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Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

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Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#441

Post by chao- »

Muromec wrote: post #215
burnte wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In ATL this happens often enough that it's not a shock when it happens, we have lots of drainage problems here. I agree that I would have assumed Waymo had tested in events like this, but clearly not. So what I can say is running in ATL is a great test case for these events, and also the people who live here don't do a better job than Waymo did. There were dozens of people who ruined their cars yesterday trying to dr…

As much as one could expect waymo to train on it, one could also expect a functioning city to not have flooded streets

>one could also expect a functioning city to not have flooded streets

In some cities, certain streets are designed to flood during heavy rain, and are an integral part of routing the water away from neighborhoods and businesses, and into the drainage systems.

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#442

Post by Hnrobert42 »

acidhousemcnab wrote: post #440
dhbradshaw wrote: post #123

To me this doesn't seem like a disaster but just the kind of thing that happens as you role out a service and expose it to new challenges. Presumably they haven't had the chance to do a lot of flood training but now they have that chance. The huge advantage they have over people in general is that ideally if they figure this out then it will stay figured out. Then they can slowly role out and watch for the next hitch…

Sounds like they need to employ more "neurodivergents" to make these robots work correctly, before they are all Silent Greened, and it is only the CEOs left bashing each other's heads in with rocks.

I'm not familiar familiar with this expression silent green. Do you mean Soylent Green?

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#443

Post by acidhousemcnab »

Hnrobert42 wrote: post #442
acidhousemcnab wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like they need to employ more "neurodivergents" to make these robots work correctly, before they are all Silent Greened, and it is only the CEOs left bashing each other's heads in with rocks.

I'm not familiar familiar with this expression silent green. Do you mean Soylent Green?

Yes sorry, typo.

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#444

Post by Theodores »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #360
Theodores wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The option that doesn't exist in America is to get the bus. Before the pandemic I was commuting by bus and this meant an early start to the day, but not as early as what the bus driver had. The bus had its own community, so I had my 'bus buddies' and the journey would always be quick because of the social aspect to it. The bus drivers knew the customers and their needs. What the bus drivers had that is absent in robo…

> What the bus drivers had that is absent in robotaxis is working class pride. You lost me here. It is too much virtue signalling to bear. Did we also "lose working class pride" when factories became (largely) automated? We did not.

Sounds to me that you have never worked in your life. Virtue signalling, my arse!

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#445

Post by boxed »

Findecanor wrote: post #219

This is a classic case of: if the situation is not in the training data then the model is unequipped to handle it. We've seen the phenomenon before. We've been warned against the phenomenon before, and we'll see it again in other contexts in the future for sure.

This goes for humans just as well. Humans get stuck. That waymo paused their op to avoid bad press and then get bad press BECAUSE they were being careful is enormously stupid for everyone involved.

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#446

Post by jlebar »

contubernio wrote: post #394
robotresearcher wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are companies. They can invest where they please. Call your government reps.

They depend on public investment to build and support road infrastructure. If one accepts your point of view, these companies depend on massive government subsidies. Or perhaps they should pay for the construction and upkeep of the roads their vehicles use.

All companies (and indeed individuals) rely on and benefit from various public goods, such as roads, law and order, and an educated populace. They pay for these public goods through taxes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_good

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#447

Post by mschuster91 »

ethbr1 wrote: post #428
mschuster91 wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or in Florida's case, mandate hurricane ties on timber homes so they can't lift off their slabs. That doesn't mitigate much. The mass of a paper and matchsticks "house" just isn't enough to resist it getting torn apart - if not by the wind, then by debris. The only kind of structure able to survive a dead-on hit is steel bar reinforced concrete or very, very solidly built brick-and-mortar. But that is expensive to…

> The only kind of structure able to survive a dead-on hit... That isn't the goal, because the eyewall of a Cat 5 is minuscule in footprint compared to the surrounding wind bands. Consequently, most houses are going to have to deal with those winds, for which timber bolted to slab + properly secured to roof is perfectly valid. It's uneconomical to hurricane-proof all housing in Florida. It's entirely possible (and ha…

> It's uneconomical to hurricane-proof all housing in Florida.

Given the yearly news about record breaking destruction... I'd say it is uneconomical to build in Florida at all. The only thing keeping some regions (in addition to FL and other hurricane hotspots, add California for fires and potentially earthquakes) afloat is politicians bribing populations by promising government bailouts or by forcing insurance companies to offer coverage by law even if it is extremely expensive.

The amount of waste and human suffering generated because of these perverse incentives is staggering.

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#448

Post by burnte »

ehnto wrote: post #343
burnte wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In ATL this happens often enough that it's not a shock when it happens, we have lots of drainage problems here. I agree that I would have assumed Waymo had tested in events like this, but clearly not. So what I can say is running in ATL is a great test case for these events, and also the people who live here don't do a better job than Waymo did. There were dozens of people who ruined their cars yesterday trying to dr…

There is a pretty big difference between a citizen driving their car into danger, and a service provider driving their car into danger with you in it. You wouldn't accept that from a taxi driver either. Pausing the service is the right move.

I completely agree pausing service is the right move. I'm not defending Waymo. More laughing at my fellow ATLiens.

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#449

Post by BurningFrog »

lnsru wrote: post #401
BurningFrog wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Google can handle paying for any number of $250k cars to get a good share of the future of transportation. I expect that in 10-20 years, all cars will be self driving.

This was thought decades ago too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_Prometheus_Project Compared to 1994 we have now endless computing power and yet no reliable self driving car is available on the market.

My Tesla is quite reliable when self driving!

Re: Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

#450

Post by BurningFrog »

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #390
BurningFrog wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Google can handle paying for any number of $250k cars to get a good share of the future of transportation. I expect that in 10-20 years, all cars will be self driving.

I’ve heard that 10-20 years self driving spiel since Uber launched I was also promised that I’d be 3d printing my shoes and living in the metaverse and AI will make me magical new products All I really got was an endless social media feed

This argument proves too much. That some technical progress arrives slower than predicted does not mean no progress ever occurs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proving_too_much

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