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Agreed. FTA: > "are on the way" > "soon you may experience" Vague promises without any concrete dates attached make this seem like output from PR rather tha

Agreed. FTA: > "are on the way" > "soon you may experience" Vague promises without any concrete dates attached make this seem like output from PR rather than engineering

ehsankia 7y ago
Except in the previous article, driverless rides were already happening: > since mid-October, the company has been operating its autonomous minivans on public roads in Arizona without a safety driver The difference is that those were without any users inside. This new article is saying that the public offering, with real customers inside, will get rides with no one inside. It is unfortunate that it took 2 years to get to the point where they felt safe putting people customers in the car, but it's very misleading to equate the two and use is as a way to imply they lied last time around.
- cookie_monsta 7y ago
  > It is unfortunate that it took 2 years to get to the point where they felt safe putting people customers in the car Except they're not at that point yet, and even when they are they will still have a Waymo employee on board "initially". I don't think that anybody is accusing anybody of lying, just making the point that predictions of the marketing team aren't really something you would want to set your watch by.
  - ehsankia 7y ago
    > even when they are they will still have a Waymo employee on board "initially". I think you're confused. They've been having customer rides with employee in the car for almost a year now. The email sent to customers today is saying that they will soon find rides with no employee inside. And again, rides without employee inside have been happening also since 2017, just not with customers inside.
    - cookie_monsta 7y ago
      Maybe I am confused. I'm just going on what Waymo says. The point is that "soon" is meaningless in this context and Waymo very clearly states that "a Waymo employee would likely be present in the vehicle initially."
      - Cogito 7y ago
        That quote is from Techcrunch, I haven't seen it in any of the Waymo communications yet.
        cookie_monsta 7y ago
        You are correct. I misread the source of the quote
      - ehsankia 7y ago
        Like I said, a lot of different misleading statements are being confused people in this thread. 1. Waymo has been having rides with no one in the car for 2 years now. 2. Waymo has been having rides with real customers inside for 1 year now. 3. Waymo has told said customers in #2 that they may soon see rides with no employee inside I agree that the soon in #3 doesn't mean much, but at the same time, this wasn't a press call, it was a private email sent to users, so it's not like they're showing off. But 1 and 2 have already been happening for a long time.
        cookie_monsta 7y ago
        > it was a private email sent to users, so it's not like they're showing off. Of course. Companies tell their customers about new products in the hope that they will keep that info secret. I think the salient point about your list is that while 1 and 2 have been done separately for some time, the only timeline we have for them happening concurrently is "soon"
    - scottlocklin 7y ago
      Except they all have remote control "employee inside." https://www.wired.com/story/designated-driver-teleoperations-self-driving-cars/ https://www.wired.com/story/designated-driver-teleoperations...
- hitekker 7y ago
  > it's very misleading to equate the two and use is as a way to imply they lied last time around. Your belief that the GP thinks they lied may be rooted in your own biases than in her or his words.

Agreed. FTA: > "are on the way" > "soon you may experience" Vague promises without any concrete dates attached make this seem like output from PR rather than engineering

ehsankia 7y ago

Except in the previous article, driverless rides were already happening: > since mid-October, the company has been operating its autonomous minivans on public roads in Arizona without a safety driver The difference is that those were without any users inside. This new article is saying that the public offering, with real customers inside, will get rides with no one inside. It is unfortunate that it took 2 years to get to the point where they felt safe putting people customers in the car, but it's very misleading to equate the two and use is as a way to imply they lied last time around.

cookie_monsta 7y ago
> It is unfortunate that it took 2 years to get to the point where they felt safe putting people customers in the car Except they're not at that point yet, and even when they are they will still have a Waymo employee on board "initially". I don't think that anybody is accusing anybody of lying, just making the point that predictions of the marketing team aren't really something you would want to set your watch by.
- ehsankia 7y ago
  > even when they are they will still have a Waymo employee on board "initially". I think you're confused. They've been having customer rides with employee in the car for almost a year now. The email sent to customers today is saying that they will soon find rides with no employee inside. And again, rides without employee inside have been happening also since 2017, just not with customers inside.
  - cookie_monsta 7y ago
    Maybe I am confused. I'm just going on what Waymo says. The point is that "soon" is meaningless in this context and Waymo very clearly states that "a Waymo employee would likely be present in the vehicle initially."
    - Cogito 7y ago
      That quote is from Techcrunch, I haven't seen it in any of the Waymo communications yet.
      - cookie_monsta 7y ago
        You are correct. I misread the source of the quote
    - ehsankia 7y ago
      Like I said, a lot of different misleading statements are being confused people in this thread. 1. Waymo has been having rides with no one in the car for 2 years now. 2. Waymo has been having rides with real customers inside for 1 year now. 3. Waymo has told said customers in #2 that they may soon see rides with no employee inside I agree that the soon in #3 doesn't mean much, but at the same time, this wasn't a press call, it was a private email sent to users, so it's not like they're showing off. But 1 and 2 have already been happening for a long time.
      - cookie_monsta 7y ago
        > it was a private email sent to users, so it's not like they're showing off. Of course. Companies tell their customers about new products in the hope that they will keep that info secret. I think the salient point about your list is that while 1 and 2 have been done separately for some time, the only timeline we have for them happening concurrently is "soon"
  - scottlocklin 7y ago
    Except they all have remote control "employee inside." https://www.wired.com/story/designated-driver-teleoperations-self-driving-cars/ https://www.wired.com/story/designated-driver-teleoperations...
hitekker 7y ago
> it's very misleading to equate the two and use is as a way to imply they lied last time around. Your belief that the GP thinks they lied may be rooted in your own biases than in her or his words.