Waymo One, the first commercial robotaxi service, is now picking up passengers in Arizona

Los Angeles Times ^ | 12/5/18 | Russ Mitchell

[ProtectOurFreedom]

You can't drive a block in Mountain View, CA without seeing one of these. I still give them a healthy margin, especially when I am a pedestrian and need to cross the street. It is quite unnerving thinking that I'm depending on automation sensors to "see" me and computers and software to decide to not squash me like a bug.

When the first major bloodbath happens with a driverless car, I wonder what the expected market valuation of Waymo will be.

[Dr. Sivana]

I was seeing non-Pacifica versions of Waymo vehicles in Mesa. Now that we are near Glendale, where driving is more hazardous, not so much.

[dfwgator]

"We hope you enjoyed the ride!"

[EagleUSA]

Awaiting the first death......

[PGR88]

When the first major bloodbath happens with a driverless car, I wonder what the expected market valuation of Waymo will be.

I'm a cynic. Litigation and liability are used by government to speed the elimination of industries and companies that do not fit social-engineering plans and are also financially ripe for harvesting by politicians, ie) tobacco, guns, certain drugs, chemicals etc... Or, of course, liability applies to small companies.

New economy-wide technologies, or politically-connected industries, are given very wide margin for mistakes.

[smvoice]

Does it understand Spanish? Does it service the border area?

[Yo-Yo]

"DRIVER DOES NOT CARRY
MORE THAN $20 IN BITCOIN"

[Ezekiel]

How do these things "process" the Gotcha! yellow lights? Do they get ticketed for running short yellows, or are they able to slam on the breaks in time no matter what, so some poor sap ends up rear ending them?

Glad I don't live or drive in experiment-ville. I'm safe for now at least.

Perhaps the gotcha lights only trip off for human drivers due to professional courtesy amongst the machines.

[bigbob]

Goan’ have way mo accidents with these on the road!

[ProtectOurFreedom]

LOL...nice!

[Moonman62]

When the first major bloodbath happens with a driverless car, I wonder what the expected market valuation of Waymo will be.

...

Almost 40,000 people die in traffic accidents in the United States every year. Do you mean that kind of bloodbath?

[Moonman62]

Goan’ have way mo accidents with these on the road!

...

They’ve already driven millions of miles in the Phoenix area for nonpaying passengers.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Although the cars will drive themselves, a Waymo engineer will sit behind the wheel in case anything goes wrong.

And also probably to make sure the cars don't get stripped by passengers looking for interesting technology artifacts.

[dennisw]

Lawyers can’t wait to feast (eat them alive!) on the owners of these self driving car services. Give WayMo one year. this will be fun to watch.

[oh8eleven]

I wonder what the expected market valuation of Waymo will be
Wayless.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

When the first major bloodbath happens with a driverless car, I wonder what the expected market valuation of Waymo will be.

It started raining again in the Bay Area last week. I passed two major accidents on the 680, both in the other direction with plenty of emergency vehicles on hand and traffic at a dead stop for several miles.

Driverless cars can't get here fast enough - the carnage couldn't possibly be worse than it is with the quality of human drivers these days.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

"Sue me, Dickhead"

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Nope. The first multi-person fatality in a driverless car will garner more publicity than all 40,000 combined. It’ll be front page news for a week.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

"And also probably to make sure the cars don't get stripped by passengers looking for interesting technology artifacts."

And to forestall making whoopee in the mobile boudoir...at least in 2018: Self-driving cars could be the brothels of the future

[Drango]

Per passenger mile, automated cars/trucks will be MUCH safer than human drivers.