Posted on 12/05/2018 9:39:40 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
Waymo on Wednesday launched a commercial robot ride-hailing service in Arizona called Waymo One.
Like Uber or Lyft, customers will summon a ride with a smartphone app. But in this case, the car will be driving itself.
Only “a few hundred customers” will have access to the app and participate in the early stages. Although the cars will drive themselves, a Waymo engineer will sit behind the wheel in case anything goes wrong. Waymo did not say when the cars will start arriving without a human minder or when the program will be expanded.
Waymo’s cars, Chrysler Pacifica minivans bristling with autonomous driving technology, are available in several eastern and southeastern Phoenix suburbs, including Chandler, Tempe, Mesa and Gilbert. The fares are similar to those charged by Uber and Lyft.
Waymo has ferried Phoenix-area passengers in robot cars since April 2017 in what the company calls its Early Rider program. Unlike Early Rider — which Waymo will continue — Waymo One customers won’t be required to sign nondisclosure agreements and won’t be expected to continually provide feedback about their experience.
Waymo One represents the beginnings of a business that could be worth a lot of money. How much, no one yet knows: Wall Street estimates of Waymo’s market value, should it be spun off, range from $50 billion to $175 billion.
The Phoenix area was chosen for its friendliness to driverless cars (Regulations on driverless cars are less stringent in Arizona than in California.) The flat, snow-free desert terrain, the well-kept and well-marked roads, the scarcity of trees to block street signs, and sun-blasted sidewalks on which few pedestrians tread all lend themselves to early robot car deployment.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
When the first major bloodbath happens with a driverless car, I wonder what the expected market valuation of Waymo will be.
I doubt a "major bloodbath" will be an issue unless one is used for a bombing. For instance, one could hail one, leave the bomb inside, and then request it at the target address.
As far as competence while just driving around, I expect driverless cars to be at least as safe, if not safer, than a good human driver. One issue I've not seen much about is how failing/failed sensors are handled. Clearly the car shouldn't be self-driving if critical sensors aren't working.
BTW just in case you aren't aware of it, there has been one fatality that I know of with "level 5" autonomy, that was an Uber vehicle running down a pedestrian, in part because the human ride-along wasn't paying attention. Uber's technology looks to be substandard.
That accident did exactly nothing to stop the momentum of autonomous cars.
If they have accidents, the company will see insurance rates increase, and then these rides will cost Waymo’.
Human drivers are the cause of multiple bloodbaths everyday.
The market value of human driven cars has not gone done.
But it will.
So, when somebody decides to steal the car ...
I keep trying to imagine, what kind of people would volunteer as the first guinea pigs to use this.
But then, there are people volunteering to be the first to go to Mars on a one way ticket.
I have images turned off in my browser, but the line tells me the picture is from Total Recall. It’s the first thing I thought of when I saw the article headline. :)
By the time these things hit mass production they’ll have multiple levels of redundancy and backups to the backups. Which is why they’re not mass production today, just costs way too much (aside from not being able to handle certain use cases).
The array of sensors (Lidar, multi-camera, multi-ultra sonic, radar, multi-GPS w/high def map data, etc.) will be able to compensate if any given one of them is having a problem. Having redundant vehicle networks, compute nodes, and power lines, will enable a system that, at worst, should be able to notify the driver they’ll need to take over. We’re also seeing the concept of the environment having the expensive sensors (lidar), mounted on street lamps and alike, providing the surrounding vehicles (via 5G) with perception data - taking the cost out of the car.
It’s going to be a long time before these mass produced versions will not have a steering wheel. That said, getting a car to follow a path, obey the rules of the road, maneuver around things, and not hit stuff is generally solved. Anticipation of what an object “might” do is another story, we’re far superior in this regard to date....leading to the fear that these cars can be “bullied”, it will be so cautious it won’t handle busy crowds (people deliberately walking in front of the vehicle) or roundabouts (will just sit there) too well.
You are right about that.
Humans still screw things up. The pilots on the flight legs BEFORE Lion Air Flight 610 reported airspeed sensor, angle of attack sensor, and MCAS activation problems. Yet the humans still failed to fix the sensors and the plane crashed. That's with the high safety attention of an airline, too, as well as triply redundant systems.
Sensor and software problems will occur in autonomous cars, no doubt about it. How will the car take itself out of service and report for maintenance? Remains to be seen.
I see them everyday where I live. I have often wondered what they would do if I suddenly swerved toward them.
Waymo One doesn’t fit the prediction from the CEO of Daimler Benz who threw a laundry list together of changing business models.
Here are two..
Uber is just a software tool,they don’t own any cars, and are now the biggest taxi company in the world.
Airbnb is now the biggest hotel company in the world, although they don’t own any properties.
BTW he also said that VW & Mercedes Benz are afraid of electric car technology and the future impacts on the automobile industrial empire.
“Uber is just a software tool,they don’t own any cars, and are now the biggest taxi company in the world.
Airbnb is now the biggest hotel company in the world, although they don’t own any properties”
—
Yep,and my kids and grandkids use both.
.
I can hear the conversation when horse and buggy was being replaced by the first cars. “At least horses have eyes and a brain. They won’t run over people. These machines don’t have a brain. They just go. All these people will die.”
Self driving cars are the future. No driving test, just hop in a car and go. Eventually, cars that need drivers will have to be set aside just like horse and buggy had to be set aside. Just a matter of time.
>>>Glad I don’t live or drive in experiment-ville. I’m safe for now at least.
Keep in mind that every time you get on the road, half the vehicles are controlled by below average drivers. And they all think it’s the other guy.
No dispute from me on that. Can you imagine what things will be like in 20 or 30 years? Too bad I won't be here to see it.
The introduction of the automobile did indeed have its problems. Uriah Smith came up with one clever psychological solution in 1899:
Maybe Waymo and others DO need Johnny Cab at the helm for a while.
a Waymo engineer will sit behind the wheel in case anything goes wrong.”
This is so the “engineer” doesn’t have to die screaming alone...
There is a lot less to run into out there than in most places.
So how is this legal? auto drivers need insurance, need to have hands on wheel and such or they can be ticketed and or fined, but a car manuevering itself is ok?
LOL. The Uber car in Arizona that killed the bicyclist had a backup person in the car, too. Lot of good that person did. The accident will be over before the backup person gets alert and takes control.
You realize there will be cameras in the cars to record everything the passengers do or say, and that what they see and hear will be reported back to the mother ship in real time, don't you?
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