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

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

#411

Post by kannanvijayan »

dekhn wrote: post #213
pa7ch wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say the term pivot like its a startup founder who has every option in life. You should feel bad for anyone who would struggle for a basic job.

the history of humans on earth has been pivots, even amongst people who had few options. I don't subscribe to feeling guilty every time somebody loses a job. I feel empathy, but telling people to "feel bad" is not constructive.

In a society where having a job is, for that vast majority not in the non-gilded classes, the only mechanism by which a person can secure their core needs.. losing a job is indeed a pitiable situation for most.

If we've built a society that when it "pivots" leaves swathes of people smeared out as residual waste, I'd argue we should feel bad.

We've certainly reached a point of technological advancement where many of these consequences at the individual level are avoidable. If they're still happening, it's because we've chosen this outcome - perhaps passively. But the clear implication of would be that we're collectively failing ourselves, as a species that tends to put some degree of pride in our intelligence.

And we should feel bad about that failure. It's OK to feel bad about that failure. We tend not to improve things we don't feel bad about.

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

#413

Post by crazygringo »

jwagenet wrote: post #343
crazygringo wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having to take AirTrain beyond the terminals at all is annoying. LIRR should just go to JFK directly. AirTrain is slow as molasses, and the fact that it costs money is absurd. It works and I'm glad it exists, but it's nothing like e.g. the Paris RER connecting CDG. You generally never want to take A/E/J/Z because they're sooo much slower than LIRR, unless you live along them. Yes, LGA is far worse.

> the fact that it costs money is absurd Bart from SFO to downtown SF is about $11 due to a surcharge and the combined fare AirTrain + subway is also about $11.50. LIRR is a bit more expensive. The Paris RER is €13. I don’t see how the fare is objectionable. I personally appreciate the subway connections exist. Taking LIRR would require a subway transfer to most destinations anyway.

You're comparing apples and oranges. The LIRR already is the train ticket. I'm complaining about the fact you have to pay two fares. Using two different systems.

And like I said, you don't want to take the subway unless you live along its route, it's so much slower.

If you need to pay for the construction cost of the AirTrain, it should just be funded as part of the airport generally, because that's what it is. Charging for it is as silly as if you charged to take the AirTrain between terminals.

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

#414

Post by RivieraKid »

bsder wrote: post #401
bigstrat2003 wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is the fault of the person driving faster than the speed limit, not the person driving the speed limit.

Many people involved in car accidents are dead even though they were in the right. Motorcyclists can give you long lectures about this.

Driving at the speed limit will not meaningfully increase the chance of an accident.

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

#415

Post by RivieraKid »

roman_soldier wrote: post #336
ra7 wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can Tesla make its software autonomous enough to match Waymo?

Given Waymo are just now able to go on the highway which Tesla's have been doing for years they are already way ahead. Waymo won't exist this time next year they can't compete on scaling and price.

Waymo have been driving on highways 15 years ago in supervised mode. And 1 or 2 years ago unsupervised.

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

#416

Post by saalweachter »

bsder wrote: post #373
saalweachter wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It always blows my mind how aghast some people are at the idea of driving the speed limit . How dangerous they make it sound! My dudes, I have been driving the speed limit, even on freeways, for decades. Nothing bad happens. Your car doesn't explode. You don't instantly create thousand-car pileups. You get passed slightly more often than when you are speeding. You pass fewer cars. You get to your destination a few mi…

> Nothing bad happens. Until it does. The biggest problem in car accidents is speed differential . When you are not driving the prevailing speed, your speed differential is significantly higher and the accident will be worse than average.

> The biggest problem in car accidents is speed differential.

Yes: it is way more dangerous to slam into a stationary object going 80mph than it is to be rear-ended by an object going 80mph while you're going 65. Only a 15mph differential in the initial collision.

Also, it almost never happens, compared to vehicles losing control due to excessive speed.

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

#417

Post by Moomoomoo309 »

HPsquared wrote: post #335
onemoresoop wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No thoughts on pedestrians? With no traffic lights it'd be a total nightmare to be a pedestrian

You could still have pedestrian crossings with buttons etc which signal the cars to stop, just the same logic as we have now. Maybe even physical lights for redundancy. Pedestrians are pretty rare in most places though so this shouldn't slow things down too much.

And if the button doesn't work, what should pedestrians do?

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

#418

Post by potato3732842 »

jfim wrote: post #124
embedding-shape wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

It's easier to get from zero to something that works on divided highways, since there's only lanes, other vehicles, and a few signs to care about. No cross traffic, cyclists, pedestrians, parked cars, etc. One thing that's hard with highways is the fact that vehicles move faster, so in a tenth of a second at 65 mph, a car has moved 9.5 feet. So if say a big rock fell off a truck onto the highway, to detect it early a…

>But those also happen quite infrequently, so a vehicle that doesn't handle road debris (or deer or rare obstructions) can work with supervision

Rare obstructions are exactly where "supervision" fails because the reaction is needed faster than the supervisor can take over.

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

#419

Post by Grazester »

nradov wrote: post #112
cortesoft wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luckily this won't be a problem in Los Angeles, because traffic prevents you from ever going over the speed limit.

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.

Those mountain road around the area perfect for a "sports" car. BTW, there are sports cars(Miata,BWM M4,M2, Porsche, Supra, Nissan Z), super cars(standard Ferrari's, lambos,McLarens etc) and there are hyper cars(Pagani, koenigsegg, upper tier Ferrai's and McLarens).

No one in LA with money is buying a sports car to "flex".

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

#420

Post by xnx »

ericmcer wrote: post #60
prismatix wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a similar experience. A few months ago, I was in the city for a weekend and took Waymo for most of my rides. The one time I chose to use Lyft/Uber, the driver floored it before we even had a chance to shut the door or get buckled! The rest of the time we took Waymo. I rarely use ride-sharing but other experiences include having been in a FSD Tesla Uber where the driver wasn't paying attention to the road the en…

It must be interesting being an Uber driver right now and literally watching the robots that will replace you driving around with you. This has been a 15+ year process and will probably take a few more years. I don't feel too bad if they didn't manage to pivot in that time period.

> This has been a 15+ year process and will probably take a few more years.

In 1995 Navlab 5 completed the first autonomous US coast-to-coast journey. Traveling from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to San Diego, California.

The history is long, but the technology is finally here. Hopefully soon the technology will be everywhere.

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