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Are these autonomous vehicles so littered throughout California that you run into them weekly? I realize I don’t have a real concrete sense of just how many of

Are these autonomous vehicles so littered throughout California that you run into them weekly? I realize I don’t have a real concrete sense of just how many of these there are. Like is this a whole thing already? Edit: thanks for the responses…. Good gravy…

tmpz22 3y ago
> Are these autonomous vehicles so littered throughout California that you run into them weekly? In SF yes. Even small amounts of driving in certain areas will have multiple daily interactions with these vehicles.
- Solvency 3y ago
  Where can I see videos (in the wild, not corporate) of this? I've never seen one in my life, though I'm in LA.
  - milesskorpen 3y ago
    I see them multiple times per day in the Alamo Square/Divisadero neighborhood in SF.
  - ra7 3y ago
    Well, Waymo is now giving rides in LA as part of a promotional tour. So you might be able to see one sooner than you think. https://youtu.be/iNlS1LSDjl8?si=Me-zKKD7g0dPo6tH https://youtu.be/iNlS1LSDjl8?si=Me-zKKD7g0dPo6tH
  - masto 3y ago
    https://www.youtube.com/@JJRicks https://www.youtube.com/@JJRicks has almost 200 videos of his Waymo rides at this point, and has probably captured everything one could hope to see them do.
  - JoblessWonder 3y ago
    It is probably an odd thing to find because in SF they really are everywhere. I don't live in SF but visit a few times a year and after the first time I saw one they just sort of became part of the cityscape and not worth filming.
  - Rebelgecko 3y ago
    In LA they're currently pretty active in the Santa Monica/Venice area (although rare enough that they get a lot of stares and photos... i felt like a celebrityon my rides). If you want to try it out there's some upcoming events where they'll give out a code for 1 week of free rides
paulgb 3y ago
Weekly is an understatement, last time I visited SF I would see many per day, and they seem to be doubling every time I visit.
drozycki 3y ago
There are many of them out on the road in SF, every day.
paxys 3y ago
I easily come across 20-50 of them every day in San Francisco.
matthalvorson 3y ago
In the city of San Francisco, yes they're quite common on the street. See a few every time I drive in to SF
jhiesey 3y ago
In parts San Francisco you'll see a couple waymo/cruise cars drive by in any 5 minute interval
BetaDeltaAlpha 3y ago
It's rare to go out for a trip (foot, bike, bus, or car) and not see at least one. After evening rush hour has concluded, they're a plurality of vehicles on the road.
- eurleif 3y ago
  What do you mean by "plurality" here? That term depends on what other categories you're dividing other vehicles into, so what are the categories?
  - londons_explore 3y ago
    I was pretty sure 'plurality' was a word made extinct from the english language 50+ years ago, with the exception of patent documents, where its use appears to be compulsory.
    - dghlsakjg 3y ago
      It is very common to hear in the US at least around elections.
n-exploit 3y ago
Spend an hour in San Francisco and you'll see multiple.
dekhn 3y ago
I only drive to the city about once a week and I typically see 0.5 AVs per trip. On the most recent drive, I was in the right lane on the freeway and an AV was merging from the on ramp. It was driving extremely slowly and did not react to me (IIUC I have "right of way" and it should either speed up or slow down) so I basically had to change lanes to avoid it merging into me.
mint2 3y ago
They aren’t littered through CA, in CA they are exclusively in SF. In SF they are common and as they seem to drive nonstop, take more road time than a comparable number of normal cars. They don’t stop and wait between fares, they seem to drive aimlessly in routes like ghosts or lost souls.
- aaron425 3y ago
  There are some in LA as well, although at a smaller scale.
- Solvency 3y ago
  Why would they keep driving at all times with no passengers? How is that ecologically smart or sensible from a business perspective?
  - hadlock 3y ago
    1) collect additional driving data. driving data is the moat for autonomous driving 2) move to a location where you're statistically most likely to pick up your next passenger, to reduce average wait time
  - paganel 3y ago
    That was always the selling point about autonomous cars, i.e. that they could be driven 24/7, almost. There was no selling point related to the environment backw when the hype about self-driving cars really got going, I'd say 2016-2018-ish, you weren't getting people talking about taking the tram instead of getting driven around by these things.
  - dragonwriter 3y ago
    The whole point of having them on a limited basis is to gather data. No useful data is gathered when they aren't driving.
- tesseract 3y ago
  In the Palo Alto/Mountain View/Sunnyvale area I see Waymo, Nuro, and unmarked-but-we-all-know-it's-Apple autonomous vehicles quite frequently. A few times a week at least. Cruise specifically operated in SF where I agree they have been a very common sight.
