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Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation

bloomberg.com

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Re: Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation

#221

Post by Ajedi32 »

buellerbueller wrote: post #196
josu wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I wonder what will happen to the drivers if a large representation of the 1 million+ daily trips are displaced by automation? If it happens gradually enough, they will just find other jobs. After the transition, society will be producing more with the same labor force, and thus the aggregate utility will increase.

And the median wage will continue to decline, as the productivity gains are scooped up by fewer and fewer.

US median household income is at an all time high.[1] The pandemic caused a decline for a few years but it's recovered now.

[1]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/200838/median-household-...

Re: Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation

#222

Post by zamadatix »

wasmainiac wrote: post #63

Wow that is headline carnage. What does it mean? Edit: there is a paywall in my country. Why downvotes? I’m just curious.

HN in a bit odd when it comes to paywells. You're not allowed to complain about them and everyone reading is individually expected to figure out how to access the content (which usually involves finding a top comment linking to a workaround for everyone or the usual users all going with their preferred tools silently).

https://archive.is/Lh2QY

Re: Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation

#223

Post by seanmcdirmid »

Alive-in-2025 wrote: post #216
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So let's poach these people from the third world and...what about the third world? People can't just be made in factories like robots and self driving cars can. It seems inevitable that either we will have really sucky retirements (please die early grandpa, we can't take care of you!) OR (hopefully) automation will come to the rescue despite luddite protests.

Plenty of people from the third world are interested in moving, trying something new. We should all be free to try new things, but of course you he world isn't set up that way. Seems like we could match up dual needs. The western developed world is in the midst of a racist and fascist period, so not the best time to try this. We have competing changes, shortage of workers in many job areas in the West like the trades…

I'm all for immigration, but the world isn't producing enough people to make that a very viable long term solution. Eventually we have to reduce our demand for labor, especially when our civilization is lopsided for awhile with older people and not enough young people (a problem that will fix itself eventually as the old people die off, I guess).

I'm OK with robots driving cars like I'm ok with not needing an elevator operator anymore to use an elevator.

Re: Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation

#224

Post by guiomie »

belter wrote: post #212
jFriedensreich wrote: post #35

No product had such a fast transition from novelty to "omg i never want to interact with a human again". I feel about 100% less stressed and happier using a waymo or riding motorbike or bicycle next to a waymo than with human drivers. I hope this next phase will bring availability and prices down. We need this in europe.

Waymo is not solving driving , it is closer to a sophisticated Disney Parkland ride. It is running inside a tightly constrained Operational Design Domain: - Geofenced areas - HD pre-mapped roads - Curated infrastructure - Remote ops fallback This is not general autonomy, it is highend automation inside a controlled distribution. The system degrades exactly where humans do not: construction, unmapped lane shifts, poli…

Am I in the Tesla stock subreddit?

"Scaling that beyond a few mapped US suburbs into Europe is a totally different problem." If you consider SF and LA suburbs, than Europe is a suburb.

Re: Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation

#225

Post by vasilipupkin »

tfehring wrote: post #203
direwolf20 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taxis daily! In a country without trains, is that normal?

Driving to work is the most common way of commuting everywhere in the US except NYC. So in that sense, no, taking a taxi to work daily is not normal, just as walking, biking, and taking public transit aren’t normal. When I worked in San Francisco I took Caltrain to the city, but I took Waymo from the train station to the office. San Francisco, like almost all US cities, has poor local transit coverage. In my case the…

not everywhere in the US except NYC. People take trains in Chicago, for example.

Re: Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation

#226

Post by belter »

guiomie wrote: post #224
belter wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Waymo is not solving driving , it is closer to a sophisticated Disney Parkland ride. It is running inside a tightly constrained Operational Design Domain: - Geofenced areas - HD pre-mapped roads - Curated infrastructure - Remote ops fallback This is not general autonomy, it is highend automation inside a controlled distribution. The system degrades exactly where humans do not: construction, unmapped lane shifts, poli…

Am I in the Tesla stock subreddit? "Scaling that beyond a few mapped US suburbs into Europe is a totally different problem." If you consider SF and LA suburbs, than Europe is a suburb.

Would you address my other technical comments on what Waymo really is?

Re: Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation

#227

Post by tokioyoyo »

belter wrote: post #212
jFriedensreich wrote: post #35

No product had such a fast transition from novelty to "omg i never want to interact with a human again". I feel about 100% less stressed and happier using a waymo or riding motorbike or bicycle next to a waymo than with human drivers. I hope this next phase will bring availability and prices down. We need this in europe.

Waymo is not solving driving , it is closer to a sophisticated Disney Parkland ride. It is running inside a tightly constrained Operational Design Domain: - Geofenced areas - HD pre-mapped roads - Curated infrastructure - Remote ops fallback This is not general autonomy, it is highend automation inside a controlled distribution. The system degrades exactly where humans do not: construction, unmapped lane shifts, poli…

They’re currently testing them in weird ass tiny streets here in Tokyo. I have a feeling you haven’t been in a Waymo?

Re: Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation

#228

Post by enraged_camel »

belter wrote: post #212
jFriedensreich wrote: post #35

No product had such a fast transition from novelty to "omg i never want to interact with a human again". I feel about 100% less stressed and happier using a waymo or riding motorbike or bicycle next to a waymo than with human drivers. I hope this next phase will bring availability and prices down. We need this in europe.

Waymo is not solving driving , it is closer to a sophisticated Disney Parkland ride. It is running inside a tightly constrained Operational Design Domain: - Geofenced areas - HD pre-mapped roads - Curated infrastructure - Remote ops fallback This is not general autonomy, it is highend automation inside a controlled distribution. The system degrades exactly where humans do not: construction, unmapped lane shifts, poli…

Most of this comment was written by an LLM. There are certain tells, such as the tone, as well as usage of “ for quotations instead of the much more common ". I think you added the last couple of sentences.

Re: Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation

#229

Post by sib »

jezzamon wrote: post #42
doctoboggan wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't see an obvious way for Waymo to get enshittified. Oh ye of little faith! Here are some ideas off the top of my head, I am sure the suits at Google already have a bigger list. * Ads in vehicle * Adjust route so you see partner companies or billboards * Offering alternative destinations (I see you are going to Burger King, would you rather go to our partner McDonalds?) * Listening to conversations in car * Se…

There's all that, but you can just look at Uber for the classic model of how a company like this enshittifies, which is: - offer a service well below market rate, gain dependent customers - crank up the price No need to do much of the other stuff

Don't forget:

* Stop doing any meaningful in-person inspection of the vehicle to ensure that it is in good condition before joining the network

* Stop requiring cars to be * (Seemingly) stop requiring drivers to maintain trunk space free for passengers' luggage

Re: Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation

#230

Post by noncoml »

jFriedensreich wrote: post #35

No product had such a fast transition from novelty to "omg i never want to interact with a human again". I feel about 100% less stressed and happier using a waymo or riding motorbike or bicycle next to a waymo than with human drivers. I hope this next phase will bring availability and prices down. We need this in europe.

My anecdote: My wife had to literally have two drinks before here first Waymo ride. Now she doesn't want to use anything else other that Waymo when we can't drive ourselves, and totally agree with her

Having said that, Uber was amazing experience when it started too, now it's on par with cabs.

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