4 ms·

Ancedote: this evening in Mountain View, the driver of one of Waymo's test vans had to take over (I watched her grab the wheel). The van had come to a complete

Ancedote: this evening in Mountain View, the driver of one of Waymo's test vans had to take over (I watched her grab the wheel). The van had come to a complete stop with room to pass a USPS truck (it appeared safe to me from 25 feet away), and didn't begin moving again for a few seconds. She then took control.

CydeWeys 7y ago
It's hard to extrapolate anything from this, as they may have intentionally been testing some new variation on an algorithm that made it more reticent. Besides, it doesn't sound like the car was unsafe, just timid. A crash would be way worse.
toast0 7y ago
The waymo cars have always been timid. That's why most of the collisions involve the waymo car getting rear ended. They don't move when other drivers expect them to. Of course, this is annoying, and being so timid that you get rear ended is unsafe, but the Tesla approach would be the delivery truck is detected as a stationary object and ignored, so the vehicle would accelerate to the set speed in 3 seconds and slam into it. (See the many reports of Teslas running into stopped emergency vehicles). Of course, Tesla will tell you that their car isn't really self-driving with one side of their mouth, while telling you your car is equipped for self-driving out of the other side.
- notyourwork 7y ago
  > Of course, Tesla will tell you that their car isn't really self-driving with one side of their mouth, while telling you your car is equipped for self-driving out of the other side. This is my biggest worry with the way this is promoted. It’s false advertising and misleading to consumers. I wish more companies (in all industries) would be held accountable to accurately portray what they are selling.
  - adrr 7y ago
    Tesla promotes autopilot as safer than a human driver but blames the driver when there is an accident. How can autopilot be safer than a human if the only way to safely use is with a human monitoring it?

CydeWeys 7y ago

It's hard to extrapolate anything from this, as they may have intentionally been testing some new variation on an algorithm that made it more reticent. Besides, it doesn't sound like the car was unsafe, just timid. A crash would be way worse.

toast0 7y ago

The waymo cars have always been timid. That's why most of the collisions involve the waymo car getting rear ended. They don't move when other drivers expect them to. Of course, this is annoying, and being so timid that you get rear ended is unsafe, but the Tesla approach would be the delivery truck is detected as a stationary object and ignored, so the vehicle would accelerate to the set speed in 3 seconds and slam into it. (See the many reports of Teslas running into stopped emergency vehicles). Of course, Tesla will tell you that their car isn't really self-driving with one side of their mouth, while telling you your car is equipped for self-driving out of the other side.

notyourwork 7y ago
> Of course, Tesla will tell you that their car isn't really self-driving with one side of their mouth, while telling you your car is equipped for self-driving out of the other side. This is my biggest worry with the way this is promoted. It’s false advertising and misleading to consumers. I wish more companies (in all industries) would be held accountable to accurately portray what they are selling.
- adrr 7y ago
  Tesla promotes autopilot as safer than a human driver but blames the driver when there is an accident. How can autopilot be safer than a human if the only way to safely use is with a human monitoring it?