Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco • Hacker News Board

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#431

Post by zamadatix » Wed, Jun 26, 2024, 5:51 AM UTC

foxylad wrote: post #363

How long before you have to stop and spend 5 minutes in a store on your route? Google is an advertising business, and can now literally drive traffic to your store.

The cost of the extra drive time would seem counter to that kind of thing vs just serving more drives. It takes next to nothing to e.g. show a business with more emphasis on Google Maps so cheap ads for emphasizing your business are palatable for customers to buy and Google to serve. I'd expect something more like that (recommended destinations, recommended side stops) where the showing the option and getting a decline has basically no impact to the operation but you still have a chance to get the bite anyways.

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#432

Post by cen4 » Wed, Jun 26, 2024, 5:52 AM UTC

forgetfreeman wrote: post #417

Schiendelman wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rate at which these systems are improving makes it almost useless to compare even six months ago.

Prove that. Because last time I checked in there wasn't a self-driving system in play that wouldn't faceplant into wet cement, blow through crosswalks, or find itself trapped in a cleverly deployed ring of salt. Additionally, by their own admission Waymo is nowhere near level 5 autonomy, which means they still haven't reached parity with what a mediocre human driver is capable of.

Not only will safety take a long time for technical reasons, but its extremely predictable under what financial conditions corporate execs sweep safety issues under the carpet. If Alphabet has a few tricky quarters good luck to everyone.

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#433

Post by zamadatix » Wed, Jun 26, 2024, 5:53 AM UTC

lopkeny12ko wrote: post #260

You can definitely feel the fear from Tesla's competition recently, just ahead of Tesla's robotaxi unveil on 8/8 :) * Uber CEO dumps $70 million of shares this week * Google tries to steal the Tesla's media thunder by opening Waymo to everyone * GM brings in new leadership to revitalize Cruise * Rivian gets a huge cash injection

"Rivian gets a huge cash injection" seems more like it belongs in the opposite list.

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#434

Post by nytesky » Wed, Jun 26, 2024, 5:55 AM UTC

itsoktocry wrote: post #215

prasoonds wrote: post #14

I highly recommend everyone try it out if you're in SF. It's an incredibly smooth and sure ride. The cars are really nice too (Jaguar I-Pace electric cars), clean and spacious. The first time you ride in one, it feels truly sci-fi. But within 5 minutes, you're almost bored of it - that's how good it is. If I had to choose between an Uber of questionable cleanliness and driver temperament and a Waymo with a slightly l…

I love how we've gone from "Taxis are gross and dirty, that's why I love Uber!" to "Ubers are gross and dirty, that's why I love Waymo!" in the span of 5 years. What do you think comes next? These cars are literally unsupervised.

Uber started as off duty black car drivers doing gig work. Those were the default right? The random guy with a car gig was rolled out as uberx later?

But I'm completely with you on the unsupervised part. People doing all sorts of things back there that an ML might not identify. Now if they hire an army remotely to monitor, I guess that could scale because of wage disparities.

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#435

Post by Ferret7446 » Wed, Jun 26, 2024, 5:55 AM UTC

iknowstuff wrote: post #381

pengaru wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So smooth they apparently opt to blow red lights instead of stopping abruptly. source: I commute by skateboard in SF daily. Just yesterday an empty Waymo cruised straight through a fresh red, narrowly missing my entry into the crosswalk. But don't get me started on what I've seen human drivers do on the same streets. Just annoyed that Waymo's aren't better.

I think it’s legal to enter an intersection on yellow and exit on red in CA. Thats why. Human drivers speed up to avoid red, and yay you avoided red but the suddenly higher speed is far more dangerous for everyone around.

Why would it be illegal to enter on yellow? I thought that's the entire point of yellow. Otherwise we'd just have red and green, and hopefully you can imagine how that would work out.

