18 ms·
I highly recommend everyone try it out if you're in SF. It's an incredibly smooth and sure ride. The cars are really nice too (Jaguar I-Pace electric cars), cle
by prasoonds 2y ago
I highly recommend everyone try it out if you're in SF. It's an incredibly smooth and sure ride. The cars are really nice too (Jaguar I-Pace electric cars), clean and spacious.
The first time you ride in one, it feels truly sci-fi. But within 5 minutes, you're almost bored of it - that's how good it is. If I had to choose between an Uber of questionable cleanliness and driver temperament and a Waymo with a slightly longer wait and slightly more fare, I'd choose the Waymo every time.
(I have no affiliation with Waymo, Google or any related industry - it's just an amazing service!)
- tapoxi 2y agoWouldn't the Ubers potentially be cleaner? Who's cleaning the Waymo between rides?
- sbuttgereit 2y agoPotentially. But, with each driver exercising quality control over their own vehicles, the actual result will likely vary from hitting as good or better a standard to being worse. The Waymo standards, thus far, are pretty high, so I would expect on average Uber/Lyft/Etc. would fair worse on average.
- kungito 2y agoI have no doubt that Google is waiting for more adoption before starting to cut costs everywhere and before you know it your puked out ride will direct you to www.waymo.hr/help to find an article which resolves your issue
- dventimi 2y agoWhy would that be any different from Uber? Doesn't Uber also want to cut costs?
- kungito 2y agoUber has partner drivers which have their own companies, their own rating, and can be punished for their behaviour. Once a company completely vertically integrates (like Google would like), meaning they have their own cars, they no longer want to punish themselves for bad behaviour/cars. Since they have to choose between short term cost of higher maintenance fee or long term cost of loss of quality of service their managers will start to optimize for quarterly results: cutting short term costs. What they want is to first entrench the market, push out competitors, introduce complex regulation and fees which prevents new competitors into the market and then start cutting costs everywhere they can and increase prices. Since you mention Uber, I can definitely see in my city how the quality of cars decreased and they started using almost inclusively cheap immigrants who realistically couldn't pass a drivers exam in my country and have on multiple occasions driven into wrong directions/ran red lights etc.
- dventimi 2y agoI didn't understand any of that.
- JumpCrisscross 2y agoWaymo is posiionting itself as a premium product. Defending that brand precludes letting the cars go to shit.
- dventimi 2y agoYup. Plus, if Waymo can clean its cars with greater efficiency at lower cost than Uber can, then all other things being equal, Waymo will have cleaner cars.
- lmm 2y agoThey may be trying to, but when has Google ever successfully positioned something as a premium product and defended that?
- dventimi 2y ago
- jfoster 2y agoThe standards might one day be a problem. As in, maybe, and one day. Not definitely, and not currently. Sometimes it's worth not worrying about problems too far in advance.
- rurp 2y agoI would be surprised if the Waymp cars weren't exceptionally nice in this phase, while they're trying hard to gain market share and trust. Google Search was a clean and delightful experience once upon a time. The aspect I'm more interested in is what the experience will be like if they ever become a dominant transport option.
- dventimi 2y agoI've taken 38 Waymo rides so far. Every one of them has been very clean, cleaner than the average Uber ride.
- cwillu 2y agoIs that a function of the limited population in the beta though?
- scarby2 2y agoi wonder if it's a function of a consistent cleaning schedule. Many uber drivers seem to wait far to long between interior cleans.
- dventimi 2y agoNo idea. I'm just reporting on what's already actually happened in the past (my ride experiences) instead of speculating on what might happen in the future.
- pb7 2y agoIt's a function of the filtered population. The cars are at full capacity day and night so the increased number of users won't affect a single car's cleanliness nearly as much as the type of people that will be riding in them.
- dventimi 2y agoWhat do you mean by the type of people who will be riding in them?
- fragmede 2y agoThat's a loaded question, but sure, let's go there. The problem with public transportation is that the public is allowed to use them, and the rules, legal and social, are not well defined or enforced. Assaulting other passengers is generally tolerated by the system, depending on the type of assault. Physical assault is considered too far and doesn't go unnoticed, but chemical and audio assault on fellow passengers usually goes unreported. The types of people are those who would assault others on some fashion. Whether this translates to Waymos smelling like meth or fentanyl when you get in them thanks to the previous rider remains to be seen. Or just needles, foil, or used condoms left behind. They record video, so Google could close the person's account so they won't be able to book Waymos with that account again, so we'll end up having to see how hard it is to create new accounts to use Waymo on to ban nuisance riders.
