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Lyft speeds ahead with its autonomous initiatives

techcrunch.com

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Re: Lyft speeds ahead with its autonomous initiatives

#51

Post by JumpCrisscross »

hcnews wrote: post #50
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> SDC is such a killer tech that whoever has it might decide it outweighs everything else and they can build their own app and get the users to come over I'm skeptical. This involves a tremendous capital outlay. Even if you solve that problem, you have to get the production lines running, logistical networks humming, and marketing gears going. Much simpler to buy or partner with one of the companies who have spent ye…

Masayoshi Son is happy to lend you billions of dollars if you have a working SDC implementation.

> billions of dollars

Production isn’t simply a throw-money-at-it problem. And in any case, if you can get billions to build you can get billions to buy.

Re: Lyft speeds ahead with its autonomous initiatives

#52

Post by mbesto »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #51
hcnews wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Masayoshi Son is happy to lend you billions of dollars if you have a working SDC implementation.

> billions of dollars Production isn’t simply a throw-money-at-it problem. And in any case, if you can get billions to build you can get billions to buy.

Mr Musk would like to have a word with you.

Re: Lyft speeds ahead with its autonomous initiatives

#53

Post by toast0 »

skywhopper wrote: post #43
yalogin wrote: post #8

Bear with me here, trying to come at this from the other end. Why do Uber and Lyft have to develop their own self driving tech? If what they sell is their routing algorithm for drivers, they can simply lease self driving cars from the companies directly and run them on their network. The car companies would be happy to get a cut of the profits. What advantage would they get by developing their own tech? They have to…

This is a silly game. If self driving tech can even work (questionable in the next few decades), it’ll immediately become a commodity. No such tech could be protected for long. There’s not going to be huge profits to be made once multiple players have self driving fleets on the road. And since unattended cars will inevitably become trashed, individuals will just buy their own self driving cars, and traffic will get t…

I can't imagine there won't be huge patent fights. Whatever is needed to make self driving work is clearly non-obvious or it would be done by now.

It may be the case of just throw enough ideas together and that works, in which case it may be effectively a commodity; everybody working on it has enough patents that cross-licensing works. Or it might be there's one key idea that makes everything work, and whoever files first controls it for whatever a patent lasts these days. Kind of depends which company owns that patent how it goes.

Re: Lyft speeds ahead with its autonomous initiatives

#54

Post by toast0 »

darawk wrote: post #39
lolc wrote: post #30

> In effect, every Lyft vehicle in operation today, with a smartphone on the dashboard, could be commandeered to become a “camera” watching, surveying and mapping the roads that those cars drive on, and how humans behave on them, using that to help Lyft’s autonomous vehicle (AV) platform learn more about driving overall. Another instance of the "more data is better" fallacy. Humans can drive cars safely after only fi…

> Another instance of the "more data is better" fallacy. More data is better. The fact that humans have better algorithms that need less data does absolutely nothing to negate this.

A small amount of the right data is better than lots of the wrong data. Collecting a lot of some data, because it's easy to collect isn't very helpful if it turns out to be the wrong data.

It would likely be more informative to instrument a few cars with some advanced sensor package and let well ranked drivers drive them around than to try to gather data from smartphones in existing cars, but I suppose it depends on what the end use is.

Re: Lyft speeds ahead with its autonomous initiatives

#55

Post by darawk »

toast0 wrote: post #54
darawk wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Another instance of the "more data is better" fallacy. More data is better. The fact that humans have better algorithms that need less data does absolutely nothing to negate this.

A small amount of the right data is better than lots of the wrong data. Collecting a lot of some data, because it's easy to collect isn't very helpful if it turns out to be the wrong data. It would likely be more informative to instrument a few cars with some advanced sensor package and let well ranked drivers drive them around than to try to gather data from smartphones in existing cars, but I suppose it depends on…

This is mapping data, not driving data. You need both.

Re: Lyft speeds ahead with its autonomous initiatives

#57

Post by avelis »

If I were Lyft I would be looking for an automaker acquisition. Specifically one with an EV program or willing to start one. I say this because once any automaker figures out self driving on an ev, the fleet rideshare aspect would be a negligible effort to add. Once that does happen Lyft would basically no longer need to exist. Maybe this move is what they are trying to do which is be acquired by Ford. Either I applaud there effort and look forward to what they achieve.

Re: Lyft speeds ahead with its autonomous initiatives

#58

Post by maged »

avelis wrote: post #57

If I were Lyft I would be looking for an automaker acquisition. Specifically one with an EV program or willing to start one. I say this because once any automaker figures out self driving on an ev, the fleet rideshare aspect would be a negligible effort to add. Once that does happen Lyft would basically no longer need to exist. Maybe this move is what they are trying to do which is be acquired by Ford. Either I appla…

Lyft is a 15B+ company. Neither Ford, nor any other auto company, has the cash to acquire them.

Re: Lyft speeds ahead with its autonomous initiatives

#59

Post by glibgil »

adrianmonk wrote: post #29
glibgil wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The government currently lets anyone drive until proven unsafe . Self-driving initiatives are really only adding a few "drivers" to the road. Uber acted like a drunk teenager and they are off the road now. This system works, but with occasionally horrific humane toll. It's called capitalism

It's not the only capitalistic way to do it. You could have private companies developing the technology but a government testing program to demonstrate some level of safety. That is what they do with impact crash testing. Private companies design cars, and then the government crashes some to see how they do in certain scenarios. But, the US government isn't taking this route right now, probably because they believe t…

> That is what they do with impact crash testing

Eventually

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

I stand by my assertion that this is just how capitalism works

Re: Lyft speeds ahead with its autonomous initiatives

#60

Post by glibgil »

asdkhadsj wrote: post #35
glibgil wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The government currently lets anyone drive until proven unsafe . Self-driving initiatives are really only adding a few "drivers" to the road. Uber acted like a drunk teenager and they are off the road now. This system works, but with occasionally horrific humane toll. It's called capitalism

> The government currently lets anyone drive until proven unsafe I mean, sort of - you can't drive unless you pass a test of safety. I'm not sure exactly how that fits your model of "until proven unsafe". Driving without a drivers safety course having passed, ie a drivers license is a serious offense.

> I'm not sure exactly how that fits your model

It only takes a written test to get a permit. You don't have to demonstrate safety, only knowledge of the rules of the road. You also need an adult over 21 years old to sit in the passenger seat. It is the lowest of bars

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