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

Waymo Premier

waymo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

411–420 of 561 posts

Re: Waymo Premier

#411

Post by runarberg »

ctoth wrote: post #393
runarberg wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I preemptively addressed this. Not providing access is a political choice. The airports/train stations/bus stations in both Denver and Florida should have assistants ready to guide you to your flight/train/bus and the Colorado government could have an agreement with Florida to share services with residents of either state. If they don‘t, there was a political choice not to, which can be changed. If there is no public…

Flight? I want to drive. I want to bring my cat and bring some stuff back from my dad's house. My parents just drove up here to visit me, I would like to do the same. Not take a train. Not take a plane. I want to hop in a robocar and drive to Florida. The same thing that every other person with a car can do whenever they want to. Freedom.

I have a hard time imagining how driving a car is freedom but hopping on a bus is not. In my mind a car is a liability in ways the bus is not. You have to insure your car, find parking, get a license, you cannot drive drunk, your license plate is tracked, etc. etc. vs. a bus which you can just hop in (as drunk as you want) fall a sleep or whatever and when you arrive the bus just drives away and you don’t have to think about it ever again in your life. For me that is true freedom.

Re: Waymo Premier

#412

Post by cucumber3732842 »

jefftk wrote: post #79
ihaveajob wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spread across a city probably more than you think, especially if you include parking tickets. I've never had a driving ticket, and maybe 4 parking ones over decades, but I'm probably on the lower end of the curve. In their first 40 days of operation, Oakland's speed cameras issued 82,000 tickets according to reports. I welcome those as they make streets safer, and I think they should be low cost, but high frequency.

I would expect tickets issued during the first 40 days to be higher than later, as people haven't adjusted yet

Or lower because the system is under public scrutiny and they don't wanna tune it for revenue just yet. Hard to say because nobody who makes such decisions gets that high in government by writing down their deliberation on such matters.

Re: Waymo Premier

#413

Post by seanmcdirmid »

paulryanrogers wrote: post #314
sterlind wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.)

In the USA where transit in most cities sucks? Seattle is supposedly one of the best but you can’t get to work downtown most days without being harassed by a fent zombie.

Re: Waymo Premier

#414

Post by seanmcdirmid »

laurencerowe wrote: post #384
runarberg wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a false alternative, because robocars do not exist, while public transit does exist but simply hasn’t been adequately implemented everywhere. Politicians (and grifters alike) like to point to a future technology to solve an existing problem only to delay existing solutions which they don’t want to implement, most often for political reasons.

Robocars most certainly exist. They’re probably about 5% of car traffic in San Francisco. I’ve not taken one yet (taxis/ubers/Waymos are mostly impractical with a young kid in the US as you must use a car seat unlike in most European countries) but as a pedestrian they seem mostly a safer than other drivers. As a driver I expect they will eventually induce gridlock but the city can always create more bus lanes.

Portable booster seats are pretty small. I can’t see it working if you have a kid younger than the booster seat min though. Only a few states have strict rules here, Washington and California being a couple, although I think California has a taxi exemption.

Re: Waymo Premier

#415

Post by seanmcdirmid »

culi wrote: post #361
saghm wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As always, relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1958/

Waymo was a target during the anti-ICE protests because of Google's collaboration with ICE. In addition, Waymo is seen as a symbol of the gentrification problem. Agree or disagree with it, my point is that that xkcd doesn't take into account political motivations

Protesters block human cars as well as the only difference is that the Waymo driver doesn’t get frustrated and are pretty patient. So protesters need to physically damage the car to make their point, which is a tricky proposition with all the cameras it has (but face masks are common on both sides these days).

Re: Waymo Premier

#416

Post by cucumber3732842 »

defen wrote: post #173
Rumudiez wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's crazy. my 2005 volvo, 1991 nissan, and 1986 toyota altogether cost me a little over $1k per year (mostly insurance) and it was less than $10k total to buy them all. goes to show average financial literacy in the US. people won't save a few grand for a used car (or take out a small loan even!) and then pay 10x the cost for new

How much liability coverage are you getting for ~ $100/month? In other words if you injure or kill someone with your vehicle how much of that cost will be covered by your insurance company? With Waymo the answer is "not my problem".

>How much liability coverage are you getting

Who cares? Liability coverage is only there to satisfy the state and little more IMO. If you do need it the counterparty will exhaust the limits of your liability coverage and call it quits. It is not worth it for the other guy's insurance to sue you unless you're a million bucks in the red.

Re: Waymo Premier

#417

Post by throwawaytea »

saghm wrote: post #365
throwawaytea wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a single woman has even asked or cared if I felt uncomfortable at a gas station at night, or ATM, or walking down the street. Yet data shows men are more likely to be physically assaulted and/or killed by strangers.

This framing ignores the fact that most people who commit crimes like the ones you mention are men. A man encountered in one of those situations alone is a lot more likely to be a threat, so I'm not sure why you'd expect that a woman would try to initiate conversation with him.

? I'm not saying women are supposed to chat up random men. I'm saying of the women I know well, not one has ever cared about the danger non criminal men face in the world. All they talk about is the danger women face.

Re: Waymo Premier

#418

Post by scoofy »

danielmarkbruce wrote: post #402
scoofy wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think toll roads is an interesting parallel. They are public works, often in states that simply can’t afford to build or maintain their own infrastructure. But the point remains. I’m not saying there is any wrong with the service, but I think it’s a worthwhile indicator of what life will be like as wealth inequality continues to accelerate.

they aren't public works.

The vast majority of modern American toll roads are. I grew up in Austin. We have the Mopac and 183 expansions, route 130 was mostly privately constructed, but is under TxDOT.

Perhaps other parts of the world have privately operated roads, but I’m not aware of them.

Re: Waymo Premier

#419

Post by Jblx2 »

nradov wrote: post #245
postalrat wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think sitting inside you will be protected if someone has a gun?

Obviously the Waymo Premier service should also include a nice handgun with the car.

Something classy like a Beretta 92 series?

https://www.beretta.com/en-us/product/92x-performance-defens...

...or something more retro-futuristic like an FN-90 to match the vibe of a self-driving EV?

https://fnamerica.com/products/rifles/fn-ps90-standard/

...plus you get the advantages of a carbine.

Re: Waymo Premier

#420

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

scoofy wrote: post #418
danielmarkbruce wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they aren't public works.

The vast majority of modern American toll roads are. I grew up in Austin. We have the Mopac and 183 expansions, route 130 was mostly privately constructed, but is under TxDOT. Perhaps other parts of the world have privately operated roads, but I’m not aware of them.

Australia is one of the top toll roading countries. Sydney had most tolled roads world record for awhile not sure who holds it now. I don’t know whether it is the state or private companies who operate them.

Since you live in the area, and are talking about toll roads, I assume you also probably know of the name Cintra, who are Spainiards. And Cintra is, in fact, a private toll road operator who has owned roads around Austin previously

Post reply on HN