- xnx 2y agoWaymo's have cameras inside the car to make sure the vehicles are clean: https://support.google.com/waymo/answer/9190819 https://support.google.com/waymo/answer/9190819
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- fragmede 2y agoYeah they probably pipe that video to an algorithm that does background subtraction so they're able to assert that the vehicle is clear of foreign objects, but those cameras don't detect smell. If someone defecates and wipes it somewhere the camera doesn't see, then what?
- xnx 2y agoThe rider reports an issue and Waymo sends a new car while they send the dirty one back to the depot back to be cleaned? Offending previous rider is charged a fee and then banned for life. Hard for me to imagine this being a widespread problem. Probably about as much problem as there is with something similar happening in the elevator of a private building.
- ganeshkrishnan 2y ago"the algorithm has decided that the subject has likely defecated with 63% probability and will be ejected in t-5 minutes. Subject has no recourse to appeal and is banned from life including his ancestors and spawns"
- bloodyplonker22 2y agoOne of the worst parts of the Uber experience is the smell of the driver. Especially those that put on heavy cologne or perfumes.
- loopdoend 2y agoThose who choose to drive around with air recirculation on all day...
- dotBen 2y agoNo one but they have to return to base to recharge pretty quickly, whereupon someone can clean and tidy them.
- orbisvicis 2y agoAnother comment, another thread mentioned that Waymo requires more walking than an equivalent Uber ride - to the pickup location, from the drop-off location. Anyone know why this might be true?
- ducttapecrown 2y agoI'll hazard a guess: because Uber drivers are sometimes willing to stop for a minute in an illegal spot to park to do a quick pick up or drop off, and Waymos are never willing to do that (presumably).
- mikeodds 2y agoLast night a waymo dropped me off near the giants game. Presumably somewhere you aren’t meant to stop as I heard a security guard on loudspeaker asking “the car with the display on top” to move along as I was walking away, but the car wouldn’t move as there was still relatively fast traffic moving past it. I’ve had to walk a few times near steep hills, I was wondering if partly it was due to the angle of approach and the sensor view being blocked so they avoid the area?
- gst 2y agoDuring one of my last Waymo rides the car stopped on Powell between Bush and Sutter (facing South stopping on the regular lane a bit before the Powell/Sutter crossing). This caused other drivers to drive on the cable car tracks to go around the Waymo (which are separated from the driving lane with a double yellow line) and it caused a truck to do a right turn directly from the cable car tracks (as there wasn't enough space to merge back into the lane). Not sure if was legal or not for the Waymo to stop there, but given that Waymo stops take quite a bit longer than stops with Uber/Lyft (as it takes a while for the car to continue driving) this was one of the worst places possible to stop. Especially as there would have been space available right after the crossing next to Walgreens.
- Schiendelman 2y agoHonestly, it’s almost always legal to stop in a lane. Regardless of the fact that other drivers had bad behavior, that was the right thing to do. Some of the future of all this is that we will need to install curbs in places we don’t have them now to prevent bad human behavior.
- lucianbr 2y agoIs there any kind of limit to them besides the geofence? Can you get a Waymo at night? In the rain? I suppose it never snows there. How about roadworks? How do they react to vehicles with emergency signals? Can they follow directions of a cop in the street?
- xnx 2y agoNo. Yes. Yes. Waymo's have been taught to handle construction and emergency signals. Waymo's can follow hand directions from a cop in the street.
- lucianbr 2y agoAre there no freeways inside the geofence? Someone in the thread mentions that they will be adding freeways soon, so I understand it can't do those now.
- xnx 2y agoGood point. Not sure what the status is in SF. They're working on it in Phoenix: https://waymo.com/blog/2024/01/from-surface-streets-to-freeways-safely-expanding-our-rider-only-testing/ https://waymo.com/blog/2024/01/from-surface-streets-to-freew...
- aetherson 2y agoThere are freeways within the geofence in SF. My understanding is that Waymos will not drive on those freeways without a safety driver for now.
- pengaru 2y agoSo smooth they apparently opt to blow red lights instead of stopping abruptly. source: I commute by skateboard in SF daily. Just yesterday an empty Waymo cruised straight through a fresh red, narrowly missing my entry into the crosswalk. But don't get me started on what I've seen human drivers do on the same streets. Just annoyed that Waymo's aren't better.
- choppaface 2y agoHave also nearly been hit as a pedestrian by a Waymo. I also last week saw a Waymo blow through a yellow-red very aggressively, so I think the downvotes on above comment are intensely biased.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- jeffbee 2y agoThe way you can tell that a mode of transport is very safe is there are tons of people online whining that they almost got killed by it.
