Uber Teams Up With Waymo To Add Robotaxis To Its App

Waymo and Uber announced a new partnership today that will make robotaxis available via the Uber app in Phoenix. The Verge reports: A "set number" of Waymo vehicles will be available to Uber riders and Uber Eats delivery customers in Phoenix, where the Alphabet company recently doubled its service area to 180 square miles. The partnership was described as "multi-year," with the goal of bringing together "Waymo's world-leading autonomous driving technology with the massive scale of Uber's ridesharing and delivery networks."

Katherine Barna, a spokesperson for Waymo, declined to disclose the number of vehicles that would be hail-able through Uber's app, though she did share that the vehicles will not be exclusive to Uber. For example, Phoenix residents can also summon a Waymo vehicle through the company's Waymo One app.

The real deal

[timeOday]

It is unclear to me how people think the current wave of generative AI will displace so many jobs.

With self-driving vehicles, on the other hand, it's blindingly obvious.

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[feedayeen]

I agree with you with the self-driving vehicles thing. Although I would like to point out that millions of employees are still out there whose job is to basically talk to others to sell something. Call center employees, recruiters, sales, receptionists are going to be a lot cheaper to replace. One program and a AWS server farm has a lot of scaling potential without the $50-200k cost per work truck. Among commercial vehicles, taxis and freight trucks require minimal driver interactions. But a lot of commerci

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[fluffernutter]

Also, a lot of commercial vehicles have to drive where it snows, or a taxi may have to drop a person off at the end of a long winding driveway only showing as two tire tracks. Pretty sure Waymo's self driving is no where near dealing with that. Will it even know if it can go down that driveway after it has snowed and not get stuck?

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[SeaFox]

With self-driving vehicles, on the other hand, it's blindingly obvious.

I'll say. It's been speculated this was Uber's endgame for years now. Humans driving still was just a stopgap waiting for the tech to catch up. Then start buying up a fleet of vehicles of their own, get rid of the "contractors", and keep all the revenue for themselves (probably planning to have the fleet owned by some shell company to take the legal fall for any accidents during operation).

Will they be trashed?

[bradley13]

Maybe I have an unjustifiably low opinion of humanity, but: how long until the inside of a robo-taxi is trashed? College students barfing in it, druggies shooting up it in, people just leaving their fast-food wrappers behind, etc.?

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[fluffernutter]

No, you will get the car with the barf in it and you will either have to take it or wait for another one. Capitalist companies don't ever solve problems when it means it costs them more. That's the problem with capitalism.

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[fluffernutter]

It won't hurt their brand if all the brands have people equally barfing in them.

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[fluffernutter]

So the wealthy will get clean cabs and the people who make average to less than average will have to put up with dirty ones. Yeah, sounds about right.

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[fluffernutter]

So you think "nice stuff" equates to not being forced to use cabs that someone has barfed in. Thank you for proving my point.

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[backslashdot]

The government can enforce a minimum cleanliness standard just like they do for hotels. If they can't even do that, how do you think they would run a taxi service?

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[backslashdot]

Nobody is forced to get into any cab, except maybe in a socialist state where it'll be a felony to refuse a cab.

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[denzacar]

No, actually, cabs at all. If you want to have your ass driven to places, instead walking, biking or using public transport, you better contribute something.

You do realize that you pay for public transport, which connects actual human persons to commercial, educational, business, service, government, inter-city and inter-state etc. hubs by a literal bus-/trainload - contributing far, far, FAR more per dollar and per passenger than a car ever could?
While biking is a trend the entire world is shifting towards cause, go figure, humans want to live next to the stuff they need and want without inherent noise, dirt, danger and waste of space and money that is a car?

I

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[fluffernutter]

I've put my kids through a lot of extracurricular sports. However, I ended up moving to a semi-rural area close enough to a city to have major shops if we need them but far enough away that there is actually silence most of the time, and many trees filtering the air. You can actually smell wood and flowers in the air, it smells clean. It was probably the single best thing I did for my kids health and well being.

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[fluffernutter]

If I fly to a city I don't know, there is no need for me to rent a vehicle, and there is only one cab that fits within my budget I am forced to use that cab.

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[HiThere]

When you say "the problem with capitalism" or "the problem with socialism" you're automatically wrong. There are multiple problems with both of them, and also with every other form of human government. Every choice is a tradeoff.

Some governments are more interested in fixing the bugs, some are more interested in taking advantage of them, but there isn't one that has all the bugs fixed.

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[fluffernutter]

There hasn't been one yet with all the bugs fixed. Doesn't mean there can never be one. In fact, communism may have all the bugs fixed but since no one has ever implemented it properly, we won't know until some country does.

When do robocabs and robocallers come to S.Africa?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm in South Africa. I recently took two rides with $RIDE_HAILING_APP (not Uber, although I've used them too). Both rides could have ended in a fatal crash, one multiple times, the other once. Drivers have a total disregard for traffic rules or any common sense re. basic safety. They seem to ride for multiple services. So in future I'll avoid using them all - if I next have an in-hospital procedure that involves anesthesia, I'll probably just take the chance and drive myself (and lie to the personnel that i

Gun analogy is new car analogy.

[denzacar]

Sounds like your problem is not in the caliber but in the number of guns surrounding you.
Don't worry. I'm sure there's a picture book being prepared somewhere to help you out with your predicament. [advocatemag.com]

In the meantime, just remember to take some booze with your anesthesia as you drive home. That'll fix it.