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Waymo granted permit to begin testing in New York City

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

#501
post #7

Man I love Waymo everytime I'm in SF. Truly feel like I'm living in the future when I sit in one

Biggest thing I'm excited for is knowing what the cost will be ahead of time Which Uber used to provide... Until they were infected with tipping. Hell, I will gladly pay more than I would've spent on a tip (20%) just to avoid the hassle.

Just don't tip then

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

#502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which state are you in? There are a lot of US states (like, more than 10) where cyclists specifically are permitted to go through red lights in some circumstances.

Riding a bike without a helmet is permitted in most states, too. Just because it’s lawful doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

That's a new and moved goalpost far from the original discussion, but sure.

Is there a specific state's laws that you think describe a circumstances when a bike may proceed through a red light, but it is unsafe to do so?

If so, how does that unsafety compare to your opinion on cars turning right on red?

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

#503

As a regular bike rider, I'd rather take the lane in front of Waymo vehicle than a human driver.

I would rather every vehicle be high quality autonomous than humans, I think if all cars could signal both their locations and intentions we’d probably never have accidents and save millions of lives

you could just stick a transponder in the car, but it would be very dystopian

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

#504

Once again, if you're going to test your self driving car on public streets, all data should be open and public. Car companies shouldn't be competing on how to prevent life-or-death incidents, they should be cooperating.

Forcing people to tackle the problem from different angles without sharing is the best way to avoid local minimum.

the local minimum is that any single company monopolizes self-driving cars, using the data as a moat.

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

#505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd bet accidents are more often than not mostly their fault. That's actually not true. Most surveys I've seen show that drivers are at fault ~80% of the time.

Surveys? “Yes I’ve been in an accident on my bike Mr. Poll Taker.” “What? Of course it was the other guy’s fault!”

No, surveys like where researchers show up to hospitals and look at the police reports for the injured cyclists.

Sorry if I wasn't clear in my wording. By "survey" I was trying to point to the specific kind of research methodology where you survey people about what has happened in the past instead of trying to control variables like in a typical experiment.

I wasn't talking about random internet polls or self-reported blame analyses, but actual research papers.

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

#506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same "alternative" that there is to every other crime in existence, proving the person you charged with a crime actually committed the crime. The default is suppose to be innocence, not guilty. It is the state's responsibility or problem to prove someone is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, not a citizen's responsibility to prove their continued innocence at all times.

I mean, the state obviously has photo evidence. So you need to show that either the photo was taken in error, that it misidentified your vehicle or that you weren't the legal owner at the time.

I got a couple of them like 20 years ago. Picture was terrible. I just through the ticket in the trash and never thought about it again.

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

#507
post #425

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…

No problem, in exchange I just ask that you pass safely (1.5m distance). Since that's not going to happen until hell freezes over, we're gonna have to settle on the current situation.

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

#508

I live in the bay and occasionally ride Waymo in SF and I pretty much always have a good time. I visited NYC a few weeks ago and was instantly reminded of how much the traffic fucking sucks :) While I was there I actually thought of Waymo and how they'd have to turn up the "aggression" slider up to 11 to get anything done there. I mean, could you imagine the audacity of actually not driving into an intersection when…

Tried Waymo in SF and LA, and the service was great. The only problem I noticed is that sometimes it tells you they'd pick you up in 5 minutes, and then when it's almost over they tell you "sorry, it's actually going to be 20 minutes now". Since it's still new technology, I always gave it enough buffer so it never actually was a problem for me, but they probably could do better than that... Another weird thing was it chooses strangest places to stop. E.g. I asked it to pick me up at the hotel once, and it drove right past the hotel way to the end of the block where by coincidence a couple of homeless people were camping. Not that it led to any problems, just weird, it could have stopped right where hotel had a convenient place for loading/offloading of people. Maybe eventually that gets sorted out.

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

#510
post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Complete unrelated, I just wish every driver on the road re-learn that cyclists have the same rights of being on city roads like cars.

Cyclists contribute to congestion and occupy road space that was created through taxes on motorists while paying nothing for these benefits. Cyclists are not licensed and their bicycles are not tagged or inspected for safe operation on roads, unlike motorists. Cyclists are rarely subjected to traffic law enforcement despite demanding all of the rights that motorists pay for and are licensed for. Cyclists are a danger…

> Cyclists contribute to congestion

How many cyclists can fit in a space of one car? Or, would you rather that every cyclist was in a car instead? Would that increase or decrease congestion?

> occupy road space that was created through taxes on motorists while paying nothing for these benefits

So roads get funded in full by motorists and cyclists can't possibly also own motorized vehicles and they don't pay tax that definitely doesn't contribute to the roads that they surely wear down at a rate that's not on the order of tens to hundreds of thousands lower than cars. Oh and 16 lane highways are built because of all the damn cyclists clogging up the roads.

> Cyclists are not licensed and their bicycles are not tagged or inspected for safe operation on roads, unlike motorists.

A cyclist on the road is only a danger to himself. A motorist can mow down a school trip on a pedestrian crossing on a whim.

The latter two points just repeat the above. Yes, driving a 2 ton machine at 80 mph is going to have be a little more restricted than a 20 kg bicycle at 20 mph.

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