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#436

Post by Ygg2 » Wed, Jun 26, 2024, 6:09 AM UTC

itsoktocry wrote: post #215

prasoonds wrote: post #14

I highly recommend everyone try it out if you're in SF. It's an incredibly smooth and sure ride. The cars are really nice too (Jaguar I-Pace electric cars), clean and spacious. The first time you ride in one, it feels truly sci-fi. But within 5 minutes, you're almost bored of it - that's how good it is. If I had to choose between an Uber of questionable cleanliness and driver temperament and a Waymo with a slightly l…

I love how we've gone from "Taxis are gross and dirty, that's why I love Uber!" to "Ubers are gross and dirty, that's why I love Waymo!" in the span of 5 years. What do you think comes next? These cars are literally unsupervised.

Waymos ads are obnoxious and it keeps selling my travel data to everyone, I'll better get a car

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#437

Post by aeyes » Wed, Jun 26, 2024, 6:13 AM UTC

zooq_ai wrote: post #428

DannyBee wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"A fan-boy would never call Musk a narcisstic a*hole." FWIW - You definitely come off as as irrationally in favor of tesla, regardless of reason. Nobody missed any of your points, they just don't agree with most them or believe the rest follow from your points.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ffhD_dNzoM0 Any driver that makes this kind of move is typically in the top 5%ile of driving skills. Yes, it's an asshole and slightly illegal move, but the level of intelligence that needs to be applied for this move is all you need to know about Tesla's advantages. I have been extremely critical of Musk's reliance on only cameras, but I'm impressed with the progress they have made bec…

I'd say these drivers are in the lower 5%ile because what usually happens is that they now block two lanes or almost crash trying to go into the corner together.

It was luck that the left lane was moving and that there was space. I don't want to see this kind of move from a driverless car.

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#438

Post by gnicholas » Wed, Jun 26, 2024, 6:15 AM UTC

browningstreet wrote: post #419

gnicholas wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unsupervised in what sense? Unsupervised in the sense that there's no driver there to clean the car when it gets dirty. At the same time, presumably part of the odor of an uber comes from the driver, so that helps. I wonder if waymos roll down the window (weather permitting) between riders, to air it out. Might be dangerous at a red light, since people could throw stuff in or even dive in through open windows.

Or, maybe.. when the Waymo cars return to the depot periodically during the day. https://youtu.be/3QZ3e7mWD9E?si=CbP063vAtrnOTihp

Makes sense if they're nearby frequently, but if vehicles are serving larger areas, that would happen less often.

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#439

Post by qingcharles » Wed, Jun 26, 2024, 6:15 AM UTC

gumby wrote: post #359

Dr_Birdbrain wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if the cleanliness will be maintained over time? Presumably this requires humans to physically clean periodically, and it seems like this would suffer when the company starts to squeeze costs to improve margins.

I think eventually they’ll just make a car (like Zooks is) without all the messy crud (steering wheel etc) and with fixed, waterproof seats and such. It will be designed for automatic cleaned by driving into a depot and being hosed down. Think of those self-cleaning toilets.

Right. This is a prototype. You've got a whole empty seat not being used, and a steering wheel sat there baiting someone to play with it. The vehicle was never designed for the purpose for which it is being used.

I totally agree we will start to see very specific driverless designs that are very easy to clean.

Either that, or Johnny Cabs. I'm easy.

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#440

Post by solardev » Wed, Jun 26, 2024, 6:22 AM UTC

bangaladore wrote: post #102

aresant wrote: post #91

Genuine question -> - Elon (and his pro-analysts) heavily weight the future of the co's valuation on their ability to deploy a taxi network and has been promising it just around corner for years - Alphabet via Waymo seems to have "solved" robotaxis for city-proximity driving and has deployed as a business. Beyond the obvious "reality distortion field" argument is Tesla actually in a position to win here due to their…

The only selling point of FSD (Supervised) is that it (can) work "everywhere." This is because it only relies on navigation information and what the car can see. Waymo and similar companies all use HD Mapping. Ignoring the specifics, it can be thought of as a centimeter-level perfect reconstruction of the environment, including additional metadata such as slopes, exact lane positions, road markings, barriers, traffic…

The obvious question here is "why not both". Use mapping data where you can, LIDAR and other sensors where you can, and visual cameras when you must. There's no reason to limit yourself to just one input type. Elon claims that, sure, but it doesn't seem like a given at all.