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I saw robo-taxis tooling around Mountain View CA in 2019 so I interviewed at the company to get a safety driver job. I used to see them stopped waiting for a tr

I saw robo-taxis tooling around Mountain View CA in 2019 so I interviewed at the company to get a safety driver job. I used to see them stopped waiting for a train to pass and became curious about how they worked. They were adding second safety drivers to keep the first safety drivers awake. They were also watching the safety drivers by remote video to make sure their eyes were on the road. I was told the Lidar doesn't work in rain or snow. I didn't get the job despite having a perfect driving record. I probably wouldn't have taken it anyway, because I got the impression they didn't want safety drivers asking too many questions or really giving much input. I was satisfied however because my question about depending on a autonomous system to stop properly for an oncoming train was answered - that's not something I would trust yet. I ended up getting a retirement job at Uber and Lyft which was much more interesting and fun.

hardolaf 5y ago
Yeah, the commercial ventures are all trying to do autonomous driving on a budget. The military systems work a whole lot better but that's because they pack way more sensors and way more compute power and can essentially power through issues like rain, snow, sandstorms, etc.
- mwattsun 5y ago
  I didn't know this. Why the commercial cars are allowed in civilian traffic when they aren't the best systems? Is it too much to ask Waymo to have the latest and greatest when I put my kids in the robot car to take them to school? Because I learned as an Uber/Lyft driver that is something people do. I had to refuse it was against the rules to take unaccompanied minors.
  - ironman1478 5y ago
    The commercial systems are designed for the environments where they are supposed to work and no more. The parent said that the military vehicles can handle sand or snow. Neither of those are present in SF and the bay area in general. Waymo and the other companies are only going to deploy to climates that they have solved and in the background try to solve more operating environments.
    - mwattsun 5y ago
      I was told by the Waymo trainer that Lidar doesn't work in the rain. It certainly rains here.
      - ironman1478 5y ago
        he waymo vehicles seem to have a radar and that does operate in the rain. Also, the waymo vehicles have safety drivers, so my statement currently holds as they technically haven't released the vehicle in that environment in a full self driving mode. They will either need to figure out how to operate safely in rain or simply not deploy the fleet on those days if they cannot.
gruez 5y ago
>I ended up getting a retirement job at Uber and Lyft which was much more interesting and fun. does "job" in this context mean programming or driving?
- l-lousy 5y ago
  It says “Uber and Lyft”, I highly doubt he’d be allowed to code at both.
  - mwattsun 5y ago
    Right, retirement job is something casual, non-coding, with no deadline crush. I retired to get away from that.
lijogdfljk 5y ago
What's a retirement job? Something you do for fun after retirement for some unneeded but fun-money?
- mwattsun 5y ago
  Something part time to do to get out of the house and interact with people. I also like to take road trips to random places in America. Uber and Lyft were perfect for that to earn a little mad money doing something with flexible hours. What was really cool about Uber and Lyft is that I could drive to another city to work. I delivered food in South Lake Tahoe, drove women between wineries in the Napa Valley and did some airport runs in San Luis Obispo, but mostly I stayed in the Bay Area. I got to know some roads and areas I had never been in. I also met some really interesting people. I met VC's and people going to do their pitches in Silicon Valley. One guy practiced his pitch on me while I drove him to the meet. I'd still be doing it if it weren't for the pandemic. I never tried driving out of California because different states and cities have different rules. For example, Portland Oregon, if I remember, requires a fire extinguisher in the car. I'll probably do it again. I want to try driving in Las Vegas since I used to live there.
  - lijogdfljk 5y ago
    Hah, sounds like you get _(and want)_ more exposure to people than i do. Good on you for being proactive though. I imagine when (if? :( ) i retire i'll become a hermit. I'm already quite close to a hermit, with remote working for the last ~7 years. If i didn't hate to drive i'd be tempted to follow in your footsteps. I'll definitely think of exposure-retirement-jobs in the future though. Thanks for the insight :)
    - mwattsun 5y ago
      I really like solitude but I also have a need for adventure and stories. Meeting random people and talking to them can provide both, like the Mainland Chinese trans woman who I gave a very long ride to San Francisco while she told me all about how hard it was to be trans in China, especially with the family rejection. Lots of stories I would not hear otherwise. You could drive a bus in Las Vegas if you want to be around people in an environment you control and not have to talk to them. It's my pinned post on Twitter, which I'll copy here so you don't have to go to Twitter. After the dot com crash in 2000, I did solitary travels around N. America by car. When my software money ran out, I got a job driving The Deuce on the Las Vegas Strip, which I did for a year before eventually returning to software. The Alan Watts quote is accurate. Zen Philosopher Alan Watts Imagine if you were a bus driver, a bus driver is ordinarily considered an absolutely harassed person. He’s got to watch out for the laws, the competing traffic, the cops, people coming on board giving him fares and he has to give them change, and if he has it in his head that this is work, it will be hell. But let’s suppose he has a different thing in his head, suppose he has the idea that moving this enormous conveyance through complicated traffic, it’s a very subtle game, and he has the same feeling about it that you might have if you were playing the guitar or dancing. So he goes through that traffic, avoiding this and avoiding that, and he makes a music of the whole thing. He’s not going to be tired out at the end of the day, he’s going to be full of energy when he gets through his job. So the point is, therefor, that you can do everything you have to do in this spirit, don’t make a distinction between work and play. Regard everything that you’re doing as play and don’t imagine for one minute that you have to be serious enough.