michael_nielsen 3y ago
I expect to see one every few minutes in San Francisco. When I counted in August, 4 of 100 vehicles going past my house were self-driving (https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen/status/1687342994813562880 https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen/status/16873429948135628... ). I don't recall the exact time period, but believe it was just under half an hour.
fragmede 3y ago
It is limited to San Francisco, rather than the whole of California, but they do just drive around the city, especially after 9pm. As a rider, the future is here. Instead of just checking Uber and Lyft for prices to get somewhere, now I check the Cruise and Waymo app for prices too. (Well, not Cruise anymore.) But yes, it's a thing. I call a car, sometimes it doesn't have a driver, and it takes me to where I need to go in the city when I'm unable, or don't want to drive. Or more likely, don't want to deal with parking. I'll take the bus when I'm going that way but the bus doesn't always go in the right direction. Can't wait for them to be able to take freeways over to Oakland and down to Cupertino.
- hiidrew 3y ago
  How does the price of these compare to Uber/Lyft?
  - CityOfThrowaway 3y ago
    More expensive
  - alooPotato 3y ago
    better driving imo
  - cco 3y ago
    My experience has been that they are roughly equivalent in most cases. Sometimes they're slightly cheaper, multi-stop routes they tend to be a lot cheaper. If you tip in Uber/Lyft, Waymo is always more price competitive.
  - acchow 3y ago
    I'm in FiDi right now (weekday afternoon). A Waymo ride to Dolores Park is $18. UberX is $17. Lyft is $19.85. I find that late night you often will not be able to get an Uber. I think drivers have been ceding ground to Waymo's obvious night driving superiority.
- bluGill 3y ago
  Those sound like trips where you shouldn't call a car at all, but get on the local transit service. Talk to your local politicians about fixing service so that is an option. Self driving cars are useful to replace various maintenance or delivery trucks in cities, and farm transport. However mass transit is better for most things people are thinking about them for.
disillusioned 3y ago
We're an active market in Phoenix for Waymo, and I live in Central Phoenix and see Waymos every single trip I take now; they're nearly ubiquitous. But I've also taken them several times. They're safe, very capable drivers, and I have a lot of confidence in them, to be honest.
aseipp 3y ago
Weekly? Now, this is nowhere near SF levels, but I live in South Austin, and I probably see at least 1-2 autonomous cars every single day I go driving in town.
stouset 3y ago
Weekly? I encounter at least one every few blocks.
IKantRead 3y ago
SF today is as close to Blade Runner that we'll ever get. Every billboard is for some AI company, you ride in a driverless cab across a literal mile of homeless people drugged out of their minds, screaming and pooping on the sidewalk. SF today is so aggressively dystopian that it's sort of hard not to enjoy the experience.
- l33t7332273 3y ago
  I think this comment is slightly exaggerated. I didn’t see that many ads for AI companies and while I did see some driverless vehicles, they were in the minority and I only saw them on my second full day exploring the city. There are a large number of homeless people openly doing drugs, and there is some poop, but I find these descriptions to be generally inaccurate. Don’t get me wrong, the situation is bad, but based on descriptions like this I was expecting far far worse.
  - IKantRead 3y ago
    That comment is just based on my experience going to SF a few weeks ago. - Every billboard on the way to the hotel from the airport was for AI (which not the case a few months ago) - Uber driver interrogated me all the way to the hotel on the value prop of my current project at work - Went to grab a burger and had to dodge 2 people screaming at me, walked passed a man crying because I believe a friend had just gotten hit by a car. - almost stepped in human fecies - On my last night, took a cruise back to my hotel (thanks to a friend). Honestly it was quite fun. Nothing in my comment was exaggerated, just edited a bit to make it more coherent. The reality was actually more dystopian. And I do mean that last line seriously, I had a blast!: > SF today is so aggressively dystopian that it's sort of hard not to enjoy the experience.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - hot_gril 3y ago
    Nearly every billboard I've in SF, when I used to live near there 1-7 years ago, was tech. So not AI, but maybe "one app to rule them all" (I forget whose slogan that was).

tmpz22 3y ago

> Are these autonomous vehicles so littered throughout California that you run into them weekly? In SF yes. Even small amounts of driving in certain areas will have multiple daily interactions with these vehicles.

