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Waymo granted permit to begin testing in New York City

(www.cnbc.com)
597 points achristmascarl | 2 comments | 22 Aug 25 17:02 UTC | HN request time: 0.496s | source
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vinkelhake ◴[22 Aug 25 17:40 UTC] No.44987373[source]▶
I live in the bay and occasionally ride Waymo in SF and I pretty much always have a good time.

I visited NYC a few weeks ago and was instantly reminded of how much the traffic fucking sucks :) While I was there I actually thought of Waymo and how they'd have to turn up the "aggression" slider up to 11 to get anything done there. I mean, could you imagine the audacity of actually not driving into an intersection when the light is yellow and you know you're going to block the crossing traffic?

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setgree ◴[22 Aug 25 17:43 UTC] No.44987402[source]▶
Semi-related, but just once in my life, I want to hear a mayoral candidate say: “I endorse broken windows theory, but for drivers. You honk when there’s no emergency, block the box, roll through a stop sign — buddy that’s a ticket. Do it enough and we’ll impound your car.”

Who knows, maybe we’ll start taking our cues from our polite new robot driver friends…

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chrisshroba ◴[22 Aug 25 17:52 UTC] No.44987497[source]▶
This always astounds me about cities who have a reputation for people breaking certain traffic laws. In St. Louis, people run red lights for 5+ seconds after it turns red, and no one seems to care to solve it, but if they'd just station police at some worst-offender lights for a couple months to write tickets, people would catch on pretty quickly that it's not worth the risk. I have similar thoughts on people using their phones at red lights and people running stop signs.
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oceanplexian ◴[22 Aug 25 18:19 UTC] No.44987850[source]▶
Try driving anywhere in the world that's not Western Europe or The USA and you'll quickly see how advanced even our worst cities are when it comes to traffic.

Last time I was in China drivers simply go through four way intersections at top speed from all directions simultaneously. If you are a pedestrian I hope you're good at frogger because there is a 0% chance anyone will stop for you. I really wonder how self driving cars work because they must program some kind of insane software that ignores all laws or it wouldn't even be remotely workable.

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tehjoker ◴[22 Aug 25 18:37 UTC] No.44988118[source]▶
It is kinda funny watching people complain here after visiting almost anywhere in Asia. Can't speak for Japan or Korea though.
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1. kelnos ◴[22 Aug 25 19:41 UTC] No.44988944[source]▶
I've never been to SK, but in Japan things are -- unsurprisingly, as one might guess -- very orderly. For the most part (in cities at least) you don't jaywalk, even when there are no cars on the road.
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2. yamazakiwi ◴[22 Aug 25 20:13 UTC] No.44989266[source]▶
Same in Korea, just on the other side of the road, very polite and professional, no one breaks rules for the most part, even in Major Cities.

I know a lot of foreigners like Japan for motorcycling specifically because you can "white line" in most places, and the drivers are attentive.

The one quirk I thought was most interesting was Crab Angle Stops or when at a T shape stop lights that have an additional stop light 20 feet further from the intersection. Sometimes the cars will align diagonally to allow more traffic per light and let whoever is in front have a better angle to see traffic on small roads with poor visibility. Then when the light turns green the diagonally aligned cars move back to normal.

Like ////// to - - - - - -

Officially, the 道路交通法 (Road Traffic Act) doesn’t say “you must angle.” It just requires drivers to stop at the line and confirm safety before entering.

The diagonal stop is more of a local driving custom (practical adaptation) rather than a codified rule.