hardolaf 5y ago

Yeah, the commercial ventures are all trying to do autonomous driving on a budget. The military systems work a whole lot better but that's because they pack way more sensors and way more compute power and can essentially power through issues like rain, snow, sandstorms, etc.

mwattsun 5y ago
I didn't know this. Why the commercial cars are allowed in civilian traffic when they aren't the best systems? Is it too much to ask Waymo to have the latest and greatest when I put my kids in the robot car to take them to school? Because I learned as an Uber/Lyft driver that is something people do. I had to refuse it was against the rules to take unaccompanied minors.
- ironman1478 5y ago
  The commercial systems are designed for the environments where they are supposed to work and no more. The parent said that the military vehicles can handle sand or snow. Neither of those are present in SF and the bay area in general. Waymo and the other companies are only going to deploy to climates that they have solved and in the background try to solve more operating environments.
  - mwattsun 5y ago
    I was told by the Waymo trainer that Lidar doesn't work in the rain. It certainly rains here.
    - ironman1478 5y ago
      he waymo vehicles seem to have a radar and that does operate in the rain. Also, the waymo vehicles have safety drivers, so my statement currently holds as they technically haven't released the vehicle in that environment in a full self driving mode. They will either need to figure out how to operate safely in rain or simply not deploy the fleet on those days if they cannot.

gruez 5y ago

>I ended up getting a retirement job at Uber and Lyft which was much more interesting and fun. does "job" in this context mean programming or driving?

l-lousy 5y ago
It says “Uber and Lyft”, I highly doubt he’d be allowed to code at both.
- mwattsun 5y ago
  Right, retirement job is something casual, non-coding, with no deadline crush. I retired to get away from that.

lijogdfljk 5y ago

What's a retirement job? Something you do for fun after retirement for some unneeded but fun-money?

mwattsun 5y ago
Something part time to do to get out of the house and interact with people. I also like to take road trips to random places in America. Uber and Lyft were perfect for that to earn a little mad money doing something with flexible hours. What was really cool about Uber and Lyft is that I could drive to another city to work. I delivered food in South Lake Tahoe, drove women between wineries in the Napa Valley and did some airport runs in San Luis Obispo, but mostly I stayed in the Bay Area. I got to know some roads and areas I had never been in. I also met some really interesting people. I met VC's and people going to do their pitches in Silicon Valley. One guy practiced his pitch on me while I drove him to the meet. I'd still be doing it if it weren't for the pandemic. I never tried driving out of California because different states and cities have different rules. For example, Portland Oregon, if I remember, requires a fire extinguisher in the car. I'll probably do it again. I want to try driving in Las Vegas since I used to live there.
- lijogdfljk 5y ago
  Hah, sounds like you get _(and want)_ more exposure to people than i do. Good on you for being proactive though. I imagine when (if? :( ) i retire i'll become a hermit. I'm already quite close to a hermit, with remote working for the last ~7 years. If i didn't hate to drive i'd be tempted to follow in your footsteps. I'll definitely think of exposure-retirement-jobs in the future though. Thanks for the insight :)
  - mwattsun 5y ago
    I really like solitude but I also have a need for adventure and stories. Meeting random people and talking to them can provide both, like the Mainland Chinese trans woman who I gave a very long ride to San Francisco while she told me all about how hard it was to be trans in China, especially with the family rejection. Lots of stories I would not hear otherwise. You could drive a bus in Las Vegas if you want to be around people in an environment you control and not have to talk to them. It's my pinned post on Twitter, which I'll copy here so you don't have to go to Twitter. After the dot com crash in 2000, I did solitary travels around N. America by car. When my software money ran out, I got a job driving The Deuce on the Las Vegas Strip, which I did for a year before eventually returning to software. The Alan Watts quote is accurate. Zen Philosopher Alan Watts Imagine if you were a bus driver, a bus driver is ordinarily considered an absolutely harassed person. He’s got to watch out for the laws, the competing traffic, the cops, people coming on board giving him fares and he has to give them change, and if he has it in his head that this is work, it will be hell. But let’s suppose he has a different thing in his head, suppose he has the idea that moving this enormous conveyance through complicated traffic, it’s a very subtle game, and he has the same feeling about it that you might have if you were playing the guitar or dancing. So he goes through that traffic, avoiding this and avoiding that, and he makes a music of the whole thing. He’s not going to be tired out at the end of the day, he’s going to be full of energy when he gets through his job. So the point is, therefor, that you can do everything you have to do in this spirit, don’t make a distinction between work and play. Regard everything that you’re doing as play and don’t imagine for one minute that you have to be serious enough.