Solvency 3y ago
Where can I see videos (in the wild, not corporate) of this? I've never seen one in my life, though I'm in LA.
- milesskorpen 3y ago
  I see them multiple times per day in the Alamo Square/Divisadero neighborhood in SF.
- ra7 3y ago
  Well, Waymo is now giving rides in LA as part of a promotional tour. So you might be able to see one sooner than you think. https://youtu.be/iNlS1LSDjl8?si=Me-zKKD7g0dPo6tH https://youtu.be/iNlS1LSDjl8?si=Me-zKKD7g0dPo6tH
- masto 3y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/@JJRicks https://www.youtube.com/@JJRicks has almost 200 videos of his Waymo rides at this point, and has probably captured everything one could hope to see them do.
- JoblessWonder 3y ago
  It is probably an odd thing to find because in SF they really are everywhere. I don't live in SF but visit a few times a year and after the first time I saw one they just sort of became part of the cityscape and not worth filming.
- Rebelgecko 3y ago
  In LA they're currently pretty active in the Santa Monica/Venice area (although rare enough that they get a lot of stares and photos... i felt like a celebrityon my rides). If you want to try it out there's some upcoming events where they'll give out a code for 1 week of free rides

paulgb 3y ago

Weekly is an understatement, last time I visited SF I would see many per day, and they seem to be doubling every time I visit.

drozycki 3y ago

There are many of them out on the road in SF, every day.

paxys 3y ago

I easily come across 20-50 of them every day in San Francisco.

matthalvorson 3y ago

In the city of San Francisco, yes they're quite common on the street. See a few every time I drive in to SF

jhiesey 3y ago

In parts San Francisco you'll see a couple waymo/cruise cars drive by in any 5 minute interval

BetaDeltaAlpha 3y ago

It's rare to go out for a trip (foot, bike, bus, or car) and not see at least one. After evening rush hour has concluded, they're a plurality of vehicles on the road.

eurleif 3y ago
What do you mean by "plurality" here? That term depends on what other categories you're dividing other vehicles into, so what are the categories?
- londons_explore 3y ago
  I was pretty sure 'plurality' was a word made extinct from the english language 50+ years ago, with the exception of patent documents, where its use appears to be compulsory.
  - dghlsakjg 3y ago
    It is very common to hear in the US at least around elections.

n-exploit 3y ago

Spend an hour in San Francisco and you'll see multiple.

dekhn 3y ago

I only drive to the city about once a week and I typically see 0.5 AVs per trip. On the most recent drive, I was in the right lane on the freeway and an AV was merging from the on ramp. It was driving extremely slowly and did not react to me (IIUC I have "right of way" and it should either speed up or slow down) so I basically had to change lanes to avoid it merging into me.

mint2 3y ago

They aren’t littered through CA, in CA they are exclusively in SF. In SF they are common and as they seem to drive nonstop, take more road time than a comparable number of normal cars. They don’t stop and wait between fares, they seem to drive aimlessly in routes like ghosts or lost souls.

aaron425 3y ago
There are some in LA as well, although at a smaller scale.
Solvency 3y ago
Why would they keep driving at all times with no passengers? How is that ecologically smart or sensible from a business perspective?
- hadlock 3y ago
  1) collect additional driving data. driving data is the moat for autonomous driving 2) move to a location where you're statistically most likely to pick up your next passenger, to reduce average wait time
- paganel 3y ago
  That was always the selling point about autonomous cars, i.e. that they could be driven 24/7, almost. There was no selling point related to the environment backw when the hype about self-driving cars really got going, I'd say 2016-2018-ish, you weren't getting people talking about taking the tram instead of getting driven around by these things.
- dragonwriter 3y ago
  The whole point of having them on a limited basis is to gather data. No useful data is gathered when they aren't driving.
tesseract 3y ago
In the Palo Alto/Mountain View/Sunnyvale area I see Waymo, Nuro, and unmarked-but-we-all-know-it's-Apple autonomous vehicles quite frequently. A few times a week at least. Cruise specifically operated in SF where I agree they have been a very common sight.

