Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel

Re:Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads w... by Fricken on Tuesday November 07, 2017 @12:26PM (#15645398)

The cars are a familiar sight in Phoenix, they've been testing there for a couple years now. They started up an early rider program in the spring, with real people volunteering to be guinea pigs while they refine the human UI and logistics. This isn't coming out of the blue.

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Re:Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads w... by eggpy on Tuesday November 07, 2017 @12:38PM (#15645532)

I'm aware, I live in Phoenix :) I'm referring to this bit

> I predict Waymo will price their service competitively, will ramp up to a large fleet, and that after a few months Uber / Lyft will be in trouble

Waymo vehicles are far less ubiquitous than either Lyft/Uber vehicles. I expect to see a growth in Waymo cars, I just mean that I don't think we will see a huge ramp up in the number of driverless Waymo vehicles soon as people need time to acclimate and no one yet knows what the response will be. IT will happen, just not immediately.

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Re:Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads w... by Gustomaximus on Wednesday November 08, 2017 @06:30AM (#15651388)

> as people need time to acclimate

I suspect it will be the opposite. Who-ever releases driveless taxi's first, people will clamour for the experience. People will be ordering rides for the sake of it for initial weeks/months. Then assuming the experience is safe etc, people will go by price and ride availability which driveless is sure to win.

I also guess there will be some big drama about the danger, then find out it wasn't the cars fault. E.g Massive headline about someone dying in a Waymo car and then we find out they decided to climb out the window while moving or something like that.

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Re:Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads w... by speedplane on Wednesday November 08, 2017 @06:33AM (#15651406)

I agree with most of your story, but I do think there will be deaths from Waymo/Tesla/Uber. It'll have a very negative impact on the tech sector, but I also think they'll learn from their mistakes and after several years they'll get better and trust will be rebuilt.

Be prepared for a five year self-driving winter that will slowly subside.

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Re:Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads w... by speedplane on Wednesday November 08, 2017 @06:34AM (#15651413)

Once they get the software down, they'll need to find a way to lower the cost of those LIDARs. No one is paying $150k for a self-driving car, and it'll be difficult to recoup that investment as a taxi.

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