Alphabet's Self-Driving Cars To Get Their First Real Riders (bloomberg.com) 53
After almost a decade of research, Google's autonomous car project is close to becoming a real service. From a report on Bloomberg: Now known as Waymo, the Alphabet self-driving car unit is letting residents of Phoenix sign up to use its vehicles, a major step toward commercializing a technology that could one day upend transportation. For the service, Waymo is adding 500 customized Chrysler Pacifica minivans to its fleet. Waymo has already tested these vehicles, plus other makes and models, on public roads, but only with its employees and contractors as testers. By opening the doors to the general public with a larger fleet, the company will get data on how people experience and use self-driving cars -- and clues on ways to generate revenue from the technology.
Beta testing self-driving vehicles... (Score:3)
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What could possibly go wrong?
they unionize and form robot uber
Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... (Score:5, Insightful)
[...] worst case scenario we all die, the universe is destroyed.
That's a common misconception among people. Humanity can die off just like the dinosaurs and the planet will continue on for another four billion years until the sun becomes a red giant. Neither the planet nor the universe cares about humanity.
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Alphabet has been testing these since a decade or so. They really don't rush it, which is good.
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Alphabet has been testing these since a decade or so. They really don't rush it, which is good.
Has it been that long? Seems like only yesterday that they announced it.
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They really don't rush it, which is good.
Last year, 1.3M people died worldwide in accidents involving human driven cars. Another 20 million were seriously injured. Costs exceeded $1T. So why is it "good" to delay SDC technology?
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Well, eventually they will figure it out how to make self driving cars safer than more than 99% of human drivers. When that happens, I'm not sure, but it will happen. Now, if you introduce them too early, a very risky and unsafe version of self driving cars that is maybe safer than 20% of the human driver population, but less safe than 80%, then anybody of those 80% using a self driving car would mean a safety risk.
Also, the first accident with a self driving car will surely be in the news, and if you haven
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Well, eventually they will figure it out how to make self driving cars safer than more than 99% of human drivers. When that happens, I'm not sure, but it will happen. Now, if you introduce them too early, a very risky and unsafe version of self driving cars that is maybe safer than 20% of the human driver population, but less safe than 80%, then anybody of those 80% using a self driving car would mean a safety risk.
Except that's not really how it happens, you don't need to be a race car driver to be a good street driver. A good street driver is merely consistent, appropriate speed, paying attention, obeying the traffic rules. It's not a skill level, it's a fail rate. You do things right for a year or five years or twenty years and then for some reason you fuck up. As in failed to yield, ran a red light, didn't see the pedestrian, fell asleep at the wheel, didn't check their blind spot, lost control of the car fail. I
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The stuff you mention is no issue. Self driving cars don't get a rating to drive on public roads unless they have a track record of several million miles anyway.
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Seems the only alternative is for them to drive 35
My Tesla already does 70 while auto-driving on the freeway.
Computers react faster than humans.
There is no reason for them to drive slower.
Not now, nor in the future.
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And yet not a single video of them working in any type of adverse conditions. Or maybe my search skills are lacking. Can anyone prove me wrong? Please? Lane following on a highway doesn't cut it.
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Discontinue (Score:2)
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That proverb is actually just "stakes that stick out get hit." (deru kui ga utareru). Nail (kugi) sounds like post/stake (kui) in Japanese, but the original is stake.
This is the fifth variation I've been told about on Slashdot.
Ads. Listening devices. Streamed bloopers. (Score:3)
Step 1: Plaster everything with ads. Include annoying TV screens with loud advertisements.
Step 2: Install listening devices to tailor ads to match anything the people in the car say.
Step 3: Install cameras and live-stream babies throwing up, brothers beating on each other and other mundane events to YouTube. Include more ads.
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No, they save that stuff for YouTube's Red channel. Maybe they could call it "Fake Taxi"...
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(Trimmed for clarity.) Are you an attorney, perhaps? Anyway, here's what TFS said:
>> company will get data on how people experience and use self-driving cars -- and clues on ways to generate revenue from the technology
It seemed pretty clear they were not only talking about primary sources of revenue (ride fares), but secondary sources (e.g., advertising) as well.
Sorta Kinda Autonomous (Score:2)
From TFA:
Still waiting for my Google Fiber (Score:3)
Now I have to wait for my Google self-driving car.....
Waymo Sally (Score:2)
Waymo Sally, think you better slow your waymo down.
Nah... doesn't have the same feel to it.
BS (Score:1)
Revenue streams (Score:2)
No windows. Just screens showing ads.
It's 32C. Would you like to order air conditioning?
The vehicle has arrived at the destination earlier than expected. Doors will open in ten minutes. Pay now to open them early?
A shady looking person is hailing the vehicle. Pick them up or for just $25 keep going?
The vehicle is stopped in a bad part of town. Would you like to lock the doors for only $20?
The vehicle has detected that an accident is imminent. For $100, safety features can be activated. Do you accept the cha
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That's Comcast's self-driving car.
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