Disclosure: I work at Waymo.

At least the current fleets of AVs (Waymo, Cruise, etc.) are "obviously" potentially autonomous. I'm honestly more cautious now as a pedestrian when I see a Tesla coming after the FSD videos. I wish I could know "Is that Tesla owner using the FSD mode?"...

> I wish I could know "Is that Tesla owner using the FSD mode?"...

I wish I could know a lot more about the car and the driver in it too, such as if the car has pedestrian airbags[0] or if the driver is having a heated argument with their spouse. It's all risk management and ultimately the person behind the wheel is responsible for the exoskeleton on wheels they pilot, as the existence of cars at all is a net negative for pedestrian safety.

0: https://www-esv.nhtsa.dot.gov/Proceedings/23/files/23ESV-000...

> "obviously" potentially

I count three distinct hedges there :)

It's cool tho, congrats on the expansion!

I'm really bad at hedging and parenthetical remarks! (I guess I should add "quotes", too!)

What is it about FSD that makes you fear for your safety? It seems a lot more capable than waymos solution.

Edit: can’t reply because “rate limiting”

That video is almost half a year old. Here’s a video from the same channel that’s 6 days old rather than 6 months old. Tesla pushes updates very frequently…

https://youtu.be/y85oGY02gtg

Here’s a video where the title says it all.

https://youtu.be/tdHlKhKKOgQ

I read one of the latest waymo blog posts and was surprised to see how directly you guys reference Tesla. It felt like the whole thing was written for people at tesla… You differ in choice of hardware but could you tell me more about how you differ on software? Is there any meaningful difference?

In SF, Waymo/Cruise/etc have safety drivers behind the wheel who are being paid to ensure the car doesn't crash. Tesla drivers, on the other hand, are often misled about the capabilities of "FSD" and may not be paying as close attention.

Na, actually not. It’s labeled as beta, it is always explicit about the fact that it must be watched at all times and that your hand has to remain on the wheel. There’s no ambiguity about it.

Maybe I should have linked to [1] as one of the videos from a couple of guys testing it out in Oakland.

[1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=antLneVlxcs&feature=youtu.be

Language tangent: I have seen this a lot recently from many different people, and I don't know if it's caused by typing on a phone or what, but I think you mean "wary" (cautious), not "weary" (tired).

Indeed I do! I am not tired of self driving cars at all and in fact look forward to more of them. Thanks for pointing out.

Malcolm Gladwell did a podcast[1] on Waymo and their self-driving cars.

He speculates that something very different will happen. He thinks that self-driving cars that follow the laws and unerringly yield to pedestrians will transfer ownership of the streets from cars to pedestrians. Perhaps travel through cities in self-driving cars will be tedious and slow because pedestrians will jaywalk fearlessly and the cars will always yield. It's an outcome I never really considered before.

[1]: https://www.pushkin.fm/episode/i-love-you-waymo/

This is already mostly the case in San Francisco. You always have to assume someone is going to jump out from behind a parked car to cross the street in SF.

As a pedestrian, I’m terrified of all cars.

The bar to being better than human drivers is not that high. It is a hard problem, but there is plenty of room to be better than humans while still being dangerous to pedestrians.

As a cyclist in SF, I see the Waymo vehicles every day in my neighborhood. They ALWAYS see me coming and slow down or stop. I've had a few close calls with regular drivers not paying attention and missing stop signs so I'm looking forward to Waymo deploying more vehicles.