Posted on 11/16/2018 7:10:04 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
The California Department of Motor Vehicles on Tuesday, October 30 granted Waymo a permit allowing the autonomous vehicle company to begin fully driverless testing on Silicon Valley streets, including in Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Mountain View.
Sixty companies are currently permitted in California to test autonomous vehicles with a “safety driver” beside the wheel, but Tuesday's announcement makes Mountain View-based Waymo the first to secure clearance for truly driverless testing, according to the DMV.
“It gives us the ability to remove someone from the driver’s seat,” said Alexis Georgeson of Waymo Corporate and Policy Communications.
In addition to Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Mountain View, the DMV’s blessing authorizes Waymo to test in Sunnyvale and Palo Alto as well. The permit includes day and night testing on city streets, rural roads and highways with speed limits of up to 65 miles per hour, according to a Waymo press release.
But don’t expect to see completely empty, ghost-like minivans zipping through town just yet, Georgeson said. The first wave of testing, involving a fleet of approximately three dozen test vehicles, will include Waymo employees inside the vehicles but not necessarily occupying the front seats. Employees may now ride within the cabin, away from the steering wheel.
Companies applying for driverless permits must meet safety, insurance and vehicle registration requirements, including proof of insurance or a bond equal to $5 million, evidence test vehicles are capable of operating without a driver and training for remote operators, according to the DMV.
(Excerpt) Read more at losaltosonline.com ...
We are SO happy to have these robots cruising our town streets without a human behind the wheel (\s & SNORT!). I must see these vehicles on our town streets twenty times per day. One pulled up in front of our house and stopped for 10 minutes last night around 7 PM.
These new robots on our town streets makes me think of this other news today: Surgical robot BOTCHES surgery, kills man on operating table while doctors sipped lattes.
I don’t trust these things yet. They need Waymo testing.
You win. No more submissions will be accepted...
Shouldn’t we ease into this rather than go at it all in once?
Perhaps start off slow, with robotic open heart surgery first, then work our way up to driverless cars.
I was just about to wonder aloud if this car will be as effective as the surgeonless robot?
I think they’ll at first limit the testing to freeways and the various expressways (Lawrence, Central, Oregon, San Tomas, and others) to verify the systems. It’s only much later they’ll test it out on actual surface streets.
This TECH is being so oversold and overpromised.. it is not ready for prime time and has no business on public streets.... Government officials are IDIOT for allowing this.
I really like the way the robot in the picture parked in a red “No Parking” zone.
Nothing good can come from this.
I just don't understand the rush to these things. IIRC they have killed people - yet they want more on our highways?
They have been on our town streets (Los Altos) for a several years. They left the main freeways and expressways a long time ago. They are very heavily present on our surface streets now.
The one parked in front of our house a couple nights ago did not appear to have a person behind the wheel. Just in front passenger seat and rear seat. But it was dark and hard to see precisely.
Robots are doing so much good...
Perhaps they could multi-task, and be more efficient.
It could drive your car, getting you to where you need to go, and during the drive, insert a stent and have you stitched and ready to go upon arrival.
Of course, this would only work today, with destinations like morgues and cemeteries.
Their isn’t a fully autonomous truck licensed or approved by the DOT just to travel on interstates, which is a FAR simpler problem... Stay in your lane, no cross traffic, etc etc... THAT problem hasn’t been solved fully yet... the problem of urban driving, which is FAR FAR MORE COMPLICATED, safely is 20+ years away... AT LEAST!!!
This Tech is being so grossly oversold and overpromised! These cars have NO business on public streets.. Anyone who understands the actual problems with this tech will tell you as much IF THEY ARE HONEST!... But these governments only listen to the pitch men...
“Perhaps start off slow, with robotic open heart surgery first, then work our way up to driverless cars.”
Yep, I guess the Holy grail will be when you can have open heart surgery WHILE trvelling in a driverless car......Again, what could go wrong?
I’ve seen Waymo’s cars fairly regularly along San Antonio road in Los Altos, though always with a person in the car. It’ll be interesting (and a little startling) to see them doddling along without anyone in the car.
The robot surgeon will probably just hook up with the driverless car and leave the patient on the side of the road.
Self-driving Uber kills Arizona woman in first fatal crash involving pedestrian, March 19, 2018.
There have been two Tesla crashes that killed drivers with the car in "autopilot" mode. This is not a full self-driving mode - it just keeps your car in the lane and automatically brakes.
Tesla's Autopilot was Involved in Another Deadly Car Crash (California), March 30, 2018. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said that four seconds before the 23 March crash on a highway in Silicon Valley, which killed Walter Huang, 38, the car stopped following the path of a vehicle in front of it. Three seconds before the impact, it sped up from 62mph to 70.8mph, and the car did not brake or steer away, the NTSB said....the Tesla battery was breached, causing the car to be engulfed in flames.
NTSB says driver in fatal Tesla crash was overreliant on the car’s ‘Autopilot’ system (Florida)
The first reported death in a Tesla Model S crash while the Autopilot was activated has been shaking the Tesla and self-driving car community since yesterday. The tragic accident happened May 7th in Florida, but we only learned about it yesterday when Tesla revealed that the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched preliminary evaluation in Tesla’s Autopilot system.
There are other non-fatal Tesla crashes...
Tesla was in Autopilot mode before Utah crash, driver tells police (Utah), May 14, 2018
A woman whose semi-autonomous Tesla rammed into a fire department truck in Utah last week told police her car was in Autopilot mode at the time of the crash, authorities said Monday.
The unidentified 28-year-old driver was looking at her phone when her Model S — which was traveling at 60 mph — careened through a red light and crashed into the truck, Sgt. Samuel Winkler of the South Jordan Police Department said in a statement. The woman broke her right foot, Winkler said, while the truck driver was checked for whiplash but not hospitalized.
And if you had put a cardboard cutout of the rear end of a car in front of it, and a cutout of the front end of a car in back of it, the driverless car would have sat there forever.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.