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Waymo Layoffs

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Re: Waymo Layoffs

#61

Post by flatline »

meiraleal wrote: post #29
adrr wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They over hired during the pandemic.

If the problem was just that, the CEOs would be super happy. The bigger problem is that most big techs can't hold their absurdly huge revenue (with their crap services), much less grow it. At first they can cut costs to keep the profit high but then they are losing morale, revenue gets impacted more, brand gets affected. It is a downward spiral. It will only get worse when the fines start to come from every country t…

There is no clear path for growth. We have already written software for about every common need. The industry is finally somewhat mature, and it is hard to see how it is sustainable at this scale.

Re: Waymo Layoffs

#62

Post by fullshark »

blamazon wrote: post #23
duxup wrote: post #5

I can’t imagine three layoffs in a year is great for morale. Is there a reason they chose this sort of trickling layoffs approach?

Who needs morale? Fear and uncertainty are effective motivators.

For internal politicking and risk aversion sure

Re: Waymo Layoffs

#63

Post by smcin »

mjr00 wrote: post #55
smcin wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Translation: "limited city use in [selected] cities" seems to mean: - no driving on freeway with passengers (that alone is a huge limitation. You couldn't get to most major airports (in any sensible time) under that limitation. Add in trucks, rush-hour, ripple congestion, lane-splitting motorcyclists.) But presumably also, Waymo and Cruise don't want to pick an all-out war with human drivers working for Uber. Not yet…

And with all these restrictions on something as simple as intra-city transport, keep in mind the massive investment in autonomous vehicles 5-10 years ago was toward the ultimate goal of replacing humans in long-haul trucking and related logistics. Even if Waymo could place fully autonomous taxis into every city in America, that consolation prize wouldn't nearly make up for the shortfall of not taking over the logisti…

I haven't been following autonomous long-haul trucking, why is it "back to being a sci-fi pipe dream at this point"? Again, is that primarily a technology vs safety story, or is it a political issue due to organized pushback from sections that oppose it?

(also does anyone have current data on the viable market size of driverless rideshare vs driverless delivery vs drone delivery vs helicopter taxis vs autonomous long-haul trucking)?

> "Even if Waymo could place fully autonomous taxis into every city in America, that consolation prize wouldn't nearly make up for the shortfall of not taking over the logistics industry as was hoped."

I want to decouple discussion to what's actually technically and politically achievable (within say 5 yrs), versus whatever story Waymo was telling its shareholders 5-10 yrs ago.

Re: Waymo Layoffs

#65

Post by ajhurliman »

rnk wrote: post #3

Is there a conclusion that the taxi service kind of works and just needs to fix a few minor issues around the edges fixed to work in limited city use in many cities, or is it so far away it's not even close?

I use it frequently, I prefer it to human drivers. They’ve definitely nailed it.

Re: Waymo Layoffs

#66

Post by PopePompus »

mjr00 wrote: post #55
smcin wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Translation: "limited city use in [selected] cities" seems to mean: - no driving on freeway with passengers (that alone is a huge limitation. You couldn't get to most major airports (in any sensible time) under that limitation. Add in trucks, rush-hour, ripple congestion, lane-splitting motorcyclists.) But presumably also, Waymo and Cruise don't want to pick an all-out war with human drivers working for Uber. Not yet…

And with all these restrictions on something as simple as intra-city transport, keep in mind the massive investment in autonomous vehicles 5-10 years ago was toward the ultimate goal of replacing humans in long-haul trucking and related logistics. Even if Waymo could place fully autonomous taxis into every city in America, that consolation prize wouldn't nearly make up for the shortfall of not taking over the logisti…

Why is long-haul a pipe dream now. It seems to me that long-haul is a simpler problem than city driving. Did some insurmountable problem pop up that I haven't heard about?

Re: Waymo Layoffs

#67

Post by crazygringo »

Tempest1981 wrote: post #35
smcin wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Translation: "limited city use in [selected] cities" seems to mean: - no driving on freeway with passengers (that alone is a huge limitation. You couldn't get to most major airports (in any sensible time) under that limitation. Add in trucks, rush-hour, ripple congestion, lane-splitting motorcyclists.) But presumably also, Waymo and Cruise don't want to pick an all-out war with human drivers working for Uber. Not yet…

> southwestern and southern US (SF, ...) I never considered SF as southwestern, but Wikipedia says you're correct

I don't think so. According to:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwestern_United_States#Reg...

the southwestern US extends to the Sonoran and Mojave deserts on the west side.

It lists the largest cities of the southwest as Phoenix, Las Vegas, El Paso, Albuquerque, and Tucson.

SF is not in there...

Re: Waymo Layoffs

#68

Post by dymk »

flatline wrote: post #61
meiraleal wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the problem was just that, the CEOs would be super happy. The bigger problem is that most big techs can't hold their absurdly huge revenue (with their crap services), much less grow it. At first they can cut costs to keep the profit high but then they are losing morale, revenue gets impacted more, brand gets affected. It is a downward spiral. It will only get worse when the fines start to come from every country t…

There is no clear path for growth. We have already written software for about every common need. The industry is finally somewhat mature, and it is hard to see how it is sustainable at this scale.

> We have already written software for about every common need

lmfao

> The industry is finally somewhat mature

see above

Re: Waymo Layoffs

#69

Post by namirez »

IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #10
duxup wrote: post #5

I can’t imagine three layoffs in a year is great for morale. Is there a reason they chose this sort of trickling layoffs approach?

A friend of mine convinced me this was the FB strategy to get people to resign instead of needing to fire them (a costly, legal.minefield). As a founder, the act of paralizying the company to effectively "bleed the fat off the bone" while cost effective, is insane. Because nothing gets done during those low morale months. I refused to believe this could be a valid strategy. Then I was countered with: this org is alre…

Sounds like an urban legend. Doesn’t make any sense.

Re: Waymo Layoffs

#70

Post by preommr »

FooBarBizBazz wrote: post #64

Layoffs in what's supposed to be an emerging growth industry? Looks like a signal that the growth opportunity isn't actually there.

More like Google can't stop failing.

* They dropped the ball with LLMs and OpenAI

* They dropped the ball with VR/AR - mark my words, apple's vision pro is going to be incredibly successful. Apple doesn't miss, they manage to fully execute on ideas like the ipod, iphone, etc. that other companies know people want but can't fully deliver.

* Now they're going to drop the ball on potentially dominating the transportation market.

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