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

(techcrunch.com)
277 points nharada | 1 comments | 12 Nov 25 16:06 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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NullHypothesist ◴[12 Nov 25 16:24 UTC] No.45902077[source]▶
This is a huge sign of confidence that they think they can do this safely and at scale... Freeways might appear "easy" on the surface, but there are all sorts of long tail edge-cases that make them insanely tricky to do confidently without a driver. This will unlock a lot for them with all of the smaller US cities (where highways are essential) they've announced plans for over the next year or so.
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lumens ◴[12 Nov 25 17:14 UTC] No.45902757[source]▶
Perhaps more a reaction to pressure from Tesla; the latest FSD builds show full autonomy is coming very soon. Without highway driving, Waymo would quickly be seen as a distant second in the race when the safety driver is removed from Robotaxis in Austin (supposedly before EOY 2025).
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eloncuck ◴[12 Nov 25 17:26 UTC] No.45902914[source]▶
You Tesla/Elon stans crack me up. "2 more weeks" has been the claim for literal decades at this point.
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lumens ◴[12 Nov 25 17:32 UTC] No.45903017{3}[source]▶
Truly curious - have you tried it recently?
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1. wstrange ◴[12 Nov 25 18:07 UTC] No.45903516{4}[source]▶
I have HW4, and have tried FSD with every major release.

It works brilliantly, 99.5% of the time. The issue is that the failure mode is catastrophic. Like getting confused with the lane marking and driving off the shoulder. And the complete inability to read construction zone signs (blasting through a 50 KM zone at 100 KM).

I'm deeply skeptical that the current sensor suite and hardware is going to have enough compute power to safely drive without supervision.

It will no doubt improve, but until Tesla steps up and assumes liability for any accident, it's just not "full self driving".