3 ms·

If that's the entire list of shortcomings it sounds they re in pretty good shape. There are audiences for which this car is an essential, and hopefully drivers

If that's the entire list of shortcomings it sounds they re in pretty good shape. There are audiences for which this car is an essential, and hopefully drivers will adapt to robocars , just like horsecars adapted to autos.

oldgradstudent 8y ago
You may have missed that tiny detail, but they have not one, but two, safety drivers in each car. That is twice the number of drivers a normal human-driven cars have. They are not supposed to talk to passengers, though, for the true driverless experience.
- Dylan16807 8y ago
  The other one isn't a safety driver. And having the safety driver doesn't tell you all that much about how it would perform without.
  - oldgradstudent 8y ago
    > The other one isn't a safety driver. True, the second person is the co-driver. As Waymo has discovered[1], a single person is not safe enough. > And having the safety driver doesn't tell you all that much about how it would perform without. Theoretically true. But in reality, it tells you all you need to know - the cars are not safe without safety drivers. [1] https://www.theinformation.com/articles/troubled-waymo-worker-shows-human-problems-continue https://www.theinformation.com/articles/troubled-waymo-worke...
    - Dylan16807 8y ago
      > But in reality, it tells you all you need to know - the cars are not safe without safety drivers. I disagree. There are other plausible motivations to have a safety driver at this stage even for a safe car.
      - oldgradstudent 8y ago
        Of course there are reasons to use a safety driver for some trips. The point is that they won't do even a single trip without a safety driver. They've done some PR stunts - but they won't give a single real demo to a single real journalist without a safety driver. Even with a safety driver, a few weeks before they "launched" a "commercial" "self-driving" service, they wouldn't let journalists pick their own destination.
        Dylan16807 8y ago
        Yeah, overall it looks pretty bad.
skywhopper 8y ago
I’m not sure. So long as a safety driver is needed there’s no cost savings over regular taxi service. Given the human infrastructure that will be required behind the scenes to support the fragility of these cars’ operation (sensor cleaning, monitoring for problems, etc) and the added expense of the self driving tech, I’m not seeing much opening for money to be made here ever...
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

oldgradstudent 8y ago

You may have missed that tiny detail, but they have not one, but two, safety drivers in each car. That is twice the number of drivers a normal human-driven cars have. They are not supposed to talk to passengers, though, for the true driverless experience.

Dylan16807 8y ago
The other one isn't a safety driver. And having the safety driver doesn't tell you all that much about how it would perform without.
- oldgradstudent 8y ago
  > The other one isn't a safety driver. True, the second person is the co-driver. As Waymo has discovered[1], a single person is not safe enough. > And having the safety driver doesn't tell you all that much about how it would perform without. Theoretically true. But in reality, it tells you all you need to know - the cars are not safe without safety drivers. [1] https://www.theinformation.com/articles/troubled-waymo-worker-shows-human-problems-continue https://www.theinformation.com/articles/troubled-waymo-worke...
  - Dylan16807 8y ago
    > But in reality, it tells you all you need to know - the cars are not safe without safety drivers. I disagree. There are other plausible motivations to have a safety driver at this stage even for a safe car.
    - oldgradstudent 8y ago
      Of course there are reasons to use a safety driver for some trips. The point is that they won't do even a single trip without a safety driver. They've done some PR stunts - but they won't give a single real demo to a single real journalist without a safety driver. Even with a safety driver, a few weeks before they "launched" a "commercial" "self-driving" service, they wouldn't let journalists pick their own destination.
      - Dylan16807 8y ago
        Yeah, overall it looks pretty bad.

skywhopper 8y ago

I’m not sure. So long as a safety driver is needed there’s no cost savings over regular taxi service. Given the human infrastructure that will be required behind the scenes to support the fragility of these cars’ operation (sensor cleaning, monitoring for problems, etc) and the added expense of the self driving tech, I’m not seeing much opening for money to be made here ever...

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]