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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

#251

Post by lazide »

xnx wrote: post #76
Foreignborn wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t follow why that’s the next best thing. It seems like making cars more convenient would induce demand (i.e. add more cars), opposite of what the parent comments desire.

My expectation (from what I know of Waymo's current behavior) is that cars will be perfectly safe and predictable road citizens, no more threatening or dangerous than a Roomba.

Which completely fails in any dense city because all it takes is one random pedestrian to cut you off - and you won’t be moving for hours. Because no one is going to yield if you don’t make them. And waymo won’t try to make them because that is how you get accidents.

There is a reason city drivers are aggressive, and it’s not just because they’re stressed out. It’s literally necessary to make any forward progress in many cases.

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

#252

Post by coldtea »

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…

>How many people die when you do that?

Depending on how you do it and where, potentially everybody in the car.

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

#254

Post by dreamcompiler »

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.

...except for the pickpockets.

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

#255

Post by wly_cdgr »

warbaker wrote: post #231

Reminder: the impetus for this is a person was thrown underneath the AV by a human-driven hit and run. The AV did not handle it well -- it should have stopped immediately, rather than pull over. But it's really important not to lose sight of the fact that this situation would have been completely avoided if both cars had been AVs.

Maybe. But it definitely would have been avoided if everyone was riding bikes.

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

#256

Post by shiroiuma »

mcmoor wrote: post #185
mathieuh wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re not the only one. It seems to me we should be trying to get rid of cars in favour of mass transport or two-wheel personal transport. Having personal transport in the form of cars makes little sense in cities where space is at a premium. Where I live, to get across the city on public transport takes 40 minutes and a bus change. I can cycle it in 20. Replacing human-driven cars with driverless cars is going to m…

Ah this is first comment on HN I see that ever acknowledged two-wheel personal transport. In Asian countries which have even denser community and worse infrastructure, it's practically the miracle answer. I'm actually a bit surprised when I discover that western countries just, doesn't use it at all, or if they do it's the big variant that's almost as space-filling as a car anyway. It's the densest we can pack people…

One big problem with two-wheel motorized transport is the emissions: motorcycles and scooters have horrible emissions. They're also really dangerous.

E-bikes are becoming really popular though, in some places. They're about the same speed as regular bicycles, but much easier and less tiring (/sweaty) to ride for most people, especially on hills. Here in Tokyo, every mother with small children has one now it seems.

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

#258

Post by shiroiuma »

dvngnt_ wrote: post #176
kdmccormick wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't need all Americans to give up their cars. We just need fewer people to drive in urban centers. Much of NYC, SF, Boston, DC and Chicago are already on board with this. They have been for decades. It's wannabe-suburbanites constantly driving through dense cities that's the problem, not Chuck from rural Maine driving to the town grocery store.

WMATA sucks. a car is extremely useful in the dmv. too many service interruptions, doesn't work late night, underfunded, homeless, getting robbed by youth

I used to live in DC and took the DC Metro countless times. I never had or saw problems with crime, though perhaps it was because I was usually in northern Virginia and not the southeast part of DC.

However, the level of service is not great; it takes too long between trains, it's really terrible later at night, and it just doesn't go that many places, so you need a car if your source or destination isn't close to the station or possibly a bus line.

I will give them credit though: they finally extended the Silver line all the way to Dulles, so you don't need to take a taxi or special bus there now.

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

#259

Post by EvertBouw »

selcuka wrote: post #128
melling wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“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…

> Let’s start by having trains take you to the airport directly… Why should trains be the only alternative to driverless cars? What is difficult about buying a few buses and start taking people to the airport, today?

Buses are useless if they get stuck in car traffic. They'd need dedicated lanes

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

#260

Post by idontwantthis »

nradov wrote: post #148
mrastro wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we (North America) had more walkable streets a lot of these problems would be solved: grocery stores are easier to place in population centers a short distance with less car and more foot traffic and you can rent a car for occasional "off-road" recreational driving. In terms of transportation and city design, the US could learn a lot from Europe if it weren't so addicted to cars. It's better for the environment, m…

No thanks. Even if Costco was only a few blocks away I wouldn't be able to carry that much stuff home on foot. I drive back with my car pretty much filled. The places where I go most often in Europe, people are nearly as car dependent as in North America. Get out of the big cities and you'll see how regular people live. And rental cars can't be taken off road. It says so right on the rental contract.

In a walkable environment you don’t go to Costco because you don’t need to cram two weeks of shopping into one gigantic trip that takes a long time. You can walk to stores for things you need when you need them. The “grocery bag problem” is a problem caused by cars.
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