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Waymo is amazing, knowing some of the stuff they do behind the scenes to ensure safety - I would feel safer riding in a Waymo than driving myself. My biggest f
by mike_d 3y ago
Waymo is amazing, knowing some of the stuff they do behind the scenes to ensure safety - I would feel safer riding in a Waymo than driving myself.
My biggest fear has always been that Cruise or Tesla would shit the bed so bad we don't get any self-driving, either because of regulatory constraints or ruining the public perception of them.
- qeternity 3y ago> knowing some of the stuff they do behind the scenes to ensure safety Any info on this? I would love to learn more about what they're doing.
- xnx 3y agohttps://waymo.com/safety/ https://waymo.com/safety/ is probably your best resource. You can follow the links from there to learn about all the things they're doing with simulation, etc.
- ehsankia 3y agoAbsolutely. Glad California DMV is taking the more level headed approach here and evaluating them case by case based on merit.
- startupsfail 3y agoIn the case of that particular incident, it seems that the pedestrian was “thrown” into the lane with Cruise when it was hit by another (human) driver.
- yterdy 3y ago[flagged]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- filoleg 3y agoAh yeah, when something doesn’t conform to your narrative, it surely is an astroturf. All coming from accounts that are many years old and have thousands of karma points that leave meaningful posts on all types of topics. But the second they post about Waymo in a positive light, that instantly means astroturfing and not their true opinion based on their lived experiences.
- BoorishBears 3y agoRealistically, there are a lot of Googlers and Xooglers on Hacker News. One of the messages in this thread is literally stating they have special knowledge of the behinds the scene workings of Waymo. I work in the AV space and I honestly don't think there's much of a competitive mentality between the companies in the space, but at the same time there is a tendency of people to psudeo-astroturf these brands: where they know someone working at the company and take great personal pride because "I know so and so who works on self-driving cars!"
- austhrow743 3y agoPeople taking it upon themselves to talk up a brand is the opposite of astroturfing, not pseudo-astroturfing.
- BoorishBears 3y agoWhen you're indirectly related to the brand and that's affecting your eagerness, it's something akin to astroturfing in why astroturfing is looked down on: ie. you're biased But it doesn't have the malice/intent of astroturfing.
- joemi 3y agoEveryone is biased. There are no perfectly unbiased opinions. And "having a bias" is not the same thing as astroturfing.
- dataflow 3y ago
- leetcrew 3y ago"unable to move and blocking traffic" is not a new failure mode for cars. I get that it's particularly infuriating to be blocked by a car that is, mechanically, in good shape, but I don't find the story particularly damning. I've blocked traffic that long waiting for a tow truck.
- yterdy 3y agoThe case he described is different in that, apparently, the vehicles in question lock all of their wheels and can't be accessed, even by law enforcement. A special tow has to be called in. It's a design decision made to protect the company at the expense of the public.
- joemi 3y agoJust because some people's opinions differ from yours doesn't mean astroturfing is at play.
- wolverine876 3y agoDid they give that reason?
- JamilD 3y agoI feel kinda the same way about Waymo like I did about Apple as a relatively early adopter. The experience is genuinely magical, and there’s a massive gulf between Cruise and Waymo’s capabilities. A sufficiently good product may produce customer reviews that are indistinguishable from astroturfing.
- Obscurity4340 3y agoWhat's your opinion on Prop22?
- pcwalton 3y agoThe guidelines ask you not to accuse others of being shills.
- TuringNYC 3y agoCan any engineers in the field comment on whether the [very cool!] Waymo vs Cruise performance anecdotes being discussed here would have been the result of Google's millimeter-level scanning of SF? Or is it just better algos only? Or both?
- AustinDev 3y agoCruise vehicles have sufficient sensor payloads to produce a 'milimeter-level scanning of SF' with many fewer hours than they've been on the road there. I doubt that provides the biggest difference. It's all down the software at this point. Especially because they're not trying to do anything crazy like vision only.
- kbos87 3y agoWe keep hearing this is crazy, but is there evidence to back that up? At this point with hundreds of thousands of Tesla vehicles logging millions of miles a month, I feel like we’d be hearing non-stop reports of destruction on the highways if it really is as crazy as the average HN reader has been led to believe.
- trogdor 3y ago>with hundreds of thousands of Tesla vehicles logging millions of miles a month, I feel like we’d be hearing non-stop reports of destruction Why do you believe that Tesla vehicles are driving millions of miles a month on autopilot? I suspect that autopilot accounts for a vanishingly small percentage of Tesla miles-driven. Mostly because it sucks, but also because of how hard it is to not miss a nag on a long road trip, with the result that you are locked out of autopilot until your next stop. (Yes, even when paying attention to the road, with your hands on the wheel. Hell, autopilot locks you out if you exceed 85 mph for more than a few seconds by pressing the accelerator, such as when passing. This is true even in places where the speed limit is 85 mph, and the slower end of the flow of traffic is 95 mph.) I love the performance of my Model S Plaid. Autopilot, however, is a joke.
- 3y ago
- nonethewiser 3y ago> Waymo is amazing, knowing some of the stuff they do behind the scenes to ensure safety Such as?
- littlestymaar 3y ago> My biggest fear has always been that Cruise or Tesla would shit the bed so bad we don't get any self-driving, either because of regulatory constraints or ruining the public perception of them Exactly this. When I saw Tesla releasing their half-backed crap I feared they will damage the public perception so badly that we wouldn't have self-driving cars for years.
- coding123 3y agoI know most of it was PR but the stuff Waymo did about showing a test course they built and actually having "unit tests" related to driving showed me they're not dumping these things on the road to make money, they're trying to get it right. The competition: Uber kills someone and turns out they disabled "breaking due to objects in the way" because it makes it jerkier. Tesla is often killing the drivers because they marketed it as "auto-pilot" Cruise rolled over someone for 20 seconds. I would have to agree. I honestly hate regulatory capture in most industries, but perhaps Waymo's "unit tests" should be turned over to the DMV and made as the gold standard driving test for AI drivers.