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GM self-driving tech unit Cruise laying off about 8% of staff

reuters.com

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Re: GM self-driving tech unit Cruise laying off about 8% of staff

#251

Post by awa »

dougmwne wrote: post #236
azinman2 wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess is when you're tired and just want dinner now-ish, you'll learn to value that nearby restaurant. It's not like restaurants are only viable because people don't know how to cook themselves.

You can quibble about a specific food, but I think the general point stands. Habits are powerful and they can change. Every adult in the country (world?) is now forcibly learning how to cook or practicing a few new recipes. It turns out that some of those recipes are delicious, dead simple and once you know how to do it, having someone else do it for you looses it's convenience factor. For myself: I love cappuccino a…

Supporting example: WE are making bubble teas with boba at home, takes about 10 mins and they are amazing and much cheaper and convenient than $5-6 that bubble tea places here charge.

Counter example: We basically rarely ordered delivery and preferred take-outs. However, due to the increased delivery usage recently we figured that since delivery costs are similar for a restaurant 5 miles or 15 miles out, we are getting food from restaurants further out than we would normally not go to as they were too much of a drive.

Re: GM self-driving tech unit Cruise laying off about 8% of staff

#252

Post by golemiprague »

economicslol wrote: post #128
djsumdog wrote: post #86

It's still keeping the self-driving unit thought, even though there's a good chance it won't ever be successful. I don't think self-driving cars are realistic at all. I bet if you did a study and ran the numbers, it would be cheaper to put down rail on existing roads and make them rail-car only, automate those and subsidize rail cars. I feel in the minority in thinking self driving tech will ever be viable. I've work…

>I don't think self-driving cars are realistic at all They said the same thing about a Computer beating a Human at Chess or Go, or Radiology, or countless other examples. I don't see why a random person on hackernews would be any more correct than any of the previous naysayers.

Because Chess is a closed limited system with strict rules which you can easily emulate and with enough brute power might even be able to calculate all possible cases. Go probably less but still a closed system with strict rules. Those we can usually solve as technology improves. Driving is an open endless system with no rules since people and nature might do any action at any time. That's why it is in a different level of difficulty. The next level is to give a machine some emotions. Improving within the same level of difficulty is foreseeable, jumping to the next level is matter of faith, you need to believe a breakthrough will come, but it might not, ever.

Re: GM self-driving tech unit Cruise laying off about 8% of staff

#253

Post by ulfw »

tomlu wrote: post #223
anyfoo wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain this more thoroughly? So the AI cannot itself resolve a situation that requires resolution within a split second, therefore it passes control (reliable, latency free?!) to a remote operations center where humans get to... assess the situation in order to remotely tell the vehicle how to react in time? I must have completely misunderstood, because I don’t see how any part of that plan is working?

The idea is that such situations are non life threatening. The vehicle will pull over and wait for a human operator. It's not crazy to imagine that computers could handle split second decisions better than humans but choose to bail out to the side of the road if there's something they can't handle.

There isn’t always a “side of the road” tho. (think tunnels, walls, Old Towns, busy city centres...)

Re: GM self-driving tech unit Cruise laying off about 8% of staff

#254

Post by newyankee »

rtkwe wrote: post #84
nabla9 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost 40 percent of those in households making less than $40,000 a year had lost a job in March. Tech sector has had it easy so far.

It's going to be a bit weird because a lot of those should come back because the underlying business didn't suddenly become nonviable.

People might very well use it as a reason to automate and layoff without the guilt that would have been stronger before Covid

Re: GM self-driving tech unit Cruise laying off about 8% of staff

#255

Post by gbin »

mattlondon wrote: post #107
djsumdog wrote: post #86

It's still keeping the self-driving unit thought, even though there's a good chance it won't ever be successful. I don't think self-driving cars are realistic at all. I bet if you did a study and ran the numbers, it would be cheaper to put down rail on existing roads and make them rail-car only, automate those and subsidize rail cars. I feel in the minority in thinking self driving tech will ever be viable. I've work…

There will be a large market/human-lives-saved benefit from the tech though, even if we never reach 100% self-driving autonomy E.g. it is pretty standard now that pretty much every car on sale has automatic emergency braking that tries to avoid running over pedestrians even if the driver does not see them, many (but not all I admit) cars have lane-keeping assist that automatically keep the car in the lane, and will a…

There is also the value of your time back when you travel.

