Let’s talk about Waymo (driverless taxi).

[Knut]

Was in SAN Fran for 4 nights. We took Waymo 5 times and Uber 2x and taxi 1x.

Waymo is quick, fun, good service and you can pipe in your own music on the ride.

Once when stopped some guy came up and tried to kick the mirror off. Clearly not everyone likes the idea Support called right away to check on us and do a safety check on the car.

Cost wise it was comparable with both Uber and Waymo using surge pricing. With Uber we had some good drivers with good service. With the taxi driver he got mad that we asked for him to turn on the meter instead of taking cash (safety with kids in the car). He yelled at my wife for being “one of those people”. A meter tracks location.

Waymo doesn’t go everywhere (no airport or out of the San Francisco area) and I am not sure when Airport will be an option due to lobbying.

Overall, I can’t wait for Waymo (or other taxi services) to come to Canada.

I think taxis are a thing of the past pretty quickly and it will be Uber, Lyft and Waymo left standing.

[photon]

Shouldn't it be cheaper? Fewer humans...

I wonder if they'd have to have a whole different set of training data for driving in Canada when you can't see the lanes or the road or the curbs or the sidewalks or anything else and you just know where the road is from a general idea of where cars and piles of snow are

[DoubleK]

I will definitely be giving Waymo a try once I get to Scottsdale for the winter.

[GreatWhiteEbola]

Definitely a strange experience. Though I was distracted replying to urgent messages while I was in the Waymo car. Interesting they are using Jaaaaags. One odd thing was the wipers weren't activated while it was quite rainy... Driving without a clear windshield is definitely an automated car feature.

[Jordan!]

I was just in Boston and had to uber. 4+ times.. its a sucky awkward experience..

As a Tesla driver with Full self driving it was like a time warp to another age... Why do I need a person driving me around?

I'm all in with Autonomy at this point, we have Waymo here downtown phoenix where I work and it's my choice to go anywhere if I can or need to.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by photon

Shouldn't it be cheaper? Fewer humans...

The ratio of human supervisors for some of these startups has been shown to be higher than 1 human per car in some cases (but all remote employees in cheap locales).

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by photon

Shouldn't it be cheaper? Fewer humans...

I wonder if the insurance is higher until there is enough data to show it is "safe"

[Knut]

Each car costs 180,000 I think. So likely 3-4x your standard Uber.

From what I have read they are trying more to compete at the Premium level for ride shares. Like Uber black.

If was maybe $5 more per ride on average.

[chemgear]

I'm okay with waiting for the first several dozen people to get "test subjected" before worrying about these for a while.

[Knut]

Only sketchy part was when all the doors locked, every light inside turned red and it threatened to drive us to Oakland if we didn’t tip extra.

[DoubleF]

I saw them last year when I was in SF. IMO, the future of Waymo is for trains and buses or special fixed routes. There's going to be too much competition in the driverless car scene IMO. People can buy their own self driving vehicles and maybe Turo/Uber rent out their self driving vehicle when they don't need it. Waymo might get squeezed out of the taxi scene.

Now if Waymo creates a subsidiary named Delamain for premium taxi... that's a slightly different story. But they gotta add stuff like defense and crowd control and stuff

Or just "discretely" add a driver like the autopilot they had in the movie Airplane!

[OldDutch]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

I saw them last year when I was in SF. IMO, the future of Waymo is for trains and buses or special fixed routes. There's going to be too much competition in the driverless car scene IMO. People can buy their own self driving vehicles and maybe Turo/Uber rent out their self driving vehicle when they don't need it. Waymo might get squeezed out of the taxi scene.

Now if Waymo creates a subsidiary named Delamain for premium taxi... that's a slightly different story. But they gotta add stuff like defense and crowd control and stuff

Or just "discretely" add a driver like the autopilot they had in the movie Airplane!

Delamain gave me nightmares. Too real.

[edslunch]

Another step to our glorious future of never having to interact with another human. What’s next, sex dolls?

Seriously though, I like to talk with drivers when in a different city. I get tips and just general commentary about the place. At home not so much…shut up and drive.

[calumniate]

Nightmare fuel lol

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by calumniate

Nightmare fuel lol

Multiple weeks? Surprised they weren't firebombed.