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> 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

> 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...
  - ehsankia 7y ago
    That's a mandatory system they need to be on the street [0] > But those cars won’t be operating completely unmanned — at least for now. Under these regulations, driverless cars being tested on public roads must have a remote operator monitoring the car, ready to take over as needed. That remote operator — who will be overseeing the car from a location outside of the car — must also be able to communicate with law enforcement as well as the passengers in the event of an accident. That being said, the way Waymo does it is different from other companies. As HN can understand, adding the ability to remote access a car is very very risky. Waymo on the other hand has the ability to suggest a path to the car, and the car will itself locally evaluate to see if the suggested path is safe before executing it. So it's not quite a "remote control" access. [0] https://www.vox.com/2018/2/26/17053898/driverless-cars-self-driving-california-dmv-remote-operated-autonomous-testing https://www.vox.com/2018/2/26/17053898/driverless-cars-self-...
  - gpm 7y ago
    How many cars can one employee be "inside of"? If that number is an order of magnitude higher than 1 the cost of these employees is probably relatively negligible.
    - catalogia 7y ago
      If it's an order of magnitude larger than one, then it's probably a pointless exercise anyway. What mortal can honestly say they're attentively watching 10 streams at once? A car accident can happen in the blink of an eye, if you're dividing your attention between several streams it would be very easy to have a slow reaction time to a child jumping out into the street, for instance.
      - gpm 7y ago

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...
- ehsankia 7y ago
  That's a mandatory system they need to be on the street [0] > But those cars won’t be operating completely unmanned — at least for now. Under these regulations, driverless cars being tested on public roads must have a remote operator monitoring the car, ready to take over as needed. That remote operator — who will be overseeing the car from a location outside of the car — must also be able to communicate with law enforcement as well as the passengers in the event of an accident. That being said, the way Waymo does it is different from other companies. As HN can understand, adding the ability to remote access a car is very very risky. Waymo on the other hand has the ability to suggest a path to the car, and the car will itself locally evaluate to see if the suggested path is safe before executing it. So it's not quite a "remote control" access. [0] https://www.vox.com/2018/2/26/17053898/driverless-cars-self-driving-california-dmv-remote-operated-autonomous-testing https://www.vox.com/2018/2/26/17053898/driverless-cars-self-...
- gpm 7y ago
  How many cars can one employee be "inside of"? If that number is an order of magnitude higher than 1 the cost of these employees is probably relatively negligible.
  - catalogia 7y ago
    If it's an order of magnitude larger than one, then it's probably a pointless exercise anyway. What mortal can honestly say they're attentively watching 10 streams at once? A car accident can happen in the blink of an eye, if you're dividing your attention between several streams it would be very easy to have a slow reaction time to a child jumping out into the street, for instance.
    - gpm 7y ago