Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco • Hacker News Board

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#81

Post by choppaface » Tue, Jun 25, 2024, 6:31 PM UTC

pengaru wrote: post #63

prasoonds wrote: post #14

I highly recommend everyone try it out if you're in SF. It's an incredibly smooth and sure ride. The cars are really nice too (Jaguar I-Pace electric cars), clean and spacious. The first time you ride in one, it feels truly sci-fi. But within 5 minutes, you're almost bored of it - that's how good it is. If I had to choose between an Uber of questionable cleanliness and driver temperament and a Waymo with a slightly l…

So smooth they apparently opt to blow red lights instead of stopping abruptly. source: I commute by skateboard in SF daily. Just yesterday an empty Waymo cruised straight through a fresh red, narrowly missing my entry into the crosswalk. But don't get me started on what I've seen human drivers do on the same streets. Just annoyed that Waymo's aren't better.

Have also nearly been hit as a pedestrian by a Waymo. I also last week saw a Waymo blow through a yellow-red very aggressively, so I think the downvotes on above comment are intensely biased.

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#82

Post by dventimi » Tue, Jun 25, 2024, 6:48 PM UTC

kungito wrote: post #77

dventimi wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would that be any different from Uber? Doesn't Uber also want to cut costs?

Uber has partner drivers which have their own companies, their own rating, and can be punished for their behaviour. Once a company completely vertically integrates (like Google would like), meaning they have their own cars, they no longer want to punish themselves for bad behaviour/cars. Since they have to choose between short term cost of higher maintenance fee or long term cost of loss of quality of service their m…

I didn't understand any of that.

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#83

Post by michaelbuckbee » Tue, Jun 25, 2024, 6:53 PM UTC

For anyone else curious about the exact service area: https://support.google.com/waymo/answer/9059119?hl=en

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#84

Post by longdustytrail » Tue, Jun 25, 2024, 6:55 PM UTC

lucianbr wrote: post #69

ra7 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assistance != taking over. It's driverless by definition because... there's no driver in the seat. The car is in control and is responsible for its safety at all times.

Regardless of the definition, I can't buy and own such a "driverless car" because I don't operate a supervision center with people available to "assist" the car. Whatever "assist" means. Nor can any company that's not large enough to operate the infrastructure. I'm sure at least some of the hype is in regards to people owning such "driverless" cars. It's driverless by definition because it does not have a driver, but…

Presumably if you own the car you can act as your own “assistant”

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#85

Post by hypeatei » Tue, Jun 25, 2024, 6:55 PM UTC

I can't imagine this turning out well if there is any social media movement around these cars. It's reminding me of that one robot travelling across the country which ended up getting destroyed by some people.

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#86

Post by MichaelNolan » Tue, Jun 25, 2024, 6:59 PM UTC

While it’s still a drop in the bucket compared to human driven taxis, it’s remarkable that Waymo will like reach 50 million passenger only miles this year. And will surpass 100 million passenger only miles sometime in 2025.

With that much data the safety case should become very clear.

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#87

Post by jebby » Tue, Jun 25, 2024, 7:02 PM UTC

hypeatei wrote: post #85

I can't imagine this turning out well if there is any social media movement around these cars. It's reminding me of that one robot travelling across the country which ended up getting destroyed by some people.

It will turn out well once the newness and novelty of messing with them wears off eventually.

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#88

Post by jessriedel » Tue, Jun 25, 2024, 7:02 PM UTC

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #83

For anyone else curious about the exact service area: https://support.google.com/waymo/answer/9059119?hl=en

To be clear: Waymo can take you to basically any address in those city limits, but it doesn't do so by taking the freeways like 101 and 280 that pass through it.

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#89

Post by blackeyeblitzar » Tue, Jun 25, 2024, 7:03 PM UTC

Is much known about the science behind Waymo? I am impressed that the cars can operate autonomously in real life when I see them around me. At the same time, they have an enormous number of sensors like multiple spinning LIDARs (?). I also read that they have to map everything ahead of time to be able to operate in an area. That seems a bit like cheating to me. It may work and may even be valuable to customers, but it doesn’t seem like as big a breakthrough as achieving autonomy with the same sensors as humans.

Re: Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco

#90

Post by greenthrow » Tue, Jun 25, 2024, 7:04 PM UTC

MichaelNolan wrote: post #86

While it’s still a drop in the bucket compared to human driven taxis, it’s remarkable that Waymo will like reach 50 million passenger only miles this year. And will surpass 100 million passenger only miles sometime in 2025. With that much data the safety case should become very clear.

Except that they have remote humans monitoring every vehicle so the whole thing is an illusion and we don't know the truth of how safe truly autonomous vehicles are (since they don't exist.)