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Waymo Premier

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Re: Waymo Premier

#311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We do have people with real incentive to not allow self-driving cars to succeed.

I hope they succeed, for the sake of my mom who's legally blind and has dreamed about them for decades. but I'd be significantly more excited about self-driving if you could buy level-4 AVs that you can actually own.

Me too but this feels like a step in a progression to being able to rent/share them.

Re: Waymo Premier

#312

Does Waymo make a profit yet? This looks like them giving up on being the main robotaxi choice, Teslas will win on scale and cost per mile so they are going for the premium market. Not sure thats big enough to turn into profit.

Teslas also can't drive themselves so I doubt Waymo is worried much about them.

Re: Waymo Premier

#313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw a Waymo with safety driver driving around Boston a few weeks back. The concerning thing was just how much it backed up traffic getting off the freeway because they're not allowed to go any faster than the posted speed limit.

Presumably Tesla will not make this decision, it will be interesting to see how much consumers value faster ride times if Tesla FSD ever get their shit together

I think the important thing here is that driving faster hardly makes your trip shorter, especially for trips within a city. You're likely talking about a <1-2 minute difference even if the Tesla is driving recklessly.

Re: Waymo Premier

#314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We do have people with real incentive to not allow self-driving cars to succeed.

I hope they succeed, for the sake of my mom who's legally blind and has dreamed about them for decades. but I'd be significantly more excited about self-driving if you could buy level-4 AVs that you can actually own.

Are cars really the best option? Could other public transit serve the same purpose?

(I was once legally blind, still not a fan of cars myself. Though I understand the appeal when externalities are out of the picture.)

Re: Waymo Premier

#315
post #298
post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that xkcd is always funny - but there's a white lie in it e.g on motorcycles in areas where you are allowed to ride median. there's instances of drivers actively tryin' to kill you by swerving onto the median when they see you comin'.

It surprises me that any municipality would make that legal, seems dangerous.

It's actually safer-ish. First: terms. Filtering is good, involves moving slowly through stopped traffic between the cars, usually under 20mph differential.

Splitting is less good, that involves weaving between cars at speed and is actually dangerous.

Some of the worst accidents are rear endings where drivers (not paying attention) just run you over while stopped in traffic.

This is offset by accidents where people do the stuff you're worried about but when it's practiced correctly that's not as big of a risk and generally leads to less catastrophic accidents than rear endings.

It's also just kinda dumb to force a class of vehicle that can get out of traffic jams to instead sit in them

Re: Waymo Premier

#316

$30/mo is slightly mind boggling for this. I’ve enjoyed the ~70 or so Waymo rides I have taken but to me Waymo, Uber, and Lyft are methods of last resort. My feet, BART, and SFMuni are my primary methods of transportation and for $104/mo I can take an unlimited number of trips, usually very conveniently.

Don't tell me... you are a man? I guess so. How many middle class women and above want to ride SFMuni after dark? Few. The future of self-driving taxis is women (customers) who want to live in a big city, but don't want to ride mass transit, nor ride in a ride-hailing services (Uber, etc.) with a human driver... because most drivers are men.

Uber and Lyft both provide an option for women to request female drivers. In both cases, they say they can't guarantee it and that they may end up matched with a male driver. (In Lyft's case, they group "nonbinary" with women.) I suppose you could cancel if you see it's a man, and if that's rare enough, maybe that's workable. (Though, it seems, that would happen only if there aren't any female drivers available, and thus you'd have to fall back to other transportation.)

https://help.uber.com/en/riders/article/women-preferences-fa...

https://help.lyft.com/hc/en-us/all/articles/9030680293-Women...

Re: Waymo Premier

#317
post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bart seems much more cleaner and safer now than in years past. I don't know if free mental space is the main benefit of transit. During rush hour, you can't do much outside of listen to something, which you can do while driving too. Not having to deal with parking and the fact that driving is actually very dangerous seem like stronger points in transits favor. Fwiw, driving also has some negative je ne sais quoi for…

> Bart seems much more cleaner and safer now than in years past. Did you ride in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and (early) 2000s? It was fine. How narrow is your "years past"?

My point is Bart feels safe now and that it seems to be trending up not down. I am talking about the trend I have observed living in the bay area for the past 15 years. Why would not including the 70s in my window of comparison invalidate my point?

Re: Waymo Premier

#318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We do have people with real incentive to not allow self-driving cars to succeed.

I hope they succeed, for the sake of my mom who's legally blind and has dreamed about them for decades. but I'd be significantly more excited about self-driving if you could buy level-4 AVs that you can actually own.

Can I ask why you prefer that some future technology will solve her problem when actual solutions (such as access vans; public transit; etc.) already exist?

And before anyone points this out, if your local government does not offer these solutions that is a political choice of your local politicians. Plenty of local governments all over the world (even in dictatorships) are able to provide these, and changing the policy of your local government should in theory be easier then to roll out technology that does not exist.

Re: Waymo Premier

#319
The term "Lyft Pink" does not seem to occur in this thread yet, so I will simply point out that a car service with a recurring subscription cost is not unprecedented.

Re: Waymo Premier

#320
post #260
post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bart seems much more cleaner and safer now than in years past. I don't know if free mental space is the main benefit of transit. During rush hour, you can't do much outside of listen to something, which you can do while driving too. Not having to deal with parking and the fact that driving is actually very dangerous seem like stronger points in transits favor. Fwiw, driving also has some negative je ne sais quoi for…

Driving is actually not "very dangerous" if you're sober, not distracted, and driving a properly maintained modern car. Like most any activity the risk isn't zero but you can cut it down a lot. https://www.iihs.org/ratings/driver-death-rates-by-make-and-...

Drunk people hit sober people, most people get distracted sometimes, and oil changes don't make your car safer.

Driving is very dangerous compared than transit. It is not very dangerous compared to knife fights or getting cancer.

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