4 ms·

I got to ride on one of Lyft's self-driving taxis during last year's AWS conference. If Lyft (and most of the other commentary on self-driving cars) is an accu

by tomc1985 7y ago

I got to ride on one of Lyft's self-driving taxis during last year's AWS conference. If Lyft (and most of the other commentary on self-driving cars) is an accurate picture of the current state-of-the-art, then let's just say the tech has a long way to go before its ready for the kind of everyday use that we're being hyped up for.

pb7 7y ago
I didn't think Lyft was even on the radar in terms of self-driving capabilities. Cruise is one of the top players and Waymo is still years ahead.
- sp332 7y ago
  Lyft has their own self-driving car project https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20507925 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20507925 but they partner with other projects as well. Currently Waymo and Aptiv have cars on the Lyft service. http://level52019.wpengine.com/partners/ http://level52019.wpengine.com/partners/
- ummonk 7y ago
  Is Waymo really years ahead of Cruise? Given the different environments they're testing in, I'm not sure it's clearcut to compare how well the two are doing relatively.
  - pb7 7y ago
    Hard to tell but in 2018, Google had 3x the driving miles and less than half the disengagements per mile than Cruise did.[0] [0] https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/13/18223356/california-dmv-self-driving-car-disengagement-report-2018 https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/13/18223356/california-dmv-s...
    - ummonk 7y ago
      It is hard to say how similar different companies are when deciding what counts as a disengagement that needs reporting, but if the headline numbers are accurate, having twice as many disengagements per mile is extremely impressive; the SF environment is far more than twice as hard to drive in as suburban / highway environments. Also, Cruise’s disengagement rates are already ahead of what Waymo averaged in 2018: https://miro.medium.com/max/1644/0*lYhqv0Bd82ocQP5T https://miro.medium.com/max/1644/0*lYhqv0Bd82ocQP5T Waymo disengagement rates were halved in 2018 though so they might be continuing to exhibit substantial improvements as well.

pb7 7y ago

I didn't think Lyft was even on the radar in terms of self-driving capabilities. Cruise is one of the top players and Waymo is still years ahead.

sp332 7y ago
Lyft has their own self-driving car project https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20507925 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20507925 but they partner with other projects as well. Currently Waymo and Aptiv have cars on the Lyft service. http://level52019.wpengine.com/partners/ http://level52019.wpengine.com/partners/
ummonk 7y ago
Is Waymo really years ahead of Cruise? Given the different environments they're testing in, I'm not sure it's clearcut to compare how well the two are doing relatively.
- pb7 7y ago
  Hard to tell but in 2018, Google had 3x the driving miles and less than half the disengagements per mile than Cruise did.[0] [0] https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/13/18223356/california-dmv-self-driving-car-disengagement-report-2018 https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/13/18223356/california-dmv-s...
  - ummonk 7y ago
    It is hard to say how similar different companies are when deciding what counts as a disengagement that needs reporting, but if the headline numbers are accurate, having twice as many disengagements per mile is extremely impressive; the SF environment is far more than twice as hard to drive in as suburban / highway environments. Also, Cruise’s disengagement rates are already ahead of what Waymo averaged in 2018: https://miro.medium.com/max/1644/0*lYhqv0Bd82ocQP5T https://miro.medium.com/max/1644/0*lYhqv0Bd82ocQP5T Waymo disengagement rates were halved in 2018 though so they might be continuing to exhibit substantial improvements as well.