Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways in LA, SF and Phoenix

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

391–400 of 456 posts

Re: Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways in LA, SF and Phoenix

#391

Post by rgarrett88 »

qnleigh wrote: post #138

A lot of people rely on Uber and Lyft for supplemental or primary income, so this could be very disruptive if it continues to scale. Are we not worried about this in the medium-term? Also I appreciate many of the random human interactions I've had with Uber/Lyft drivers. Of course not every ride was great, but many drivers had stories and experiences that no one I usually meet would have. For me, the safe but bland e…

I prefer my clothes hand woven but it's so hard to find artisanal weavers these days. And the rate they want! Outrageous when other clothes cost next to nothing.

Re: Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways in LA, SF and Phoenix

#392

Post by jvanderbot »

Isamu wrote: post #363
jvanderbot wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a stupid process. It bothers me that farmers rarely own the land too. We can't shake our tendency to let wealth turn us into tiny little kings that live off the rent. (not so tiny in the case of farms, but you get it).

>It bothers me that farmers rarely own the land too You will be glad to learn that most farmland is farmer owned: https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/land-use-land-v...

I am glad to hear that. Thank you for correcting me.

Re: Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways in LA, SF and Phoenix

#393

Post by lacker »

mmmlinux wrote: post #28

I was in SF a few weekend ago and rode both Waymo and normal Lyft style taxi cars. the Waymo was a better experience in every single way. One of the Lyfts i was in drove on the shoulder for a while like it was a lane. The Waymos were just smooth consistent driving. No aggressive driving to get you dumped off so they can get to the next fair.

I was riding in a Waymo recently and it suddenly braked for no reason at an intersection where it didn't have a stop sign. I was like, what the heck, this Waymo is broken, it didn't see that the stop sign is only two way. Then a little kid on a bike riding along the sidewalk at an angle where I hadn't seen them just barely braked to a halt before riding into the street in front of the Waymo.

These things must be saving lives, it's obvious. When my kids are riding their bikes around I want the other cars to be Waymos, not human drivers.

Re: Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways in LA, SF and Phoenix

#394

Post by ramraj07 »

embedding-shape wrote: post #22
NullHypothesist wrote: post #2

This is a huge sign of confidence that they think they can do this safely and at scale... Freeways might appear "easy" on the surface, but there are all sorts of long tail edge-cases that make them insanely tricky to do confidently without a driver. This will unlock a lot for them with all of the smaller US cities (where highways are essential) they've announced plans for over the next year or so.

> Freeways might appear "easy" on the surface, but there are all sorts of long tail edge-cases that make them insanely tricky to do confidently without a driver Maybe my memory is failing me, but I seem to remember people saying the exact opposite here on HN when Tesla first announced/showed off their "self-driving but not really self-driving" features, saying it'll be very easy to get working on the highways, but th…

Everybody you replied to you made a completely different hypothesis but the waymo head itself mentioned why they waited on highways: on regular roads, if the computer fails to maneuver, you have an extremely simple, generally safe temporary solution: you just stop the car. Stopping a car is always kinda acceptable in regular roads. Its not an acceptable solution to undefined problems in the highway. This becomes important because in a Tesla theres still a requirement for a driver to be there to take care of worst case scenarios but in a waymo thats not true.

Re: Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways in LA, SF and Phoenix

#395

Post by [deleted] »

dzhiurgis wrote: post #364
jvanderbot wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a stupid process. It bothers me that farmers rarely own the land too. We can't shake our tendency to let wealth turn us into tiny little kings that live off the rent. (not so tiny in the case of farms, but you get it).

Medallion is an artificial scarcity. Land is actually scarce.

[deleted]

Re: Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways in LA, SF and Phoenix

#396

Post by razingeden »

ojr wrote: post #312
nradov wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hilarious to see people in LA buying sports cars. Like even if you're willing to risk a speeding ticket you won't be able to drive faster than the traffic in front of you. Just a status symbol, I guess.

traffic in LA never got back to pre-pandemic levels, maybe during the Olympics it will other than that after 9pm until 6am there's no one on the road, which is horrible for Ridesharing drivers, the demand is less and being taken by Waymo

waymo, and e-scooters for sure in LA

ive chatted up a lot of women who just feel safer with no driver and will pay more to get in the waymo. (which uber has tried to respond to by giving them a preference in driver gender.)

and some of them.. who dont really have waymo money.. really like getting on an escooter to up and get out of certain neighborhoods to do their errands or get to a job safely without being hassled on a 1-2 mile walk out of neighborhoods that rideshare drivers routinely cancel on.

now I dont take uber just because i resent how shitty they started treating me as a driver after about 7 years in with a 5.0. punishing me for stuff like prescriptions or food not being ready. i wont drive or ride with that company again. a lot of their problems stem from being left with people who are so desperate for a job theyll put up with anything that company does.

Re: Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways in LA, SF and Phoenix

#398

Post by fred_is_fred »

cleandreams wrote: post #397

I'm amazed no one brings up the obvious: the need for reactions that are reliable at high speed. There is no way I will trust my tuckus to a freeway driving Waymo for a couple of years.

I understand the sentiment- really, but I am not sure that most human drivers have reliable reactions at high-speed either.

Re: Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways in LA, SF and Phoenix

#400

Post by fra »

CPLX wrote: post #143
crazygringo wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is absurd, and it's a**hole behavior you're defending. You don't need to break any laws to get to where you're going, what are you even talking about? And you think that just because you're in a taxi you should get to magically cut to the front of a line of cars, made of the vast majority of New Yorkers who actually respect each other? What could possibly make you feel so entitled? And if you think waiting in li…

No, I don't think it's because you're in a taxi. I think everybody should try to cut to the front of the line. That's what everybody does in New York, and it works pretty well. It's pretty easy to understand what's gonna happen next. I've lived in New York for longer than most HN posters here have been alive, most likely. A couple of times a year, I'll end up in a car with someone who doesn't understand how this whol…

This guy ^ runs a conference on corporate values. You can't make this stuff up...
Post reply on HN