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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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terminalshort ◴[12 Nov 25 16:37 UTC] No.45902240[source]▶
Freeways are easier than surface streets. The reason they held off allowing highways is because Waymo wants to minimize the probability of death for PR purposes. They figure they can get away with a lot of wrecks as long as they don't kill people.
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jordanb ◴[12 Nov 25 16:41 UTC] No.45902300[source]▶
There's also the risk of a phantom breaking event causing a big pileup. The PR of a Waymo causing a large cascading accident would be horrible.
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1. bluGill ◴[12 Nov 25 20:10 UTC] No.45905765{3}[source]▶
Only because most drivers are tailgating and so if someone touches the brakes everyone needs to do a panic stop just in case. If people maintained a safe following distance at all times there would be space to see the lights and determine that no action is needed (or more likely you just take your foot off the gas but don't flash your brakes thus not cascading).

Of course the above needs about 6 times as many lanes as any city has. When you realize those massive freeways in Houston are what Des Moines needs you start to see how badly cars scale in cities.