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1: Airport rides are already available in Phoenix between 10PM and 6AM. 2: I have never seen a Waymo on the freeway without someone driving it (not monitored s

by ajcp 2y ago

1: Airport rides are already available in Phoenix between 10PM and 6AM. 2: I have never seen a Waymo on the freeway without someone driving it (not monitored self-driving, but physically driving it). Take this with a grain of sand but it is my understanding that full self-driving on highways is still far away given the limited range of the (relatively) small sensors and the speed of travel required. That is: the sensors cannot see far enough ahead to react comfortably when going above N miles-per-hour. That might be a dated understanding of the issue though... Source: I've been riding Weymo since 2019 when it first went public beta (NDA-restricted use). Rode one last night coming home from the airport!

Lisdexamfeta 2y ago
Airport rides in Phoenix are always available, but apart from the hours you note, Waymo drops riders off at the 24th or 44th Street Sky Train locations.
- ajcp 2y ago
  Apologies, you are correct. I took OPs meaning to be that capability that Uber/Lyft operators can already provide at Sky Harbor.
ra7 2y ago
I meant airport rides to the terminal at all hours of the day. Waymo is already giving driverless freeway rides to employees in Phoenix, so I don’t agree that it’s far away. It’s definitely a different challenge though.
- ajcp 2y ago
  Are they really? Only in Chandler or throughout?
  - ra7 2y ago
    I know from their announcements that they give freeway rides to employees in Phoenix area. They're also frequently spotted in Bay Area and Austin freeways, but with safety drivers.
TulliusCicero 2y ago
Freeway driving is more straightforward in many ways compared to urban driving, but the problem is that the impact of screwing up is a LOT more severe. If you screw up at typical speeds in SF, probably nobody will die. On a freeway, odds are a lot higher. If a car is confused in an urban area, stopping in the middle of the street isn't 100% safe, but it's not super dangerous, whereas stopping in the middle of freeway suddenly is obviously extremely dangerous.
kajecounterhack 2y ago
> That is: the sensors cannot see far enough ahead to react comfortably when going above N miles-per-hour. That might be a dated understanding of the issue though... It's more of a challenge when your stopping distance is low (more problematic for trucking than it is for TaaS vehicles since trucks are so damn heavy). I suspect some challenges are risks like tailgater collisions and high-stakes lane changes at speed, and even more problematic is just profitability (what if your cars are tied up in traffic jams, what if they don't have enough charge left to make a long round trip, etc).

by ajcp 2y ago

Lisdexamfeta 2y ago

Airport rides in Phoenix are always available, but apart from the hours you note, Waymo drops riders off at the 24th or 44th Street Sky Train locations.

ajcp 2y ago
Apologies, you are correct. I took OPs meaning to be that capability that Uber/Lyft operators can already provide at Sky Harbor.

ra7 2y ago

I meant airport rides to the terminal at all hours of the day. Waymo is already giving driverless freeway rides to employees in Phoenix, so I don’t agree that it’s far away. It’s definitely a different challenge though.

ajcp 2y ago
Are they really? Only in Chandler or throughout?
- ra7 2y ago
  I know from their announcements that they give freeway rides to employees in Phoenix area. They're also frequently spotted in Bay Area and Austin freeways, but with safety drivers.

TulliusCicero 2y ago

Freeway driving is more straightforward in many ways compared to urban driving, but the problem is that the impact of screwing up is a LOT more severe. If you screw up at typical speeds in SF, probably nobody will die. On a freeway, odds are a lot higher. If a car is confused in an urban area, stopping in the middle of the street isn't 100% safe, but it's not super dangerous, whereas stopping in the middle of freeway suddenly is obviously extremely dangerous.

kajecounterhack 2y ago

> That is: the sensors cannot see far enough ahead to react comfortably when going above N miles-per-hour. That might be a dated understanding of the issue though... It's more of a challenge when your stopping distance is low (more problematic for trucking than it is for TaaS vehicles since trucks are so damn heavy). I suspect some challenges are risks like tailgater collisions and high-stakes lane changes at speed, and even more problematic is just profitability (what if your cars are tied up in traffic jams, what if they don't have enough charge left to make a long round trip, etc).