4 ms·
why does everyone think this is a pipe dream when waymo has been already offering driverless rides? they were sae level 4 already IIRC. the key part of the bet
by kobalsky 5y ago
why does everyone think this is a pipe dream when waymo has been already offering driverless rides? they were sae level 4 already IIRC.
the key part of the bet is the "in major cities". you may have complications on some road without much data, but major cities will be tested to the inch multiple times by then.
of course waymo has huge sensors but 8 years to shrink those doesn't seem impossible.
- kajecounterhack 5y agoCompanies like Waymo and Cruise are both working on making L4 scalable to multiple geos and it's going to take a ton of time and money. But L5 is another beast altogether.
- gameswithgo 5y agoWaymo still has humans watching remotely and ready to take control, right?
- kajecounterhack 5y agohttps://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/05/why-hasnt-waymo-expanded-its-driverless-service-heres-my-theory/ https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/05/why-hasnt-waymo-expande... > Waymo has a staff of fleet operators that oversees the cars and provides guidance—such as confirming that the car has chosen a safe route through a construction zone (Waymo says that its remote operators never drive the cars directly).
- babelfish 5y agoL4 in Phoenix in the wintertime is much, much easier than L4 in Seattle (or Minnesota, or New York)
- kobalsky 5y agoyeah I reckon they started on the easiest place to implement. but it's still impressive seeing the thing driving around a shopping mall parking lot with pedestrian traffic, they put a lot of trust in this thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBJ0GvsQeak&t=3820s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBJ0GvsQeak&t=3820s
- hunterb123 5y agoSurprising as Uber killed that pedestrian: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/technology/uber-driverless-fatality.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/technology/uber-driverles... As someone who doesn't live in a city with Waymo, do they have backup drivers? If they do, hopefully they are paying attention and not watching Hulu.
- Dylan16807 5y agoI don't find it surprising that they would trust a system where the emergency braking isn't disabled.
- macNchz 5y agoYeah I've wondered about testing conditions for a while, at least for a human snow certainly adds a big twist to things. Off the top of my head the most challenging driving conditions I semi-regularly encounter in the Northeast US are: - Heavy snow falling at night on an unplowed, narrow road with ill-defined shoulders. The falling snow ruins visibility, and the smooth, white, unplowed surface of the road makes it super hard to identify where the pavement actually ends. - In traffic on a busy highway in snow. Berms of slush make sudden movements very dangerous, and there is lots of unpredictable behavior from other cars nearby. Often there are cars/trucks nearby getting stuck, sliding off the road or spinning out. Going slowly enough for conditions might mean others start passing you dangerously. Other times taking a more aggressive approach is required if cars around are going too slowly and don't have the momentum to avoid getting stuck on hills. In either of those cases I'd likely decide just to not make a trip at all if I knew in advance what it would be like, but sometimes you get caught or otherwise simply have to push through. I guess that's an interesting question: at what point does the car tell you it's too dangerous to go or keep going? Hopefully not while on a back road in the middle of nowhere at the beginning of a two day blizzard.
- jcims 5y agoSelf driving taxis in Tempe is still a hell of a long way from autonomous school buses in Pittsburgh.