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Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways in LA, SF and Phoenix

(techcrunch.com)
281 points nharada | 10 comments | 12 Nov 25 16:06 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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mmmlinux ◴[12 Nov 25 17:06 UTC] No.45902647[source]▶
I was in SF a few weekend ago and rode both Waymo and normal Lyft style taxi cars. the Waymo was a better experience in every single way. One of the Lyfts i was in drove on the shoulder for a while like it was a lane. The Waymos were just smooth consistent driving. No aggressive driving to get you dumped off so they can get to the next fair.
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LZ_Khan ◴[12 Nov 25 17:38 UTC] No.45903093[source]▶
Waymo is overly conservative last time I checked. Driving the speed limit basically means getting to your destination twice as slow.
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1. Night_Thastus ◴[12 Nov 25 18:02 UTC] No.45903437[source]▶
"Twice as slow" is not even slightly accurate.

If you're driving 45 in a 40, that may sound like 12% faster, but once you add traffic, lights, stop signs, turns, etc - you'll find that the 12% all but evaporates. Even if you're really pushing it and going 15 over, at most speeds and for most typical commutes, it saves very little.

Most of the time speeding ends up saving on the order of seconds on ~30 minutes or shorter trips.

Just about the only time it can be noticeable is if you're really pushing it (going to get pulled over speeds) on a nearly empty highway for a commute of 1.5+ hours.

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2. bcrosby95 ◴[12 Nov 25 18:45 UTC] No.45904134[source]▶
Yeah, I chuckle a bit when the person who blew by me on the freeway at 80mph is just 2 cars ahead of me at the offramp stop light.
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3. ang_cire ◴[12 Nov 25 19:05 UTC] No.45904547[source]▶
Yeah, speed shouldn't be about time-to-destination except for emergency vehicles. It's about fahrfegnuggen.
4. mostly_harmless ◴[12 Nov 25 19:06 UTC] No.45904563[source]▶
I'll add on that speeding is the biggest contributing factor in accidents. And accident outcomes get exponentially worse above 30mph. For every 10 mph of increased speed, the risk of dying in a crash doubles.
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5. dekhn ◴[12 Nov 25 19:16 UTC] No.45904769[source]▶
There's a great paper which I can't find any more that said "going faster makes you take longer to get to the destination"; they showed the expected value for arrival time was longer at speed due to higher accident rates.
6. panarky ◴[12 Nov 25 19:16 UTC] No.45904775[source]▶
93% of American drivers think they're better drivers than the median driver [0].

This overconfidence causes humans to take unnecessary risks that not only endanger themselves, but everyone else on the road.

After taking several dozen Waymo rides and watching them negotiate complex and ambiguous driving scenarios, including many situations where overconfident drivers are driving dangerously, I realize that Waymo is a far better driver than I am.

Waymos don't just prevent a large percentage of accidents by making fewer mistakes than a human driver, but Waymos also avoid a lot of accidents caused by other distracted and careless human drivers.

Now when I have to drive a car myself, my goal is to try to drive as much like a Waymo as I can.

[0] https://gwern.net/doc/psychology/1981-svenson.pdf

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7. Night_Thastus ◴[12 Nov 25 19:35 UTC] No.45905147[source]▶
It's not just overconfidence, it's selfishness.

Speeding feels like "I'm more important than everyone else and the safety of others and rules don't apply to me" personally. It's one thing to match the speed of traffic and avoid being a nuisance (that I'm fine with) - a lot of people just think they're the main character and everyone else is just in their way.

It's a problem that goes way beyond driving, sadly.

8. bluGill ◴[12 Nov 25 19:58 UTC] No.45905543[source]▶
In the real world 45 in a 40 will often enough get through lights just before they turn to red often enough that your real speed is more than twice as fast! Unless the city has timed their lights correctly - which sounds easy but on a grid is almost impossible for all streets. It all depends on how the red lights are timed.
9. treis ◴[12 Nov 25 20:11 UTC] No.45905771[source]▶
Eh this doesn't mean much. The quality of drivers is pretty bimodal.

You have the group that's really bad and does things like drive drunk, weave in and out of traffic, do their makeup and so on.

The other group generally pays attention and tries to drive safely. This is larger than the first group and realistically there's not all that much difference within the group.

If you're in group two you will think you're above average because the comparison is to the crap drivers in group one.

10. TulliusCicero ◴[12 Nov 25 22:25 UTC] No.45907715[source]▶
Twice as slow was probably accurate when comparing Uber with freeways vs Waymo (which wasn't using freeways yet).

But now that Waymo is gonna use freeways, that major speed difference is gonna evaporate.