4 ms·

Waymo is making 50K paid trips per week

18 points by kaycebasques 2y ago

Lucasoato 2y ago
Will it be the future of transportation? Every vehicle will be shared, you travel between far cities with trains and then count on self-driving cars to move between a place and another. Imagine how much more optimized that can be compared to now, in terms of vehicle ownership efficiency (nowadays if you own a car, it's waiting in the garage 99% of its lifetime). Imagine how everything could be furtherly improved if every one communicated its travel needs on a centralized system that suggests the trips for these autonomous vehicles, minimizing fuel/time, depending on current demand. Like spot instances but for travelling: you specify a particular hour by which you need to be in a place and the system can give you a discount if you're alright with walking few minutes before and afterwards not to derail too much someone else's trip. Like autobus with steroids basically. Now imagine what a nightmare it would mean to live in a society where this is the only way to move. Nobody would get a car, because that would become too expensive compared to use such a system. Whatever this centralized thing is going to be, it will own the position of every individual at any time. Any actor hacking/controlling such system would be able to manipulate the world, knowing the location of each individual 24/7. The end of privacy and freedom.
- sottol 2y ago
  As much hate as California gets, the CPRA and CPPA give me a little hope. Otherwise, maybe Europe might be better off with the GDPR. But I'm almost more worried about what a company in such a position will do monetarily to its customers once it has reached a quasi-monopoly (or duopoly). I hope it turns out to be more like air-travel than Uber/Lyft, which afaict are now more expensive than cabs they replaced.
  - Zigurd 2y ago
    It is possible Google could run away with the game based on two moats: 1. Mapping data; 2. Driving AI. But that outcome is far from certain. OTOH does Google really want to own all the taxis, vans, and busses on the planet? I expect that if Waymo matures into a product that can be used anywhere on any shared vehicle, the companies that provide the tech will have a supplier relationship with lots of different vehicle operators.
deleted 2y ago
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18 points by kaycebasques 2y ago

Will it be the future of transportation? Every vehicle will be shared, you travel between far cities with trains and then count on self-driving cars to move between a place and another. Imagine how much more optimized that can be compared to now, in terms of vehicle ownership efficiency (nowadays if you own a car, it's waiting in the garage 99% of its lifetime). Imagine how everything could be furtherly improved if every one communicated its travel needs on a centralized system that suggests the trips for these autonomous vehicles, minimizing fuel/time, depending on current demand. Like spot instances but for travelling: you specify a particular hour by which you need to be in a place and the system can give you a discount if you're alright with walking few minutes before and afterwards not to derail too much someone else's trip. Like autobus with steroids basically. Now imagine what a nightmare it would mean to live in a society where this is the only way to move. Nobody would get a car, because that would become too expensive compared to use such a system. Whatever this centralized thing is going to be, it will own the position of every individual at any time. Any actor hacking/controlling such system would be able to manipulate the world, knowing the location of each individual 24/7. The end of privacy and freedom.

sottol 2y ago
As much hate as California gets, the CPRA and CPPA give me a little hope. Otherwise, maybe Europe might be better off with the GDPR. But I'm almost more worried about what a company in such a position will do monetarily to its customers once it has reached a quasi-monopoly (or duopoly). I hope it turns out to be more like air-travel than Uber/Lyft, which afaict are now more expensive than cabs they replaced.
- Zigurd 2y ago
  It is possible Google could run away with the game based on two moats: 1. Mapping data; 2. Driving AI. But that outcome is far from certain. OTOH does Google really want to own all the taxis, vans, and busses on the planet? I expect that if Waymo matures into a product that can be used anywhere on any shared vehicle, the companies that provide the tech will have a supplier relationship with lots of different vehicle operators.

deleted 2y ago

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