Earlier quoted context omitted.
Imagine your last thing in your mind being an ad about mongoDB.
It's kind of wild how you have so many ads targeted at devs in SF.
They know their market. :)
Waymo Safety Impact
291–300 of 424 posts
Re: Waymo Safety Impact
#292Earlier quoted context omitted.
Make sure to never be in a hurry to get anywhere because you might then get stuck behind a fleet of them going exactly the speed limit, grid locking you in.
Is this something that I’m too European to understand? How do you get “stuck” behind someone doing the speed limit?
On the stretch of motorway that I frequent in Italy, the speed limit is mostly 130 km/h, but the majority of people drive at about 100 to 110 km/h (including me).
But there are also people who drive in the left lane, who will tailgate you at 1 or 2 meters because you're doing 130 km/h. These people are idiots, but you get these sorts of people everywhere.
On American freeways, you don't have a choice, every lane is doing about 10 mph over the limit (or in LA way under) and it is disruptive or dangerous not to. These freeways tend to be running at full capacity so it actually makes sense since it improves capacity.
Re: Waymo Safety Impact
#293Living in SF (and dad of a toddler), this seems like a no-brainer. I can't wait for fewer human drivers.
I enjoy driving (basically) wherever I want to though. I don't want to have the freedom to go places determined by some faceless multinational, according to my subscription. Or via some "safety" regime.
Self driving doesn't mean forced self driving, there will always be a manual driving override. But your insurance may be more expensive.
Re: Waymo Safety Impact
#294Earlier quoted context omitted.
That could just be, and seems to be in some cases at least, because Waymo doesn't behave like a human would, and people gets tripped up. I don't doubt Waymos are very safe, but I always irk at these comparisons. Majority of human accidents are due to gross negligence and/or driving under some influence or serious fatigue. A system incapable of alcohol etc. is better than that? Well that is a substantially lower bar t…
> could just be, and seems to be in some cases at least, because Waymo doesn't behave like a human would, and people gets tripped up Driving conventions vary wildly across states and even within them. And foreign drivers are a thing. A human who gets tripped up by a Waymo acting unusually will also get confused by someone getting used to no turns on right in Manhattan, driving on the right side of the road if coming…
... no? That children, animals etc. acts differently everyone knows. But what about a self-driving car that looks the same as every other car?
Anyway, it was Waymos own findings when they started out. They got into more accidents, none of which where their own fault, than expected and realized that they had to make it behave more like a human to not confuse human drivers.
Re: Waymo Safety Impact
#295Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Unfortunately, the Waymo only supported Spotify and did not work with my YouTube Music subscription, so I was listening to an advertisement at the time of my near-death experience. 4.5 stars overall. This detail sent me, it's crazy that we can pay $25 to have a life saving robot take us across the city yet Spotify is going to blast ads at us the whole time for the sake of making an extra $0.18 (yes that's the actua…
That's around 44.64 (0.18 8 31) per month, no wonder ads are preferrable to companies over subscriptions! That's actually a lot for people that listen to music all day every day at work.
Google was famously really resistant to ads at first. They wanted to do a subscription service of some kind, but honestly ads just brought in so much more revenue even back then that it was a nigh-inevitable decision. It produces a crazy amount of economy.
I still loathe ads though.
Re: Waymo Safety Impact
#296Earlier quoted context omitted.
> swerving is more likely to make you lose control Even if you're not a panicky human but a optimally regulated control system?
The optimally regulated system doesn't know the road conditions that well. When the road surface is more slippery, it has the most profound effect on lateral friction, way more than braking.
> The optimally regulated system doesn't know the road conditions that well.
I'd like to introduce you to what autonomous cars were already able to do in 2018: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khX0UCqcR3M
Re: Waymo Safety Impact
#297Wow. >40% of their accidents have a speed delta-V of less than 1mph. They should just sell this thing as a kit to pop onto your existing car, with a major discount on car insurance. I’d buy it in a heartbeat if they can get it under $30k.
Re: Waymo Safety Impact
#298Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Italy several cities lowered the maximum speed from 50 to 30 km/h. There was a huge fight over it, car drivers in those cities were mad. Plenty of politicians opposed it. One year later stats were super clear: streets got way safer and the number of fatal accidents dropped to near 0. Time to traverse cities didn't change much, as it was already limited mostly by traffic and lights.
I think this ignores the argument the high speed limit people make which basically boils down to "sure some people will die or get injured but its worth it because driving faster is fun"
I’m absolutely sure people are just interested in shorter commute times rather than higher max speeds. That makes this an easy sell to citizens
Re: Waymo Safety Impact
#299Earlier quoted context omitted.
Waymo saved my life in LA. When I visited LA, I rode in a Waymo going the speed limit in the right lane on a very busy street. The Waymo approached an intersection where it had the right of way, when suddenly a car ignored its stop sign and drove into the road. In less than a second, the Waymo moved into the left lane and kept going. I didn't even realize what was happening until after it was over. Most human drivers…
> Waymo saved my life in LA. When I visited LA, I rode in a Waymo going the speed limit in the right lane on a very busy street. The Waymo approached an intersection where it had the right of way, when suddenly a car ignored its stop sign and drove into the road. > ... > Unfortunately, the Waymo only supported Spotify and did not work with my YouTube Music subscription, so I was listening to an advertisement at the t…
I believe it is, in fact, humor.
Re: Waymo Safety Impact
#300"For example, the current cities Waymo operates in do not have appreciable snow fall, and as a result neither the Waymo nor the human benchmark data include this type of inclement weather." I'm happy to see this acknowledged, and hope it's a sign that they appreciate the difficulties of winter driving.
Our sixth generation sensor suite is intended for winter driving: https://waymo.com/blog/2025/10/creating-an-all-weather-drive... for some nice visuals.
Ooh, that's a worthy challenge. Of course, I can imagine getting enough data on all of those cities and deciding to launch everywhere else but not Boston "because your roads are garbage and you all drive like you're impaired 24/7" :-)