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Compared to the rumors yesterday that the big Waymo announcement was going to be announcing expansion to NYC, this is a big letdown. Who cares what manufacturer

by gwern 9y ago

Compared to the rumors yesterday that the big Waymo announcement was going to be announcing expansion to NYC, this is a big letdown. Who cares what manufacturer they use? The only interesting part is the 20k number.

jvolkman 9y ago
A big knock against Waymo so far has been that it won't be able to scale its service by retrofitting Pacificas, and that it needs to find OEM partners to help build vehicles (i.e., install the hardware at the factory). So that's what they announced.
Alex3917 9y ago
> Who cares what manufacturer they use? The fact that they're trying to market premium self-driving cars is interesting, because as you say there is no obvious reason to care. After all if they're all going to be driven exactly the same way and have an almost identical safety profile, what difference does it make?
- wcarron 9y ago
  Potentially, high class events (e.g. the Academy Awards). I can certainly see the massive value of having a luxury self-driving car shuttle celebrities to an event millions of Americans watch every year. It's marketing for Jaguar and Waymo. And also, Uber has premium categories, too. Its got virtue signaling potential for the users. And, to be fair, people have aesthetic preferences. I do. If you said to me, "this cardboard box will autonomously take you anywhere you want to go without ever crashing. Or you can take this Audi S7 will do the same but there's a 5% chance you'll crash", I'd take the Audi. Personal preferences can't just be ignored, especially in the auto industry.
- King-Aaron 9y ago
  > there is no obvious reason to care. After all if they're all going to be driven exactly the same way and have an almost identical safety profile, what difference does it make? The same difference that makes people buy a Jaguar over a Chevy Cruze in the traditional sense... There are consumers who expect a high quality of service for their dollar.
- on_and_off 9y ago
  This is going to be the first commercial Waymo fleet. It makes sense to have a premium brand to first introduce this. 'THIS IS THE FUTURE !' is what they want to promote. While I think that their beetle-like test cars would be perfectly fine once the technology is everywhere, it makes sense to showcase it with premium cars.
galdosdi 9y ago
They can't operate in NYS at all, at least not without safety drivers. They also can't operate a driverless taxi service at all without the city or state government passing laws. NYC/NYS is not the kind of place whose politicians are gonna stick their neck out and pull an Arizona early before the tech is proven, either. NYC is already one of the most regulated environments for taxis in the country, maybe the most. Details down to specific models and equipment and driver behavior and pricing are specified by law and enforced by the TLC, and no driverless taxi service could comply with them as they are written today. And if they did it using safety drivers, assuming the equipment complied with TLC regulations, they might have a hard time finding safety drivers willing to take the risk when they could just drive a normal cab. TLC licensed drivers have a lot of other requirements and liability and responsibility put upon them, and they cannot delegate that responsibility to anyone else. As just one example, if the Arizona wreck had happened in NYC, Cooper's Law would have required the safety driver to have their license summarily suspended until the investigation is complete, then revoked permanently if found guilty of ANY charge, even a minor one like speeding 2mph.

by gwern 9y ago

jvolkman 9y ago

A big knock against Waymo so far has been that it won't be able to scale its service by retrofitting Pacificas, and that it needs to find OEM partners to help build vehicles (i.e., install the hardware at the factory). So that's what they announced.

Alex3917 9y ago

> Who cares what manufacturer they use? The fact that they're trying to market premium self-driving cars is interesting, because as you say there is no obvious reason to care. After all if they're all going to be driven exactly the same way and have an almost identical safety profile, what difference does it make?

wcarron 9y ago
Potentially, high class events (e.g. the Academy Awards). I can certainly see the massive value of having a luxury self-driving car shuttle celebrities to an event millions of Americans watch every year. It's marketing for Jaguar and Waymo. And also, Uber has premium categories, too. Its got virtue signaling potential for the users. And, to be fair, people have aesthetic preferences. I do. If you said to me, "this cardboard box will autonomously take you anywhere you want to go without ever crashing. Or you can take this Audi S7 will do the same but there's a 5% chance you'll crash", I'd take the Audi. Personal preferences can't just be ignored, especially in the auto industry.
King-Aaron 9y ago
> there is no obvious reason to care. After all if they're all going to be driven exactly the same way and have an almost identical safety profile, what difference does it make? The same difference that makes people buy a Jaguar over a Chevy Cruze in the traditional sense... There are consumers who expect a high quality of service for their dollar.
on_and_off 9y ago
This is going to be the first commercial Waymo fleet. It makes sense to have a premium brand to first introduce this. 'THIS IS THE FUTURE !' is what they want to promote. While I think that their beetle-like test cars would be perfectly fine once the technology is everywhere, it makes sense to showcase it with premium cars.

galdosdi 9y ago

They can't operate in NYS at all, at least not without safety drivers. They also can't operate a driverless taxi service at all without the city or state government passing laws. NYC/NYS is not the kind of place whose politicians are gonna stick their neck out and pull an Arizona early before the tech is proven, either. NYC is already one of the most regulated environments for taxis in the country, maybe the most. Details down to specific models and equipment and driver behavior and pricing are specified by law and enforced by the TLC, and no driverless taxi service could comply with them as they are written today. And if they did it using safety drivers, assuming the equipment complied with TLC regulations, they might have a hard time finding safety drivers willing to take the risk when they could just drive a normal cab. TLC licensed drivers have a lot of other requirements and liability and responsibility put upon them, and they cannot delegate that responsibility to anyone else. As just one example, if the Arizona wreck had happened in NYC, Cooper's Law would have required the safety driver to have their license summarily suspended until the investigation is complete, then revoked permanently if found guilty of ANY charge, even a minor one like speeding 2mph.