California Approves Waymo Robotaxi Services In LA, SF Neighboring Cities

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved Alphabet's Waymo robotaxi service to operate in Los Angeles and some cities near San Francisco. Reuters reports: Waymo, which already operates in San Francisco and Phoenix, applied on Jan 19 to expand its driverless services, saying it would work with policymakers, first responders and community organizations. Last month, the CPUC suspended the application "for further staff review." "Waymo may begin fared driverless passenger service operations in the specified areas of Los Angeles and the San Francisco Peninsula, effective today," the regulator said on a notice posted to its website Friday.

Give a wide berth around these cities

[theshowmecanuck]

I wouldn't trust those as far as can throw a taxi.

Re:

[ShanghaiBill]

I wouldn't trust those as far as can throw a taxi.

Waymo's rate of accidents resulting in injuries or fatalities is 0.41 incidents per million miles, compared to 2.78 incidents per million miles for human drivers.

You should make decisions based on evidence, not emotion or ideology.

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[test321]

For proper comparison one should use the accident statistics of taxi or private drivers, not the general population. There are some statistics about private transport companies "Uber" and "Lyft" https://aa.law/publicaciones/u... [aa.law] so if you can find the distance these companies drive in a year then you can divide.

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[ShanghaiBill]

I can't find injury accident rates for Uber and Lyft, but Uber has 0.57 per 100M miles for fatalities, while the general public has 1.13 per 100M miles.

So Uber drivers appear to be about twice as safe as the general public, while Waymo is seven times as safe.

These numbers are somewhat skewed because Uber and Waymo are mostly urban driving while the general public drives more on highways and rural roads.

But I don't think it is fair to compare Waymo only with Uber. If SDVs live up to their potential, they sho

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[martin-boundary]

That's just wrong on so many levels, I don't even know where to start. Google's marketing people are doing the world a real disservice here.

You're comparing a simple average without regard to location (where did the cars drive?) redundancy (were they doing the same route most of the time or was it always different?) bias (did the human supervising driver prevent accidents by taking over in dicey situations, or did he allow the robocar to slam full speed into kids on bicycles every single time?).

A prope

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[dgatwood]

I wouldn't trust those as far as can throw a taxi.

Why? Only four minor injuries in well over 7 million miles of driving. That's less than half what you'd expect from human drivers per million miles. I mean, it's not a perfect apples-to-apples comparison because they don't go on rural highways, but that seems like a reasonably respectable safety record to me.

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[Required Snark]

No fair comparison is possible. The test miles are very curated and don't reflect the full range of conditions that human drivers contend with on a daily basis.

One obvious difference is that the test cities all have mostly good weather. It's true for both SF and LA, and even other places like Phoenix where open road tests have been run. Not much rain and no snow at all. Also all very urban and built up suburban.

I wouldn't want to be in or near any of these anywhere else in the country. Imagine heavy rain

Re: Give a wide berth around these cities

[grahamsaa]

This is not true at all. Waymo has been operating in San Francisco for some time, in a wide variety of neighborhood, traffic and weather conditions. Iâ(TM)ve taken a number of rides in them and theyâ(TM)re so good that I never want to take an Uber or Lyft again, if I can avoid it. Waymo is also much safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Their vehicles stop at crosswalks and donâ(TM)t drive in bike lanes. You really should give it a try instead of spreading misinformation.

Re: Give a wide berth around these cities

[zmollusc]

Not really comparable, since the human drivers cannot instantly disengage and hand over to someone else every time they don't know what to do.

Re:

[Gibgezr]

But they can be compared as to outcomes, and Waymo in LA and SF is way ahead in that arena. They Waymo cars drive safer and have waaaaay less serious accidents. Who cares *how* they achieve that exactly?

I also approve

[Amiga Trombone]

I haven't been near California in decades. If Waymo needs a place to work out the bugs, that's the place to do it!

Human Testing of a Dangerous Product

[BrendaEM]

You are being asked to give yo your life so that hard working people can be put out of a job.