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I love that this is landing in Austin before the cybercab. I think it will really drive the competition for Tesla to put out an (actual) self driving car. Or ma

by ddxv 2y ago

I love that this is landing in Austin before the cybercab. I think it will really drive the competition for Tesla to put out an (actual) self driving car. Or maybe they pivot to the next hype train.

NullHypothesist 2y ago
+1 In SF, when Cruise & Waymo were both operating at the same time, there was a lot of animosity towards autonomous vehicle driving behavior (especially emergency vehicles). Both companies got lumped in together, but this seemed to stop as soon as Cruise paused operations. It's nice that Austin will get a chance to see Waymo first, and have the ability to differentiate between the performance whenever Tesla launches. It'd be great if both performed flawlessly, but I have my doubts about one of these companies ability to act responsibly...
- iwanttocomment 2y ago
  Austin already had Cruise until Cruise operations shut down in late 2023.
  - ra7 2y ago
    Not in any meaningful way though. It was limited to only night time and select riders for most people to even notice.
  - dkarl 2y ago
    I tried Cruise in Austin, and it was nothing more than a curiosity. What should have been a ten minute ride took almost forty minutes because the car took a circuitous route with lots of backtracking, presumably because the cars were programmed to stay away from certain intersections and avoid left turns. It was my first time in a self-driving car, so the cool factor was definitely there, but it was far from being a real product.
- AlotOfReading 2y ago
  Both companies got lumped together, but Waymo had and continued to have issues after Cruise stopped operations. Some of those continued making headlines, like the 3am honking. During the time they were both operating public service in SF, Waymo had slightly fewer incidents proportional to their fleet size, but almost all of them were extremely minor. Cruise had mostly minor incidents with a few catastrophic failures.
bayarearefugee 2y ago
Well at the very least it will be interesting to see the fallout when the lidar-less Tesla robotaxi flattens its first pedestrian.
- pnw 2y ago
  Waymo published details of a new model recently that only uses cameras. https://waymo.com/research/emma https://waymo.com/research/emma
fixprix 2y ago
The problem is neither Waymo or Uber make their own cars, and the cars they use weren't purpose built for self driving. Both of those points give Tesla a huge economic and competitive advantage in the long run. Uber/Waymo are the middlemen, once OEMs start building their own purpose built self driving vehicles there's a good chance Waymo/Uber get factored out of the equation.
- ra7 2y ago
  Not if OEMs don't have the technology. Making cars is the easiest part of self driving. Once you have the tech, you can farm the manufacturing out to many OEMs (like Waymo is doing with Hyundai and Geely) and then OEMs become the middlemen.
  - NullHypothesist 2y ago
    If Waymo continues to grow their OEM partner pool, then presumably they'd have a better ability to put cars on the road than Tesla. I'd say right now it's "advantage Tesla" but could easily see this flipped on its head if Waymo announces more partnerships soon. Could very easily see them partnering with major US automakers like Ford or Stellantis (lol maybe even GM, but that seems extreme)
    - xnx 2y ago
      > I'd say right now it's "advantage Tesla" Tesla self-driving doesn't exist and will only work on Tesla vehicles if they ever develop the capability. Waymo self-driving works now and has been demonstrated on multiple vehicles. Waymo could utilize the manufacturing capacity of the entire auto-industry.
      - NullHypothesist 2y ago
        Oh yeah, I totally agree. Should have specified. That advantage only applies to making vehicles. In terms of driving, operation, and pretty much everything else, clearly 'advantage Waymo'
- 2y ago
tene80i 2y ago
Or an earlier one. Been a while since we heard any progress on how Hyperloop will own the future.
throwawayffffas 2y ago
Elon has already pivoted to rockets, space internet, social media and dismantling governments, if you are still holding Tesla in my humble opinion you are already holding the bag.
drivingmenuts 2y ago
I don't want to be the one sitting in a Waymo when it decides to clusterfuck up traffic.

by ddxv 2y ago

I love that this is landing in Austin before the cybercab. I think it will really drive the competition for Tesla to put out an (actual) self driving car. Or maybe they pivot to the next hype train.

NullHypothesist 2y ago

+1 In SF, when Cruise & Waymo were both operating at the same time, there was a lot of animosity towards autonomous vehicle driving behavior (especially emergency vehicles). Both companies got lumped in together, but this seemed to stop as soon as Cruise paused operations. It's nice that Austin will get a chance to see Waymo first, and have the ability to differentiate between the performance whenever Tesla launches. It'd be great if both performed flawlessly, but I have my doubts about one of these companies ability to act responsibly...

iwanttocomment 2y ago
Austin already had Cruise until Cruise operations shut down in late 2023.
- ra7 2y ago
  Not in any meaningful way though. It was limited to only night time and select riders for most people to even notice.
- dkarl 2y ago
  I tried Cruise in Austin, and it was nothing more than a curiosity. What should have been a ten minute ride took almost forty minutes because the car took a circuitous route with lots of backtracking, presumably because the cars were programmed to stay away from certain intersections and avoid left turns. It was my first time in a self-driving car, so the cool factor was definitely there, but it was far from being a real product.
AlotOfReading 2y ago
Both companies got lumped together, but Waymo had and continued to have issues after Cruise stopped operations. Some of those continued making headlines, like the 3am honking. During the time they were both operating public service in SF, Waymo had slightly fewer incidents proportional to their fleet size, but almost all of them were extremely minor. Cruise had mostly minor incidents with a few catastrophic failures.

bayarearefugee 2y ago

Well at the very least it will be interesting to see the fallout when the lidar-less Tesla robotaxi flattens its first pedestrian.

pnw 2y ago
Waymo published details of a new model recently that only uses cameras. https://waymo.com/research/emma https://waymo.com/research/emma

fixprix 2y ago

The problem is neither Waymo or Uber make their own cars, and the cars they use weren't purpose built for self driving. Both of those points give Tesla a huge economic and competitive advantage in the long run. Uber/Waymo are the middlemen, once OEMs start building their own purpose built self driving vehicles there's a good chance Waymo/Uber get factored out of the equation.

ra7 2y ago
Not if OEMs don't have the technology. Making cars is the easiest part of self driving. Once you have the tech, you can farm the manufacturing out to many OEMs (like Waymo is doing with Hyundai and Geely) and then OEMs become the middlemen.
- NullHypothesist 2y ago
  If Waymo continues to grow their OEM partner pool, then presumably they'd have a better ability to put cars on the road than Tesla. I'd say right now it's "advantage Tesla" but could easily see this flipped on its head if Waymo announces more partnerships soon. Could very easily see them partnering with major US automakers like Ford or Stellantis (lol maybe even GM, but that seems extreme)
  - xnx 2y ago
    > I'd say right now it's "advantage Tesla" Tesla self-driving doesn't exist and will only work on Tesla vehicles if they ever develop the capability. Waymo self-driving works now and has been demonstrated on multiple vehicles. Waymo could utilize the manufacturing capacity of the entire auto-industry.
    - NullHypothesist 2y ago
      Oh yeah, I totally agree. Should have specified. That advantage only applies to making vehicles. In terms of driving, operation, and pretty much everything else, clearly 'advantage Waymo'
2y ago

tene80i 2y ago

Or an earlier one. Been a while since we heard any progress on how Hyperloop will own the future.

throwawayffffas 2y ago

Elon has already pivoted to rockets, space internet, social media and dismantling governments, if you are still holding Tesla in my humble opinion you are already holding the bag.

drivingmenuts 2y ago

I don't want to be the one sitting in a Waymo when it decides to clusterfuck up traffic.