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

Waymo in Portland

waymo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

391–400 of 607 posts

Re: Waymo in Portland

#391

Post by xnx »

nunez wrote: post #304

I've got to retract some shade I've thrown at Waymo when discussing Tesla FSD in the past. Like others, my biggest objection with it was their approach to scaling. Tesla aimed for the vision-only general solution with FSD, while Waymo held strong to its LIDAR-first geofence strategy. I held this opinion before using Waymo, as it wasn't available in my city (Houston, TX). I've used it several times after being invited…

This type of mea culpa is exceedingly rare. Credit to you for updating your opinion when presented with evidence, and publically admitting so.

Re: Waymo in Portland

#392

Post by cheema33 »

NitpickLawyer wrote: post #48
boc wrote: post #4

I've determined that my ultimate dream car would be something like a Rivian but with Waymo tech, so I can drive it manually when I want/need (snowstorms, off-road), but I can also let it drive me across the country at night while I camp in the back. Would absolutely change the way we move across the US, especially if you have hobbies that involve a lot of gear and equipment.

> something like a Rivian but with Waymo tech So a Tesla?

I bought a 2018 Model 3 that was later upgrade with HW3. I paid about $10K extra for the full auto-pilot. Elon back then said that eventually the car will come pick me up from the airport. That was a nice dream. Nearly 10 years later, my Tesla still cannot do that.

$10K for full autopilot on Tesla in 2018 was essentially a fraud. I have since then learned not to trust anything Elon says.

Re: Waymo in Portland

#393

Post by xnx »

nunez wrote: post #377
TheAlchemist wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's good to hear that more people are realizing that Tesla is nowhere near where they claim to be. For anobody observing it from the sidelines, it was obvious for the past 3 years at least, that Tesla will not achieve real unsupervised FSD with HW3, and now it's also obvious it will not be wiht HW4. It's also obvious they are very well aware of those facts, despite lying to investors and customers for the past 10 ye…

I stanned for them so hard. Oh well; live and learn. It's still the best autonomous driving system that you can buy, though now that Hyundai onlined their Waymo production line, needing a car might be a thing of the past in a few years. Maybe that's why they pivoted so hard into Optimus (at the cost of their auto division).

It would be a great thing if Tesla somehow pulled it off, but -short of a miracle breakthrough in AGI- it is not likely.

Re: Waymo in Portland

#394

Post by cheema33 »

I live in Portland. Took an Uber to the airport early in the morning. The driver was extremely reckless. Nearly wrecked several times. This has never happened before. We reported him. But, yeah, looking forward to using Waymo.

Re: Waymo in Portland

#395

Post by xnx »

troupo wrote: post #331
davidgay wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an extremely simplistic view. For instance, the US moves more of its freight (by percentage) than all western European countries except Switzerland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_usag...

Passengers are not freight. And freight is one of the reasons US railways suck for passengers.

Moving people by train in the US makes about as much sense as delivering pizzas by barge.

Re: Waymo in Portland

#396

Post by xnx »

troupo wrote: post #332
llbbdd wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is a very big, very spread out place. I'm not sure which country has trains that take you directly to your front door.

There are lots of potential high-traffic corridors, and the US is still incapable of serving them.

Hard to find an unserved corridor where train makes more sense than plane or car.

Re: Waymo in Portland

#397

Post by xnx »

cucumber3732842 wrote: post #372
JuniperMesos wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These also don't disappear if you replace privately-owned cars with buses and trains. You need paved roads to put buses on and track to put trains on, and they emit particulate pollution as well unless they're also electrified which is a similar problem to electrifying cars. Low-density residential sprawl is mostly water-inefficient because it allows people to have the ability to have a garden that they water, you do…

>Low-density residential sprawl is mostly water-inefficient Which is more or less a non-issue east of the Missouri river

Indeed, the root of many water problems is people wanting to live in the desert.

Re: Waymo in Portland

#398

Post by Schiendelman »

nunez wrote: post #380
Schiendelman wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the things I found when advocating for transit was that BRT cost savings in the US almost always come from reducing quality at stations, which loses public support faster than you save money. I found that voters are usually willing to spend far more on trains than on BRT, in excess of any savings.

Wow; that's surprising.

People vote with their gut. Their gut tells them that buses are terrible and trains are generally good. They're right.

Re: Waymo in Portland

#399

Post by Schiendelman »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #351
danaw wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how many people can fit in a bus compared to a car?

The OP you're responding suggested using Waymo's to help fill the buses, not get rid of buses.

I suggested both. Milk runs through suburban neighborhoods likely make sense to get rid of entirely.

Re: Waymo in Portland

#400

Post by xnx »

lelandbatey wrote: post #327
Silamoth wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least 80% of what you’re describing would be satisfied by trains and buses. It’s wild that Americans are so obsessed with self-driving cars while ignoring public transit that solves most of the problems. It’s reliable, more efficient, better for the environment, and less stressful for you. I’m not saying cars shouldn’t ever exist. The ‘last mile problem’ is a thing, and proper self-driving cars could be good for p…

The sad truth is the USA spends ~$150B/year building and maintaining it's road network (to say nothing of the inflation-adjusted costs that went into its initial roll-out). Source: The US Fed tracks it directly - https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/TLHWYCONS That's a $41/month subscription every citizen's paying no matter what. When we're pulling cash on that volume from everyone's pockets to build lavish infrastructu…

Seems like a bargain by comparison! Chicago is about to spend $1 billion/mile to extend an above-ground train line: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Line_Extension
Post reply on HN