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We have decided to pause driverless operations across all of our fleets

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Re: We have decided to pause driverless operations across all of our fleets

#241

Post by lazide »

greiskul wrote: post #191
forgetfreeman wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You want to take a bite out of road deaths legislate a vehicle/phone interlink that disables everything but basic phone functions on smartphones while in the confines of a vehicle, then legislate center console infotainment displays out of existence. Miss me with the bullshit "AI drivers will usher in a new era of road safety", you can trap an AV with a fucking ring of salt on the road if you're clever about how it's…

> Miss me with the bullshit "AI drivers will usher in a new era of road safety", you can trap an AV with a fucking ring of salt on the road if you're clever about how it's arranged. :P How many people die when you do that? An AV stopping cause it encounters a weird situation is failing safe, and it is the correct thing for it to do. And yeah, they normally stop if you maliciously attack them. But human drivers also s…

When they cause a pileup? Non-zero.

Re: We have decided to pause driverless operations across all of our fleets

#242

Post by phire »

polalavik wrote: post #17
xnx wrote: post #12

This is a good move on Cruise's part. Cruise is still nowhere near the maturity level that Waymo was at when Waymo first started driving on public roads. On the other hand, we definitely need a real competitor to Waymo. It doesn't seem likely, but hopefully some combination of Cruise, Apple(?), Tesla, or another player will be able to have a feasible alternative to Waymo's Driver.

Out of all the tech problems to solve, driverless cars or driverless taxis has always baffled me. It’s a very complex thing to solve with a zillion edge cases. And for what net gain? What incredible inconvenience are we trying to solve? Lack of good public transit? Let’s solve that instead. Millions of cars driverless or not are not a great solution to anything.

Driverless taxies could actually be an integral part of a good public transit system.

Think about it as last-mile public transit. Shared driverless taxies (or call them dynamically-scheduled self-driving mini-buses) that take groups of people from pick up points within a few min walk of their homes to transit hubs with trains or express busses.

The last-mile is always a massive weak point for public transit outside of high-density areas. Such a system could entirely replace the scheduled bus routes that slowly meander though low and medium density housing areas (or don't even exist), while also providing much better transit times.

If the system is reliable and priced correctly, it could drive public transit adoption in areas where it currently struggles, and encourage many people in those areas to get rid of their car.

The other advantage of driverless car technology for public transit is extending service to night-time hours. Because that's a common short fall of current system. You could even switch your fleet of self driving taxies from doing the last mile during peek hours to running ad-hoc long distance routes during the night, where they might be cheaper than running a full train.

Re: We have decided to pause driverless operations across all of our fleets

#244

Post by xvilka »

nvy wrote: post #200
eldritch_4ier wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody bought a Tesla in the last 5 years because “I want fewer highway fatalities”, they often bought it because they thought the overhyped self driving features would let them chill out on their commute. People want self driving cars so bad because driving everywhere sucks (and sitting on public transit sucks too). Routine travel is mundane and boring.

Sitting on public transit doesn't have to suck, though. Have you taken the Paris Métro? Or the London Tube? They're totally fine experiences.

London Tube lacks AC at some lines, though they are going to solve this.

Re: We have decided to pause driverless operations across all of our fleets

#245

Post by lazide »

nvy wrote: post #200
eldritch_4ier wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody bought a Tesla in the last 5 years because “I want fewer highway fatalities”, they often bought it because they thought the overhyped self driving features would let them chill out on their commute. People want self driving cars so bad because driving everywhere sucks (and sitting on public transit sucks too). Routine travel is mundane and boring.

Sitting on public transit doesn't have to suck, though. Have you taken the Paris Métro? Or the London Tube? They're totally fine experiences.

They’re fine when it’s not packed rush hour and you’re sweating your ass off (Tube), or getting shaken down by grifters (Metro) anyway.

Which can be much of the time, but isn’t always for sure.

NYC subway is also nice when the buskers aren’t blaring music at 140db right next to you and daring anyone to confront them.

Still usually better than driving, depending on where you’re going. Sometimes even faster?

Women and children might not agree though.

Re: We have decided to pause driverless operations across all of our fleets

#246

Post by xvilka »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #221
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve ridden Chinese HSR trains…and I still needed to take a taxi to get to Beijing South and whatever was on the other end of my trip.

Agree. The location of Chinese HSR stations is terrible. Japan's are much more central.

They all are usually reachable by subway. And subway network in Beijing is top notch.

Re: We have decided to pause driverless operations across all of our fleets

#247

Post by shiroiuma »

kredd wrote: post #104
dangus wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It won’t take a century if there’s political will. China built a network larger than the rest of the world combined in less than 20 years. Yes, you heard that right, in 2007 there was only one high speed passenger rail service in the entire country.

I don’t like being a defeatist, but being anti-public transit, infrastructure investments, and inability to build public infrastructure is very well ingrained into American culture at this point. Countries like China and India call pull it off because government makes the decision for people. Would be a political suicide for any level of government to get up and say “we will take over the land as we see it useful and…

>Countries like China and India call pull it off because government makes the decision for people

India is a democracy, as is Japan where public transit is fantastic. Many European countries also have very good transit. The problem isn't the type of government, it's the people and culture political will. Americans just don't want public transit enough to build and live in cities where it would work well. Not driving everywhere in a car is unthinkable to most Americans.

Re: We have decided to pause driverless operations across all of our fleets

#248

Post by solarkraft »

coldtea wrote: post #236
Faaak wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unrelated, but what's the goal of obfuscating obviously known "bad" words ?

Some do it because others are offended if they see them in full print. Others do it because in many places you wont pass moderation without it.

I'm more offended by having to guess which word is meant.

Re: We have decided to pause driverless operations across all of our fleets

#249

Post by coldtea »

comte7092 wrote: post #161
DeIlliad wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think "a lot of places" is doing some heavy lifting. There are a few cities in the US that have a train that connects to the airport but not many.

I mean there aren’t that many cities with major airports either.

Who said "major airports"?

Re: We have decided to pause driverless operations across all of our fleets

#250

Post by _Algernon_ »

melling wrote: post #64
polalavik wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of all the tech problems to solve, driverless cars or driverless taxis has always baffled me. It’s a very complex thing to solve with a zillion edge cases. And for what net gain? What incredible inconvenience are we trying to solve? Lack of good public transit? Let’s solve that instead. Millions of cars driverless or not are not a great solution to anything.

“What incredible inconvenience are we trying to solve?” 40,000 deaths in the United States every year. Hundreds of thousands of costly accidents We can’t get great transportation even in the New York City area. We have 0 miles of high-speed rail, while China built 25,000 it’s great that you want to start building some mass transit, but it’ll take a century if we start now. Let’s start by having trains take you to the…

China certainly didn't spend a century building theirs.
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