Re: GM self-driving tech unit Cruise laying off about 8% of staff

#256

Post by beefalo »

staticassertion wrote: post #230
redis_mlc wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spare me. Most self-driving is done in warm climates, in a circle. These companies are amassing thousands of empty miles on the same streets every day to impress people who don't know any better. I lived on a branch of the main Google circuit, and often they were the only traffic for most of the day. Even saw three Google vehicles in a line, but two were more common. What's the value of "self-driving" with no weather…

I don't understand. There are self driving cars in SF. I saw one today. It is/ was raining. There was a driver, but I'm fairly certain that the drivers are not actively driving but are legally required to be there.

Last time cruise made a report about disengagements (where the safety driver had to take over) it was one every 5000 miles driven. That's 1 crash the car was prevented from every 5000 miles. Humans crash once per 70000 miles.

Re: GM self-driving tech unit Cruise laying off about 8% of staff

#257

Post by chii »

rosywoozlechan wrote: post #88
rtkwe wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's going to be a bit weird because a lot of those should come back because the underlying business didn't suddenly become nonviable.

> the underlying business didn't suddenly become nonviable They may have. We don't know when or if things will go back to the way they were before March 2020 and how consumer and employer behavior will change. For example, maybe movie theaters are completely screwed. Except as a novelty, the big business chains may not survive. Universal Studios is already pushing back on theater release windows and no live-action mo…

> Will the public feel safe enough to go back into theaters all at once before theaters run out of money as if nothing happened?

the need for theatres and cinemas have not disappeared. They will come back once the virus situation is under control (in say 2-4 yrs time, when vaccine is available). Therefore, the jobs will come back in 2-4 yrs time.

The companies will have been different - the old incumbents will have bankrupted by then. But that doesn't matter - as long as there is new investment, new companies will spring up to soak up the demand.

Same with office spaces. It's not like the need for office space will disappear indefinitely.

Re: GM self-driving tech unit Cruise laying off about 8% of staff

#258

Post by beefalo »

GCA10 wrote: post #191

Sample of 1, but driving alongside a Cruise car in San Francisco last year was absolutely terrifying. It was coming up on bicyclists going the same direction, ahead of it, and kept swerving back and forth by four feet or so, depending on whether it "saw" them or not. It was unable to either pass the bicylists or lurk back far enough that they could go about their own business. Meanwhile it disrupted the flow for all…

Cruise seems to use my neighborhood as its primary testing grounds. They drive slower than the elderly and are always braking unexpectedly due to any movement near the sidewalks.

Re: GM self-driving tech unit Cruise laying off about 8% of staff

#259

Post by eanzenberg »

rosywoozlechan wrote: post #88
rtkwe wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's going to be a bit weird because a lot of those should come back because the underlying business didn't suddenly become nonviable.

> the underlying business didn't suddenly become nonviable They may have. We don't know when or if things will go back to the way they were before March 2020 and how consumer and employer behavior will change. For example, maybe movie theaters are completely screwed. Except as a novelty, the big business chains may not survive. Universal Studios is already pushing back on theater release windows and no live-action mo…

Things are going back to how things were in March 2020 very quickly [1] [2]

As an aside, I’ve stopped being surprised with how out of touch and in a bubble HN posts are. There’s so much understanding of human nature out there that is missing here.

1. https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandrasternlicht/2020/05/14/...

2. https://nypost.com/2020/05/09/carnival-swamped-with-bookings...

Re: GM self-driving tech unit Cruise laying off about 8% of staff

#260

Post by marvin »

mikeyouse wrote: post #90
rosywoozlechan wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the underlying business didn't suddenly become nonviable They may have. We don't know when or if things will go back to the way they were before March 2020 and how consumer and employer behavior will change. For example, maybe movie theaters are completely screwed. Except as a novelty, the big business chains may not survive. Universal Studios is already pushing back on theater release windows and no live-action mo…

Right - we saw a lot of businesses lose 80+% of their customers before any shelter in place orders were mandated. In low margin places like bars and restaurants, it's highly unlikely many can survive with even 75% of their normal level of business.

That just means prices will go up. Nothing is certain, of course, but those prices are low mostly because of high competition, not because people are unable to pay.

There will certainly be a bit of both, but it's not like you won't be able to find a restaurant after the pandemic.

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