- archagon 2y agoNo. It means it’s only a matter of time before this technology breaks the law and kills someone.
- Schiendelman 2y agoOr people are sensitive to it and the rate at which it kills people will be lower than humans, or probably already is!
- Swizec 2y agoCompeting anecdata: Yesterday I was running downtown and a Waymo stopped for me at a green light because it wasn't sure if I was gonna jaywalk (jayrun?). Only once I stood still for a few seconds did it continue to make its turn. This was in a turn-left-only intersection with a separate pedestrian light. Maybe the Waymo got confused and thought I also had green.
- bragr 2y agoI got access to Waymo in LA a few weeks ago and have taken it 4 times. It's capabilities are impressive for sure, but I'm not sure I'd go as far as "smooth and sure ride". The car's skills seems to vary between impressive and "nervous new driver". It drives like someone that got randomly stuck into a much bigger car than they are used to.
- Fatnino 2y agoWhen I rode in one, admittedly a long time ago when cruise was still operating in sf too, the waymo car pulled over for a firetruck. However, the firetruck was merely crossing the road we were on and it was 3 streets away. And the waymo pulled into a bus stop to do this. The safety driver had to nudge it back into traffic.
- Schiendelman 2y agoThe rate at which these systems are improving makes it almost useless to compare even six months ago.
- forgetfreeman 2y agoProve that. Because last time I checked in there wasn't a self-driving system in play that wouldn't faceplant into wet cement, blow through crosswalks, or find itself trapped in a cleverly deployed ring of salt. Additionally, by their own admission Waymo is nowhere near level 5 autonomy, which means they still haven't reached parity with what a mediocre human driver is capable of.
- cen4 2y agoNot only will safety take a long time for technical reasons, but its extremely predictable under what financial conditions corporate execs sweep safety issues under the carpet. If Alphabet has a few tricky quarters good luck to everyone.
- 2y ago
- ModernMech 2y agoI’d say the same, maybe. But yesterday I had an Uber with a guy that had a degree in history and a love for SF lore, and told me about the tomb of Starr King, and then I went on a quest to find it with my friend. Just saying that there’s magic out there that’s not technological.
- mlboss 2y agoNot so difficult to add this feature with the help of human like voice and LLM backend.
- darkteflon 2y agoLadies and gentlemen, welcome to Hacker News.
- rd 2y agoPut a tone monitoring system to tell if the person is getting annoyed, and have a fallback that reroutes you to a warehouse of offshore comedians.
- im3w1l 2y agoYou're not wrong, but I think part of point of storytelling is about connecting people with each other and creating a sense of community.
- ModernMech 2y agoThat kind of misses the point; it was the human that was interesting to me and the interaction we had, not that he gave information.
- mlboss 2y agoI think llms can create a good interaction based on the exchange. But is the real question is what make humans unique that these algorithms cannot do.
- 2y ago
- itsoktocry 2y agoI love how we've gone from "Taxis are gross and dirty, that's why I love Uber!" to"Ubers are gross and dirty, that's why I love Waymo!" in the span of 5 years. What do you think comes next? These cars are literally unsupervised.
- wetpaws 2y ago>What do you think comes next? Public transport, hopefully.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- hyfgfh 2y agoAnd mingle with the masses? in SF? Maybe if they re-invent trains or buses again
- elbasti 2y ago> Maybe if they re-invent trains or buses again You joke, but I've heard more than one argument about how self-driving cars will drastically improve traffic because, for inter-city travel, they will be able to drive very close together on the highway in a long convoy, leaving almost no space between cars...
- thechao 2y ago150 cars long! 90000 horsepower! May Immortan Joe live forever!!! To the Vineyards!
- DANmode 2y agoIt'll end up being the opposite that causes a positive effect, if there's one to be had. Leaving proper gaps (which next to nobody reading this will be familiar with!) allows for cars to cross, or even merge.
- miki123211 2y ago
- Dr_Birdbrain 2y agoI wonder if the cleanliness will be maintained over time? Presumably this requires humans to physically clean periodically, and it seems like this would suffer when the company starts to squeeze costs to improve margins.
- CobrastanJorji 2y agoI imagine the cars all head to some centralized location for cleaning and whatever other maintenance. That probably makes cleaning a very economic, factory-like procedure. Beats something like Uber where drivers have to bring their cars to a car wash or whatever (although presumably the Uber drivers aren't being paid to wash the cars because they aren't employees, so the unpaid labor there gives Uber an advantage).
