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If those 3000 employees work full-time (40 hours per week), they could theoretically serve 150,000 trips of up to 48 minutes in length, which seems reasonable,
by smokel 2y ago
If those 3000 employees work full-time (40 hours per week), they could theoretically serve 150,000 trips of up to 48 minutes in length, which seems reasonable, no?
Another interesting statistic here is that Waymo apparently has only 700 vehicles in its fleet [1]. That would require only 700 supervisors.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/alphabets-waymo-robotaxi-unit-doubles-its-paid-rides-three-months-2024-08-20/ https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/alphab...
- bryanlarsen 2y agoSupervisors don't work 24/7 like the cars do. For 1:1 coverage you need ~4X as many people as cars. As I said, theoretically viable if all employees were supervisors. But they're not.
- smokel 2y agoI tend to agree with you that it's very likely that the cars are operating autonomously most of the time. However, I don't think this kind of math helps much in actually proving (or disproving) that. We don't know how many of the employees are supervisors. For all we know, Waymo hires dozens of external mechanical turks per vehicle and uses a simple majority voting algorithm to ensure safety. Unlikely, or even ridiculous, but apart from Waymo's press releases, and the accidental legislation report [1], there is little hard evidence. [1] https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/vehicle-industry-services/autonomous-vehicles/disengagement-reports/ https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/vehicle-industry-services/auto...