4 ms·

Yeah, but when you sell them to the public, you can't stop people from driving into other states or areas where conditions are less favorable; which I think is

Yeah, but when you sell them to the public, you can't stop people from driving into other states or areas where conditions are less favorable; which I think is relevant and applicable to their original argument that actually having self-driving cars out in the market is further out than what the industry is saying. But yeah, in relation to the Early Rider program, that's probably one of the reasons you must apply. They were asked what they thought of the program, and my interpretation of their response (not putting words in their mouth, but as I understood it) would be along the lines of, "Must be a controlled trial, since their technology is likely far from being able to handle anything outside of favorable environments."

vthallam 9y ago
At least for Waymo, the biggest use case is to test the rideshare program with driverless cars with Waze aka a driverless Uber. They can apparently operate in specific cities first, start to monetize and figure out extreme weather conditions and edge cases.
- praneshp 9y ago
  This was the point I was making. The first gen can just be rideshare (vs buy the car).
  - sagarm 9y ago
    IMO self driving car ownership won't be cost competitive with ride-sharing/tncs. Why would a car that can drive itself be idle 95% of the time?
    - praneshp 9y ago
      Self driving cars would still suffer deprecation, wear and tear etc relative to miles driven. I don't see how self-driving will directly change any of those.
- JangoSteve 9y ago
  This and the other replies are all valid points, and further illustrate the larger picture of the process involved in getting self-driving cars to the market.
maxerickson 9y ago
You can stop the self driving features from working in some geographic areas. GM is launching an enhanced cruise control that only works on limited access highways. They lidar mapped all the limited access highways in the US and Canada for the system.
- gregmac 9y ago
  What does it do? The major highways are under nearly constant construction, not to mention sometimes there are accidents, lane closures, and other obstructions in the roadway. I am curious what would need the accuracy of a LIDAR map but is okay with one that's not realtime (and possibly wildly inaccurate).
  - maxerickson 9y ago
    The only thing I'm sure they use the map for is limiting the feature. They probably also extracted features like bridge abutments (where they might show up as a potential obstruction to the sensors). The system is just a hands free cruise control, it still has an attention monitor and won't even do things like switch lanes: http://www.cadillac.com/world-of-cadillac/innovation/super-cruise.html http://www.cadillac.com/world-of-cadillac/innovation/super-c...
rorykoehler 9y ago
You don't need to sell them to the public. City specific Taxis are still a worthwhile investment
tw04 9y ago
>Yeah, but when you sell them to the public, you can't stop people from driving into other states or areas where conditions are less favorable; which I think is relevant and applicable to their original argument that actually having self-driving cars out in the market is further out than what the industry is saying. You actually can. For instance - radar detectors are legal in some states and not others. If you cross that state line you can be pulled over and cited immediately. Or to go one step further, you could be driving a truck carrying a load that's perfectly legal in the state you left, cross state lines, and be stopped: https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/policy/rpt_congress/truck_sw_laws/app_a.htm#pa https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/policy/rpt_congress/truck_s...

vthallam 9y ago

At least for Waymo, the biggest use case is to test the rideshare program with driverless cars with Waze aka a driverless Uber. They can apparently operate in specific cities first, start to monetize and figure out extreme weather conditions and edge cases.

praneshp 9y ago
This was the point I was making. The first gen can just be rideshare (vs buy the car).
- sagarm 9y ago
  IMO self driving car ownership won't be cost competitive with ride-sharing/tncs. Why would a car that can drive itself be idle 95% of the time?
  - praneshp 9y ago
    Self driving cars would still suffer deprecation, wear and tear etc relative to miles driven. I don't see how self-driving will directly change any of those.
JangoSteve 9y ago
This and the other replies are all valid points, and further illustrate the larger picture of the process involved in getting self-driving cars to the market.

maxerickson 9y ago

You can stop the self driving features from working in some geographic areas. GM is launching an enhanced cruise control that only works on limited access highways. They lidar mapped all the limited access highways in the US and Canada for the system.

gregmac 9y ago
What does it do? The major highways are under nearly constant construction, not to mention sometimes there are accidents, lane closures, and other obstructions in the roadway. I am curious what would need the accuracy of a LIDAR map but is okay with one that's not realtime (and possibly wildly inaccurate).
- maxerickson 9y ago
  The only thing I'm sure they use the map for is limiting the feature. They probably also extracted features like bridge abutments (where they might show up as a potential obstruction to the sensors). The system is just a hands free cruise control, it still has an attention monitor and won't even do things like switch lanes: http://www.cadillac.com/world-of-cadillac/innovation/super-cruise.html http://www.cadillac.com/world-of-cadillac/innovation/super-c...

rorykoehler 9y ago

You don't need to sell them to the public. City specific Taxis are still a worthwhile investment

tw04 9y ago

>Yeah, but when you sell them to the public, you can't stop people from driving into other states or areas where conditions are less favorable; which I think is relevant and applicable to their original argument that actually having self-driving cars out in the market is further out than what the industry is saying. You actually can. For instance - radar detectors are legal in some states and not others. If you cross that state line you can be pulled over and cited immediately. Or to go one step further, you could be driving a truck carrying a load that's perfectly legal in the state you left, cross state lines, and be stopped: https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/policy/rpt_congress/truck_sw_laws/app_a.htm#pa https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/policy/rpt_congress/truck_s...