small business owners, so the…

> The cuts were exacerbated by state Republicans getting a proposed payroll tax repeal onto the ballot next month;

An alternative view of this is the majority of voters are expected to reject a tax increase in the upcoming elections, in a state that elects a supermajority of Democrat legislators.

https://ballotpedia.org/Oregon_Referendum_120,_Increase_to_G...

Re: Waymo in Portland

#207

Post by cucumber3732842 »

whatgoodisaroad wrote: post #85
georgeburdell wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rideshare drivers can speed

once we've refactored humans out of driving, the speed limits can go way up

I don't think so.

Engineers design a road for 55. Police say make it 40 for $$ and pretext. Public says make it 60. Karen says make it 30. Politician says they don't care as long as Karen stops screeching, the public doesn't hate them and the police doesn't hate them. End result ->45

Refactoring the humans out would only change a couple of the less influential inputs to that equation. It might actually make it way worse if the public loses interest.

Re: Waymo in Portland

#208

Post by RoddaWallPro »

QuercusMax wrote: post #174
Noumenon72 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has it been shown that screaming drugged out homeless riders avoid the presence of crowds? Is there any physical mechanism where having more people on the trains leads to Daniel-Penny-like suppression of drugged out homeless riders? Or does "getting more people onto the trains" just mean removing their options until they are forced to ignore the drugged out homeless riders? As a solution, "get MORE people onto the tr…

Safety in numbers. There's a reason there's not an issue during the day and during heavy commute hours.

I'm saying it _is_ and _was_ an issue during the day and heavy commute hours, those were the only hours I rode it! Other places in the world with nice train systems do not burden their riders with "safety in numbers", the places are just plain safer, period. And a great place to start is Don't let people smoke fentanyl on the train :) (And make sure everyone has affordable housing and healthcare, ofc)

Re: Waymo in Portland

#210

Post by GuinansEyebrows »

xnx wrote: post #184
fhka wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also don't understand why people aren't more upset about the privacy issues. They have your whole travel data, your face, your voice, "private" conversations. And the people in the Philippines who can intervene in the "self" driving can comment on your bodily features if bored.

> your voice, "private" conversations. Waymo microphones are only activated when you contact support.

truly not trying to be snarky here but i don't understand why you would place this level of trust in an Alphabet Inc brand.
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