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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: 1.008s | source
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afcool83 ◴[22 Aug 25 19:20 UTC] No.44988724[source]▶
I live in one of the areas they are actively testing/training in. Their cars consistently behave better and more safely than most human drivers that I’m forced to share the road with.

As semi-autonomous and autonomous cars become the norm, I would adore to see obtaining a drivers license ratchet up in difficulty in order to remove dangerous human drivers from the road.

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Natsu ◴[22 Aug 25 19:30 UTC] No.44988828[source]▶
If you actually ride in one, you do notice some off behaviors that I didn't pick up while just driving alongside them. That said, I agree that the bad human drivers have done things far, far worse than any of the cars.

The biggest gripe with riding in one is that they're slow, both because of super cautious driving and because they won't take freeways yet.

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1. mulmen ◴[22 Aug 25 19:53 UTC] No.44989051[source]▶
I have only taken a couple Waymos but I had the opposite experience. They were much faster and more decisive than I expected. They do apparently learn from surrounding drivers and this was LA so maybe that explains the difference.
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2. jen20 ◴[22 Aug 25 21:21 UTC] No.44989946[source]▶
It wouldn't surprise me if each Waymo has one of a pool of aggression settings - I've noticed the difference between cars as a rider.
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3. mulmen ◴[22 Aug 25 23:45 UTC] No.44991344[source]▶
Interesting. I hadn’t considered it but that makes a lot of sense. I wonder if that happens per car or per ride. Do aggression settings adjust to apparent passenger comfort?
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4. jen20 ◴[23 Aug 25 13:53 UTC] No.44996003{3}[source]▶
Unclear, I’ve noticed both timid and aggressive on the same day in different cars so maybe not?