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NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF

nytimes.com

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Re: NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF

#31

Post by mc32 »

Waterluvian wrote: post #18
_acco wrote: post #14

> My ride was so smooth, the novelty began to wear off, turning a trip to the future into just another journey across town. This is the only nod in the article to how futuristic and revelatory this innovation. The journalists sound so bored. I wonder if this is a function of how “around the corner” this tech has felt for so long? Have we somehow become jaded to this innovation before it has even arrived? Were journal…

It took just two moon landings for people to get bored. I don’t think you need a technology to be fully functional for people to tire of it. It just has to be in the news for enough years.

It's true for most people, but you also have fans who never get bored --and in the case of rockets to the moon would witness every launch, if they could --just as some people love watching planes take off and land.

Re: NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF

#34

Post by dekhn »

smlavine wrote: post #17

> The Waymo rides were affordable, ranging from $18 to $21 Goes to show you what world these journalists are living on that think that's totally acceptable for a five mile ride. I'll stick with public transit.

Have you ridden in the Bay Area? Public transport in SF is slow outside of a few routes.

A MUNI ticket is $2.50 for 120 minutes. I would gladly pay 10X that for 30 minutes if my train was timely, clean, and safe-feeling.

Re: NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF

#35

Post by paul7986 »

nwiswell wrote: post #8
jwr wrote: post #5

As a programmer, I won't put myself into that thing. I'm also not happy to be an unwilling participant in this experiment. Given the state of technology and our capabilities to write bug-free software (Seriously, we can't even get things like buying airline tickets correct), I think it's way too early to approve those vehicles on city streets.

It's significantly more absurd to permit highly distractable, slow-reacting meatbags to operate the multi-ton high-velocity death barges in the close vicinity of pedestrians and other meatbags-cum-death-barge-pilots.

Sure yet a human driver is not a device that can be hacked and then used as a weapon or weapons.

Re: NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF

#36

Post by ChatGTP »

_acco wrote: post #14

> My ride was so smooth, the novelty began to wear off, turning a trip to the future into just another journey across town. This is the only nod in the article to how futuristic and revelatory this innovation. The journalists sound so bored. I wonder if this is a function of how “around the corner” this tech has felt for so long? Have we somehow become jaded to this innovation before it has even arrived? Were journal…

It's a ride in a car, it's boring, even if it's driven by GPS and Lidar.

Re: NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF

#37

Post by ALittleLight »

dekhn wrote: post #29
ianlevesque wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, the safety bar set by human drivers is on the floor (and being run over by a "light truck").

Is it? """The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has released its latest projections for traffic fatalities in 2022, estimating that 42,795 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes. """ """The number of vehicle-miles traveled on all roads in the United States decreased by some 1.55 percent to approximately 3.17 trillion in 2022. " Ignoring some important details, that means americans drive 75 million…

Pedestrian fatalities are significantly up in recent years.

Re: NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF

#39

Post by zdragnar »

barbariangrunge wrote: post #21

But… why couldn’t we just build more and better trains?

Trains aren't a panacea for transportation. They work well in some areas, less well in others, and not at all in many.

You still have to get to and from the stations themselves, and the dependability of transportation arriving on time and proximity to your destination plays a big factor.

The metro area I went to college in had a light rail train that ran from downtown to a popular tourist destination. To get there, though, you needed to catch a connecting bus ride.

It is a 15 minute trip by car, but an hour by bus+train. If the bus ran late, it would actually be faster to ride a bicycle all 13 miles.

The metro area cities want to add more trains because it is the progressive thing to do, but ridership on one of the lines is abysmal, and the other lines aren't utilized as much as they could be because people feel unsafe on them and are disgusting- smoking cigarettes, drinking hard alcohol, food all over the floor, loud music, the occasional gang posturing or aggressive pan handling were all cited by locals in a survey as to why they chose to drive instead.

Re: NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF

#40

Post by User23 »

_acco wrote: post #14

> My ride was so smooth, the novelty began to wear off, turning a trip to the future into just another journey across town. This is the only nod in the article to how futuristic and revelatory this innovation. The journalists sound so bored. I wonder if this is a function of how “around the corner” this tech has felt for so long? Have we somehow become jaded to this innovation before it has even arrived? Were journal…

Driverless cars have never been even remotely as unsafe as early commercial passenger aviation.
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