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Waymo granted permit to begin testing in New York City

cnbc.com

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Re: Waymo granted permit to begin testing in New York City

#451

Post by wccrawford »

simonw wrote: post #300
gibolt wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real issue is all the current bad drivers. A requirement to start re-testing normal people in addition to the elderly would be a large benefit to society.

I'm from the UK, took driving lessons in the UK but then passed my driving test in the USA (in California). The USA driving test is so much easier than the UK one! UK: Varied junctions and roundabouts, traffic lights, independent driving (≈20 minutes via sat nav or signs), one reversing manoeuvre (parallel park, bay park, or pull up on the right and reverse), normal stops and move-offs (including from behind a parked…

It depends on the area. My (rural) test was harder than your CA one. My test was easier than many of my big-city friends' tests.

But I've heard of areas that's it's easier, too, like your CA experience.

Re: Waymo granted permit to begin testing in New York City

#452

Post by cwmoore »

scyzoryk_xyz wrote: post #449
dbg31415 wrote: post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think it would be far more effective to make it easier to lose your license than it would be to make getting the license more challenging. For your system to work, there would actually need to be cops watching traffic. Since the pandemic, some cities just don't have as many police watching the streets as they used to. For example, there is virtually no traffic enforcement in Austin now. You see the results with h…

If only there were other ways of tracking and observing vehicle behavior. And some reliable way of identifying vehicles themselves. Or ways that we could automate this with computers to sort through. But that's just science fiction. Cars are just going to be cars!

It sounds like you have a problem with the police, ok? Step outside please.

Re: Waymo granted permit to begin testing in New York City

#453

Post by RainyDayTmrw »

afcool83 wrote: post #239

I live in one of the areas they are actively testing/training in. Their cars consistently behave better and more safely than most human drivers that I’m forced to share the road with. As semi-autonomous and autonomous cars become the norm, I would adore to see obtaining a drivers license ratchet up in difficulty in order to remove dangerous human drivers from the road.

Human failures have some, but not total, correlation with each other. A big fear of autonomous driving is some severe failure with total correlation - the whole fleet does the same dumb thing at the same time, in the same place, and/or in the same way.

Re: Waymo granted permit to begin testing in New York City

#454

Post by mkl »

nradov wrote: post #429
bathtub365 wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, including not being allowed to run red lights. It would also be great if they had license plates so you could easily report dangerous behaviour.

At some intersections the sensor loops literally never activate for bikes (especially carbon bikes with very little metal). If you don't run the red light then you'll be stuck there until a car happens to come along and trip the sensor for you.

So you dismount and cross as a pedestrian. I mostly cycle, and the lack of bike sensors at some intersections is occasionally annoying but not a reason to break the road rules.

Re: Waymo granted permit to begin testing in New York City

#455

Post by ripe »

Traubenfuchs wrote: post #225
thfuran wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to think bigger. Once we have separate lanes just for the waymos, we don't need them to be regular roadways. We can scale up the waymo even more and size the lane exactly to the vehicle, maybe even radically redesign the road surface for lower rolling resistance. What a future it will be.

By forming those waymos like aerodynamic bullets, they could reach ridiculously high speeds on those special lanes. Something like 200 mph should be possible. Maybe the waymos could be powered by overhead wires?

Now, sir, you're in pure fantasy land. Next you'll be asking for columns of them chained together to carry hundreds of people together, stopping at designated locations.

Re: Waymo granted permit to begin testing in New York City

#458

Post by hnpolicestate »

SnuffBox wrote: post #325
enricozb wrote: post #193

NYC is so dense it could be a bikers' paradise in the US. Why are we supporting even more car infrastructure :/

I hate to break this to you but outside of microscopic Reddit bubbles like r/fuckcars and similar, people generally don't have a problem with car infrastructure and cars as a whole and most people see cyclists as the vegans of the transport world.

HN loathes cars.

Re: Waymo granted permit to begin testing in New York City

#459

Post by Rudybega »

wan23 wrote: post #399
kenhwang wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People in LA wait to jaywalk on the street or even in the suicide lane all the time. The Waymos handle it fine; generally by asserting it has right of way unless collision is obviously imminent. They'll even happily swerve around you if you're too far out.

Pedestrians always have the right of way on city streets. Jaywalking is just walking.

This is what they tell you in driver's education to try and reduce the odds you hit pedestrians, but it's not legally true in most jurisdictions.

Re: Waymo granted permit to begin testing in New York City

#460

Post by msgodel »

dgunay wrote: post #425
Antoniocl wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How this issue skews probably depends on where you live, but in the area I live, I have the opposite complaint: that bicyclists should re-learn that they are legally required (in my city) to ride on roads, rather than barrelling down sidewalks. That said, this is coming from me as a pedestrian, so maybe someone who was primarily a driver would have a completely different take from both of us.

I don't personally care whether bikes (or scooters) ride on the road or the sidewalk, but my one ask is that: If they ride on the sidewalk, they should behave like pedestrians. That is, do not blast into the crosswalk at 20mph (impossible for drivers to safely check for in most environments), do not randomly enter the road from the sidewalk, pass pedestrians at a respectful speed and distance, etc. If they ride on th…

Yeah bikes and pedestrians can mix as long as speeds don't. Mixed use paths (like the W&OD in Reston VA) really need something like a 5 mph speed limit.
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