Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 02/13/2026 9:17:47 AM PST by DFG
Waymo’s cars are driven without humans. But when a departing passenger leaves a door open, the car won’t move until a person closes it.
For that task, Waymo is turning to gig workers from companies like DoorDash.
The Alphabet-owned self-driving car company confirmed on Thursday that it’s running a pilot in Atlanta to compensate delivery drivers for closing Waymo doors that are left ajar. DoorDash drivers are notified when a Waymo in the area has an open door so the vehicles can quickly get back on the road, the company said.
That acknowledgement came after a Reddit post showed a DoorDash driver in Atlanta was offered $11.25 to close the door of a nearby Waymo.
Waymo and DoorDash said in a joint statement to CNBC that they are always looking for new and flexible ways for DoorDash deliverers to earn money, adding that future Waymo vehicles will have automated door closures. Waymo didn’t say when that capability will arrive.
Waymo’s reliance on people for simple tasks underscores how even the most advanced autonomous technologies still require costly human intervention for some basic operations. Valued at $126 billion in a recent financing round, Waymo is central to Alphabet’s Other Bets, which are targeted at “using technology to try to solve big problems that affect a wide variety of industries, including transportation and health technology,” according to the company’s financial filings.
In Alphabet’s annual filing last week, the company said the Other Bets segment recorded an operating loss last year of $7.5 billion, which included a $2.1 billion stock-based compensation charge at Waymo.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
Seems like a real world what-if scenrio wasn’t accounted for.
A new reason for fights to break out!
Wait, a car can drive itself, but can’t close it’s own door?
Gotcha.
As my son always says, make something idiot proof, and nature will produce a better idiot.
Lead engineer. “Damn. I knew we forgot something.”
Waymo has software to drive cars on busy city streets, but doesn’t have software to detect no human body parts are in the way of their car doors, and to automatically close it?
weird.
Maybe I should tell my wife about this service.
“Wait, a car can drive itself, but can’t close it’s own door?”
As of now they rely on humans to close the door. :-) The primitive beginnings of this technology.
Maybe the AIs will keep some humans around to do the jobs that AI doesn’t want to do.
Why don’t they auto close the doors after a minute or two?
Just call the Door a Jar....
Maybe Waymo can use unmanned drones to close the doors.
and presumably that Human Touch will still be needed by any Google-developed robotic labor units (perhaps to at least squirt some lube oil up their backsides ... as per the Tin Man in Oz?)
we may still have some work, career paths ahead for us even after Google etal fully our mechanical replacements?
smiles smiles
I have to imagine that there are a million unaccounted for scenarios in Waymos. Like the drunk guy who throws up in the car. The kids having sex in the car. The guy high on drugs who freaks out in the car. Maybe DoorDash drivers can handle them all.
“Take me to the nearest Chop Shop.”
Here at my business the phrase we use is:
“Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.”
I passed a waymo car in Nashville near Vanderbilt yesterday.
Not sure if it was giving a ride or mapping.
Lidar up top reminded me of Inspector Gadget.
30some years ago I drove taxi as my second job to make ends meet. Those things happened in the back seat then. If youre going to have to do it anyway then I cant imagine why DoorDash doesnt just take that market too.
For that matter, sometimes we would get calls to be like todays DoorDash and I would go pick my passenger which was a pizza or something and take it “home”.
Why doesnt a regular taxi company just do both?
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.