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- majormajor 2y agoThe biggest problem with cleaning is that compared to Uber where there's a human driver, the autonomy factor will almost certainly lead to more people fucking shit up simply because they can. Look at anything else that goes unattended in the public way: ebikes, delivery bot things, scooters... nasty combo of "I want to fuck with The Man" and "haha nobody is here watching I don't need to be as careful with my messy sandwich"
- Rebelgecko 2y agoWaymos do have interior cameras, so if you puke in the backseat you can't blame it on the previous rider
- foota 2y agoIt's probably a little bit better since a car is a closed environment. That won't save it entirely, but it'll at least mitigate the issue I expect as compared to e.g., a public bus.
- 2y ago
- mgh2 2y agoHow is pricing? https://www.reddit.com/r/SelfDrivingCars/comments/18abac9/pricing_still_more_expensive_than_uberlyft/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SelfDrivingCars/comments/18abac9/pr...
- brian-armstrong 2y agoThey're worth trying once, but they're not ready to replace Lyft/Uber. The cost is similar or sometimes even more for Waymo, and the trip often takes longer thanks to the car's skittishness. The ride length estimates are also quite optimistic which can lead to arriving later than one intends. I don't see a real compelling reason to keep using them.
- beaugunderson 2y agotook two waymo rides in SF and two nightmare cab rides in SF and memphis in the last couple of days. one waymo was perfect, the other ran a red light then stopped in the intersection diagonally across two lanes of traffic until the light turned green. didn't endanger anyone but felt awkward! on the cab ride to SFO my driver kept falling asleep and veering into the next lane, i tried talking with him to keep him awake but it was clear he'd been driving all morning and was exhausted. the cab ride from memphis international was interesting, the cab was falling apart, driver was nice but he tried to convert me to christianity for the last ten minutes of the ride. the waymos will end up safer but totally devoid of character.
- ddalex 2y agoMy AIs have no character, I demand my Roomba show a little passion when cleaning.
- d3nj4l 2y agoYou joke but that would go so hard. Like DJ Roomba from Parks and Rec.
- datadrivenangel 2y agoGhosts in the machine aren't real, which is a shame, so we should fix that!
- teleforce 2y agoFrom my (hopefully) neutral point of view I think Waymo running a red traffic light is the worst of all and most likely will end up in a disaster. For huge metropolitan cities for examples London, Istanbul, Delhi, Tokyo, Jakarta or Sao Paulo running a red traffic with a car can most probably cause fatal accidents. I am now more than convinced that level 5 autonomous driving cannot be achieved in my lifetime, and much better efforts should be better directed toward non-invasive highly accurate early detection of high mortality diseases like CVDs and efforts for properly mitigating climate changes.
- darepublic 2y ago
- lynx23 2y agoI will prefer a human driver (for several reasons) for a long time to come. I would even pay more for a a human driver.
- ithkuil 2y agoBecause of safety concerns or because you like the idea that in principle humans should be driving? In other words, what kind of safety metrics do you think would be necessary to change your mind? If in N years 90% of your peers use self-driving cars, and the only accidents you hear about are in the news about people you don't know, would that change your feelings about safety?
- lynx23 2y agoPrimarily because I Lack trust (safety concerns) and prefer the flexibility of human drivers. Besiides, I think eliminating "simple" jobs like being a driver will result in more social problems. I am blind. General statistics and adoption rate in my peer group (sighted coworkers) are not representative for me at all. None of these datapoint give a good indication how much I am (as a visually non-participating pedestrian) in danger. Given my life experience, it is safe to assume nobody really thought about blind people. I am regularily tripping over (and hurting myself with) badly placed bicycles. I am assuming a high percentage of these bicycle owners are well-meaning, green-voting people. However, their political and/or personal attitude doesn't help people like me at all, we still get hurt on a regular basis, and nobody talks about it. I would be surprised if this changed with AVs.
- jwr 2y agoI definitely would not want to be a beta tester of this software. I know too well how the sausage is made, I guess. We are way too aggressive with allowing self-driving cars on our roads. Companies are incapable of building a toaster without bugs, our banking apps are a burning garbage dumpster fire, and yet we somehow think it will be different this time?
- ken47 2y agoWhy deal with real people when we can plug ourselves into the matrix? Until we get so bored that we ask the matrix to create fake people for us to interact with.
- Rakshith 2y agoPersonally I dont understand why they went with Jaguars. I wish they had gone with Hondas and struck a deal with them to integrate their level 3 Autonomous tech as it is the most advanced in the industry.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]