Waymo is bringing autonomous, driverless ride-hailing to London in 2026

Re:Waymo is bringing autonomous, driverless ride-hailing to ... by spacedgrey on Thursday October 16, 2025 @07:10AM (#45603958)

How do autonomous driverless cars handle the stand off that occurs when two cars meet on a narrow London street and both parties are of the opinion that the other has to back up 50 meters to let them through? Will the car instruct the passenger to get out and do the arm waving and swearing required for the right of way negotiation?

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Re:Waymo is bringing autonomous, driverless ride-hailing to ... by jeroenhd on Thursday October 16, 2025 @08:00AM (#45604310)

Why would they handle it? The autonomous car has all the time in the world. If it takes too long, the car can just hit an error condition, terminate the ride, or maybe tell passengers to walk to the end of the street to get into another car. Then it can just ignore its surroundings and wait things out.

These cars get away with being incapable of following police instructions, I don't see why they would need to care about other traffic users.

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Re:Waymo is bringing autonomous, driverless ride-hailing to ... by xnx on Thursday October 16, 2025 @08:11AM (#45604374)

If the Waymo is occupied or driving to a pickup, waiting indefinitely doesn't seem profit optimal.

There are video examples of Waymos reversing when a narrow road is obstructed.

There are also many examples of Waymos following directions from police and construction workers.

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Re:Waymo is bringing autonomous, driverless ride-hailing to ... by tim333 on Thursday October 16, 2025 @10:16AM (#45605645)

Around Portobello Road you often get some quite impressive jams like that with two busses and about ten cars. If it just stopped in the middle it wouldn't be popular with the permitting folk.

In Waymo's favour the humans often don't do that good a job.

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Re:Waymo is bringing autonomous, driverless ride-hailing to ... by michelsedgh on Thursday October 16, 2025 @07:17AM (#45604012)

In Los Angeles, it handles it very badly in my experience.

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Re:Waymo is bringing autonomous, driverless ride-hailing to ... by whiplash451 on Thursday October 16, 2025 @07:32AM (#45604110)

Robo-taxis can decide not to travel through these roads (or to only do it under absolute necessity)

I'm also curious to know if Waymo's are allowed to drop you slightly off from the address you specified -- in which case they can drop you at the next corner.

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Re:Waymo is bringing autonomous, driverless ride-hailing to ... by Thorrez on Thursday October 16, 2025 @07:53AM (#45604265)

>I'm also curious to know if Waymo's are allowed to drop you slightly off from the address you specified -- in which case they can drop you at the next corner.

Yes, they do.

>Tell us where you want to go

>Choose your destination and we’ll select the safest spots to pick you up and drop you off.

https://waymo.com/rides/

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Re:Waymo is bringing autonomous, driverless ride-hailing to ... by michelsedgh on Thursday October 16, 2025 @08:25AM (#45604490)

Yes but thats a hack, the issue that it can’t handle those situations is still there and in my experience the car behind me was a waymo that kept trying to center but as soon as it saw cars coming it swerved. It kept going left and right. Unsafe in that situation and scared for people who were coming its way.

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Re:Waymo is bringing autonomous, driverless ride-hailing to ... by n4r9 on Thursday October 16, 2025 @09:10AM (#45604896)

I live in London and have visited and driven in LA. London has more narrow streets. Many, many more.

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Re:Waymo is bringing autonomous, driverless ride-hailing to ... by bitshiftfaced on Thursday October 16, 2025 @09:18AM (#45604984)

Maybe take a longer route that avoids the narrow street.

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