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Waymo granted permit to begin testing in New York City

(www.cnbc.com)
597 points achristmascarl | 4 comments | 22 Aug 25 17:02 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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Night_Thastus ◴[22 Aug 25 17:37 UTC] No.44987324[source]▶
I'm cautiously optimistic about this self-driving thing. Waymo at least seems to have figured out a lot of it.

Would it be way better to make walkable neighborhoods, mixed-use developments, and reliable and frequent public transit?

Yes. Yes it would.

But, in lieu of that, self-driving has a lot of advantages in the long run, even if the technology isn't 100% perfect right now.

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xnx ◴[22 Aug 25 17:45 UTC] No.44987428[source]▶
In most respects, Waymo is the modern version of reliable and frequent public transit, with a lot of additional benefits.
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1. mritterhoff ◴[22 Aug 25 17:51 UTC] No.44987486[source]▶
Not in terms of throughput though. Buses and trains still have em beat.
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2. xnx ◴[22 Aug 25 19:19 UTC] No.44988714[source]▶
This is true for intersection throughput, but I bet full travel throughput (walking to the bus, waiting for the bus/train, walking to your destination) is the same or better with Waymo.
3. standardUser ◴[22 Aug 25 20:45 UTC] No.44989594[source]▶
In rural places, not only are there no buses or trains, there's hardly any taxis. Maybe during the day if you wait an hour or two, but you're not getting home at night without your own car.

A couple robot taxis roaming around every rural country in the US comprehensively solves this problem.

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4. mritterhoff ◴[23 Aug 25 20:31 UTC] No.44998896[source]▶
Agree. Though I imagine the cost to run robot taxis in low density areas would be much higher than in high density areas, as there'd be a higher distance between rides, and so more wasted time and gas. I suspect that would slow adoption.

Also if we dream big here, I wonder how robot buses would work in low density areas, maybe with dynamic routes and pricing?