michael_nielsen 3y ago

I expect to see one every few minutes in San Francisco. When I counted in August, 4 of 100 vehicles going past my house were self-driving (https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen/status/1687342994813562880 https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen/status/16873429948135628... ). I don't recall the exact time period, but believe it was just under half an hour.

fragmede 3y ago

It is limited to San Francisco, rather than the whole of California, but they do just drive around the city, especially after 9pm. As a rider, the future is here. Instead of just checking Uber and Lyft for prices to get somewhere, now I check the Cruise and Waymo app for prices too. (Well, not Cruise anymore.) But yes, it's a thing. I call a car, sometimes it doesn't have a driver, and it takes me to where I need to go in the city when I'm unable, or don't want to drive. Or more likely, don't want to deal with parking. I'll take the bus when I'm going that way but the bus doesn't always go in the right direction. Can't wait for them to be able to take freeways over to Oakland and down to Cupertino.

hiidrew 3y ago
How does the price of these compare to Uber/Lyft?
- CityOfThrowaway 3y ago
  More expensive
- alooPotato 3y ago
  better driving imo
- cco 3y ago
  My experience has been that they are roughly equivalent in most cases. Sometimes they're slightly cheaper, multi-stop routes they tend to be a lot cheaper. If you tip in Uber/Lyft, Waymo is always more price competitive.
- acchow 3y ago
  I'm in FiDi right now (weekday afternoon). A Waymo ride to Dolores Park is $18. UberX is $17. Lyft is $19.85. I find that late night you often will not be able to get an Uber. I think drivers have been ceding ground to Waymo's obvious night driving superiority.
bluGill 3y ago
Those sound like trips where you shouldn't call a car at all, but get on the local transit service. Talk to your local politicians about fixing service so that is an option. Self driving cars are useful to replace various maintenance or delivery trucks in cities, and farm transport. However mass transit is better for most things people are thinking about them for.

disillusioned 3y ago

We're an active market in Phoenix for Waymo, and I live in Central Phoenix and see Waymos every single trip I take now; they're nearly ubiquitous. But I've also taken them several times. They're safe, very capable drivers, and I have a lot of confidence in them, to be honest.

aseipp 3y ago

Weekly? Now, this is nowhere near SF levels, but I live in South Austin, and I probably see at least 1-2 autonomous cars every single day I go driving in town.

stouset 3y ago

Weekly? I encounter at least one every few blocks.

IKantRead 3y ago

SF today is as close to Blade Runner that we'll ever get. Every billboard is for some AI company, you ride in a driverless cab across a literal mile of homeless people drugged out of their minds, screaming and pooping on the sidewalk. SF today is so aggressively dystopian that it's sort of hard not to enjoy the experience.

l33t7332273 3y ago
I think this comment is slightly exaggerated. I didn’t see that many ads for AI companies and while I did see some driverless vehicles, they were in the minority and I only saw them on my second full day exploring the city. There are a large number of homeless people openly doing drugs, and there is some poop, but I find these descriptions to be generally inaccurate. Don’t get me wrong, the situation is bad, but based on descriptions like this I was expecting far far worse.
- IKantRead 3y ago
  That comment is just based on my experience going to SF a few weeks ago. - Every billboard on the way to the hotel from the airport was for AI (which not the case a few months ago) - Uber driver interrogated me all the way to the hotel on the value prop of my current project at work - Went to grab a burger and had to dodge 2 people screaming at me, walked passed a man crying because I believe a friend had just gotten hit by a car. - almost stepped in human fecies - On my last night, took a cruise back to my hotel (thanks to a friend). Honestly it was quite fun. Nothing in my comment was exaggerated, just edited a bit to make it more coherent. The reality was actually more dystopian. And I do mean that last line seriously, I had a blast!: > SF today is so aggressively dystopian that it's sort of hard not to enjoy the experience.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- hot_gril 3y ago
  Nearly every billboard I've in SF, when I used to live near there 1-7 years ago, was tech. So not AI, but maybe "one app to rule them all" (I forget whose slogan that was).