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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

#461

Post by codeka »

bananalychee wrote: post #180
nutjob2 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a level 2 system, it can't be operated unattended. Your friends are risking thier lives as several people (now dead) have found out.

Wikipedia lists two fatal crashes involving Tesla FSD and one involving Waymo.

> one involving Waymo

Are you referring to the one where a Waymo, and several other cars, were stopped at a traffic light, when another car (incidentally, a Tesla) barreled into the traffic stack at 90 MPH, killing several people?

Because I am not aware of any other fatal accidents where a Waymo was even slightly involved. I think it's, at best, misleading to refer to that in the same sentence as FSD-involved fatalities where FSD was the direct cause.

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

#462

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #419

So how are they going to make left turns on two way streets with heavy pedestrian traffic? It is essentially impossible to accomplish that in NYC without skirting the law to turn on red or impede on pedestrian space.

I imagine that at least most of the time it's possible to just drive a different route that takes more time.

Is it not?

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

#463

Post by aetherson »

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.

Okay, that seems ultra relevant to the ~100% of bikes that routinely run red lights in San Francisco at fully trafficked intersections where the sensors are clearly already tripped.

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

#464

Post by amy214 »

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…

have you taken the maryland test? no road test. an obstacle course

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

#465

Post by DrewADesign »

ndileas wrote: post #360
DrewADesign wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People complain a lot about drivers in dense eastern states, such as Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, New Jersey, etc. but compare the traffic fatality statistics: https://www.iihs.org/research-areas/fatality-statistics/deta... Having grown up driving in these places, I can confirm that people drive a whole lot more aggressively, but what blows my mind driving damn near anywhere else in the country is how inatt…

This is an interesting point of view, and I think it intuitively makes sense. But it breaks down when considering people who block the flow of traffic by running red lights and clogging the intersection - that's just straightforwardly worse for everyone except the blocker.

People do that everywhere I’ve ever driven. Not getting in other people’s way is a core cultural tenet here more than most places but there are self absorbed jerks everywhere. Consider the vitriol unleashed on people that do that. It’s not acceptable.

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

#466

Post by wnc3141 »

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.

My aunt's leg was crushed by an NY Taxi blowing a crosswalk. As hard as her recovery was too the legal battle that followed.

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

#467

Post by lvl155 »

standardUser wrote: post #395
lvl155 wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok. I am glad you feel safe as a pedestrian but what does all that have to do with autonomous vehicles. I am native to NYC. SFO has 800K people. NYC is literally 10x the size. Nice comparison.

My point was clear - NYC is a more orderly place for a car to operate.

[flagged]

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

#468

Post by kalleboo »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #297
lysace wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sweden: Their locations are public. There is even an official API. They are mostly located in sane places. Apps like Waze consume this API and warn drivers if they’re at risk of getting caught. It’s the deterrence/slowdown at known risky spots they’re after, not the fine, I guess. I heard that apps warning drivers this way are illegal in Germany?

Aside: what's up with the traffic speed cameras in Sweden? It feels like they're not designed to catch anybody. In my recent drive there it seemed like most of the cameras were in an 80 zone just before it switch to 50 for a tiny town. They wouldn't catch a typical driver who does something like 10 over everywhere -- they would likely have already started slowing down for the 50. In my city in Canada, that camera wou…

The typical driver who does something like 10 over everywhere is probably not the biggest safety hazard.

When I lived in a small town in Sweden, the problem was that at night some drivers would blow down the country roads and straight through the small towns at crazy speeds assuming that there was nobody around. On some nights/weekends there were also zero police on duty in the whole municipality, they would have to be called in from a neighboring, larger, municipality.

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

#469

Post by hammock »

tptacek wrote: post #422
hammock wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one wants to risk a ticket with a guess at how long the yellow is going to be, or whether they’ll make it thru or not. That is the unsolvable part. Yellows are inconsistent , and you aren’t accounting for slow-moving traffic ahead of you that might cause you to block the intersection, etc. There was actually a scandal in Chicago were a study found that the city systematically reduced the length of yellows only on…

I feel like the subtext of all these concerns is that you'd need to drive very carefully to reliably avoid camera tickets... and nobody wants to drive that carefully. I get it, I don't either, and I do get occasional camera tickets. But like: I should also be driving more carefully.

Slamming on the breaks because you’re anxious about a yellow light is not careful driving. But that’s what red light cameras do

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

#470

Post by JumpCrisscross »

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.

> would adore to see obtaining a drivers license ratchet up in difficulty in order to remove dangerous human drivers from the road

A Manhattan driver’s license addendum might be the way to do it. Keep a low bar for where one might need a car. But to enter Manhattan, you need to be autonomous or specially licensed.

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