Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin • Hacker News Board

Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#31

Post by xnx » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 4:14 PM UTC

NullHypothesist wrote: post #15

ra7 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not if OEMs don't have the technology. Making cars is the easiest part of self driving. Once you have the tech, you can farm the manufacturing out to many OEMs (like Waymo is doing with Hyundai and Geely) and then OEMs become the middlemen.

If Waymo continues to grow their OEM partner pool, then presumably they'd have a better ability to put cars on the road than Tesla. I'd say right now it's "advantage Tesla" but could easily see this flipped on its head if Waymo announces more partnerships soon. Could very easily see them partnering with major US automakers like Ford or Stellantis (lol maybe even GM, but that seems extreme)

> I'd say right now it's "advantage Tesla"

Tesla self-driving doesn't exist and will only work on Tesla vehicles if they ever develop the capability.

Waymo self-driving works now and has been demonstrated on multiple vehicles. Waymo could utilize the manufacturing capacity of the entire auto-industry.

Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#32

Post by throwawayffffas » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 4:15 PM UTC

xnx wrote: post #20

throwawayffffas wrote: post #16

> Starting today, riders who request an UberX, Uber Green, Comfort, or Comfort Electric could be matched with a Waymo fully autonomous all-electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicle – at no additional cost. That made legit laugh out loud. No additional cost? Are you for real Uber? It should be significantly cheaper.

Why should a totally private ride with a safe driver cost less than a ride with a driver who might be drunk, tired, distracted, reckless, and/or rude?

"Safe driver" while the Waymo won't be drunk, tired, distracted, reckless or rude. It may fail in many other ways, from software bugs, ML errors, to hardware failure.

Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#33

Post by xnx » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 4:17 PM UTC

askl wrote: post #28

NullHypothesist wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Got any better ideas?

For the US, no. For normal countries maybe investment in public transit.

Self-driving cars are modern public transit. "Train brain" is old thinking that public transit should take billions of dollars and decades to make fixed-route trains that only get travelers part of the way to where they actually want to go.

Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#34

Post by Arainach » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 4:17 PM UTC

hsnewman wrote: post #30

thefourthchime wrote: post #18

I've been riding Waymo in Austin for several months as an early. They service the central Austin area. In that area, they've generally been available within 5-10 minutes. The routes it takes are optimized for safety, if you compare the time of arrival between Waymo and Google Maps it's typically 20-30% slower to get there. Most of the rides have been without issue, but I have had some things happen: - It hesitated in…

Wait, you had to call service to "get out"? What if there is an emergency and you need to get out?

"get it out" where "it" is the Waymo vehicle - that is, the passenger could have (if safe) left the vehicle at any point but they encountered a situation where the software was unable to proceed and needed a human to control the vehicle

Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#35

Post by kentm » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 4:17 PM UTC

hsnewman wrote: post #30

thefourthchime wrote: post #18

I've been riding Waymo in Austin for several months as an early. They service the central Austin area. In that area, they've generally been available within 5-10 minutes. The routes it takes are optimized for safety, if you compare the time of arrival between Waymo and Google Maps it's typically 20-30% slower to get there. Most of the rides have been without issue, but I have had some things happen: - It hesitated in…

Wait, you had to call service to "get out"? What if there is an emergency and you need to get out?

They mean getting the car out of the situation, not them being unable to leave the car. Definitely a concern if the car is stuck and it’s unsafe to leave the car, ie on a busy highway.

Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#36

Post by GuinansEyebrows » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 4:17 PM UTC

xnx wrote: post #20

throwawayffffas wrote: post #16

> Starting today, riders who request an UberX, Uber Green, Comfort, or Comfort Electric could be matched with a Waymo fully autonomous all-electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicle – at no additional cost. That made legit laugh out loud. No additional cost? Are you for real Uber? It should be significantly cheaper.

Why should a totally private ride with a safe driver cost less than a ride with a driver who might be drunk, tired, distracted, reckless, and/or rude?

Do you not want it to cost less?

Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#37

Post by Swizec » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 4:18 PM UTC

hsnewman wrote: post #30

thefourthchime wrote: post #18

I've been riding Waymo in Austin for several months as an early. They service the central Austin area. In that area, they've generally been available within 5-10 minutes. The routes it takes are optimized for safety, if you compare the time of arrival between Waymo and Google Maps it's typically 20-30% slower to get there. Most of the rides have been without issue, but I have had some things happen: - It hesitated in…

Wait, you had to call service to "get out"? What if there is an emergency and you need to get out?

> Wait, you had to call service to "get out"?

In my SF experience, the car got stuck. Trying to leave my pickup spot into rush hour traffic and nobody would let it in. The car then called support and had a human driver do some city-appropriate aggressive driving to force its way into the lane.

> What if there is an emergency and you need to get out?

I could open the door at any time and leave. But was curious to see what would happen.

Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#38

Post by xnx » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 4:18 PM UTC

ra7 wrote: post #5

The only bummer here is that there's no guarantee of matching with a Waymo. You can set your ride preference to "increases chances" of getting a Waymo, but I wish there was an option to always get it if your ride starts and ends in their service area. It's a strange decision from Waymo to agree to this.

Maybe with the current limited capacity and mixed-service Waymo didn't want people making the false conclusion that Waymo wait times were longer than Uber wait times?

Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#39

Post by NullHypothesist » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 4:19 PM UTC

xnx wrote: post #31

NullHypothesist wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Waymo continues to grow their OEM partner pool, then presumably they'd have a better ability to put cars on the road than Tesla. I'd say right now it's "advantage Tesla" but could easily see this flipped on its head if Waymo announces more partnerships soon. Could very easily see them partnering with major US automakers like Ford or Stellantis (lol maybe even GM, but that seems extreme)

> I'd say right now it's "advantage Tesla" Tesla self-driving doesn't exist and will only work on Tesla vehicles if they ever develop the capability. Waymo self-driving works now and has been demonstrated on multiple vehicles. Waymo could utilize the manufacturing capacity of the entire auto-industry.

Oh yeah, I totally agree. Should have specified. That advantage only applies to making vehicles. In terms of driving, operation, and pretty much everything else, clearly 'advantage Waymo'

Re: Ride into the Future with Waymo on Uber in Austin

#40

Post by GuinansEyebrows » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 4:19 PM UTC

xnx wrote: post #33

askl wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the US, no. For normal countries maybe investment in public transit.

Self-driving cars are modern public transit. "Train brain" is old thinking that public transit should take billions of dollars and decades to make fixed-route trains that only get travelers part of the way to where they actually want to go.

How are self-driving cars public at all?