Waymo in Portland • Hacker News Board

Re: Waymo in Portland

#601

Post by n8cpdx » Fri, May 01, 2026, 8:55 PM UTC

Ritewut wrote: post #594

n8cpdx wrote: post #572

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think density means? A mixed use neighborhood of apartments, condos, retail, and office is density. The only other categories are heavy manufacturing (which is harder to argue for) and single family homes, which are not dense by definition.

5,000 units of apartments is not mixed use so unless there is more to the story you're leaving out, this is not mixed use.

5,000 units can also be built alongside entirely too much office space and ground floor retail, which is mixed use.

I’m not sure if you’ve ever been to Portland but the predominant problem is still too much office and retail space (much of it empty) and not enough residential space; every apartment I have lived in and almost every apartment building I walk by day to day has vacant ground floor retail.

Re: Waymo in Portland

#602

Post by nunez » Sun, May 03, 2026, 3:46 PM UTC

xnx wrote: post #391

nunez wrote: post #304

I've got to retract some shade I've thrown at Waymo when discussing Tesla FSD in the past. Like others, my biggest objection with it was their approach to scaling. Tesla aimed for the vision-only general solution with FSD, while Waymo held strong to its LIDAR-first geofence strategy. I held this opinion before using Waymo, as it wasn't available in my city (Houston, TX). I've used it several times after being invited…

This type of mea culpa is exceedingly rare. Credit to you for updating your opinion when presented with evidence, and publically admitting so.

Thanks! It's quite unfortunate that Tesla was, indeed, yanking our chains this whole time. I've been on the FSD train since I bought our first one in 2020 and have been rooting hard for them.

If they were serious about being close to cracking FSD, they would double down on their auto business. Them killing their flagships (Model S/X) and investing their time on Optimus instead strongly suggests that they probably won't make it. (They did finally online their Semi production line, but I have my doubts on how well that will do.)

Re: Waymo in Portland

#603

Post by saargrin » Mon, May 04, 2026, 9:48 AM UTC

eklitzke wrote: post #404

sheept wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Self driving cars aren't the next stage of public transport; they're a bandaid solution to American urban design. They're still cars, so they still contribute to traffic and increased pavement wear, and I cannot imagine they'd be cheaper at scale than buses for storage/maintenance/cleaning.

A well run public transit system should obviously be cheaper at scale than robotaxis, but the incentives for Waymo (or Uber, or Lyft, etc.) are very different than the city's incentives. It's very possible that in practice private companies can operate more cheaply at scale than buses because they have much higher incentives to reduce costs and increase efficiency.

well run public transit systems usually still lose money

and thats a policy decision rather than a commercial one

Re: Waymo in Portland

#604

Post by saargrin » Mon, May 04, 2026, 9:53 AM UTC

badc0ffee wrote: post #449

starkparker wrote: post #127

For context, this is coming in as TriMet is laying off staff, reducing service frequency, eliminating bus lines, and cutting parts of light rail routes due to a $300M budget shortfall. The cuts were exacerbated by state Republicans getting a proposed payroll tax repeal onto the ballot next month; TriMet relies heavily on payroll taxes that are deeply unpopular among the self-employed and small business owners, so the…

I haven't been to Portland for years, but I remember it as being a transit-forward city, with several streetcar lines (one connected to an aerial tram), and decent light rail service covering much of the metro area. It sounds like they're going to leave that behind, at least for the foreseeable future. A $300 million cut will probably lead to a death spiral in ridership.

i remember trying to use public transport to move around portland from my hotel in the convention center area to the downtown and after sundown it was practically impossible

Re: Waymo in Portland

#605

Post by Ritewut » Mon, May 04, 2026, 1:50 PM UTC

n8cpdx wrote: post #601

Ritewut wrote: post #594

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5,000 units of apartments is not mixed use so unless there is more to the story you're leaving out, this is not mixed use.

5,000 units can also be built alongside entirely too much office space and ground floor retail, which is mixed use. I’m not sure if you’ve ever been to Portland but the predominant problem is still too much office and retail space (much of it empty) and not enough residential space; every apartment I have lived in and almost every apartment building I walk by day to day has vacant ground floor retail.

That is entirely because there is no land value tax so owners are incentivized to keep the space empty.

Re: Waymo in Portland

#606

Post by guywithahat » Tue, May 05, 2026, 5:45 PM UTC

UltraSane wrote: post #560

guywithahat wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I, independently, made almost exactly the same comment before seeing yours lol. I already do 20+ hour cross-country trips in my Y without a break to sleep, which is only possible because I'm not meaningfully fatigued driving. it's still technically supervised but I think that's beyond the point OP is making

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/04/self-driving-ca... My Tesla Was Driving Itself Perfectly—Until It Crashed The danger of almost-perfect tech

I don't disagree tesla's have been in accidents but FSD is provably safer than human drivers. My likelihood of crashing is a lot lower using FSD

Re: Waymo in Portland

#607

Post by chronolitus » Sun, May 10, 2026, 2:26 AM UTC

Silamoth wrote: post #62

boc wrote: post #4

I've determined that my ultimate dream car would be something like a Rivian but with Waymo tech, so I can drive it manually when I want/need (snowstorms, off-road), but I can also let it drive me across the country at night while I camp in the back. Would absolutely change the way we move across the US, especially if you have hobbies that involve a lot of gear and equipment.

At least 80% of what you’re describing would be satisfied by trains and buses. It’s wild that Americans are so obsessed with self-driving cars while ignoring public transit that solves most of the problems. It’s reliable, more efficient, better for the environment, and less stressful for you. I’m not saying cars shouldn’t ever exist. The ‘last mile problem’ is a thing, and proper self-driving cars could be good for p…

sometimes we do this thing where we pretend rail is super efficient, whereas in reality it's often more expensive than basically any other option, even in countries that do it well (e.g. Switzerland,Japan)

I love rail but it is a convenience / luxury mode in many cases, and should be complimentary to car travel, not replace it.