Waymo's Autonomous Ride-Hailing Service Now Available To All In San Francisco (reuters.com) 25
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Alphabet's Waymo said on Tuesday its autonomous ride-hailing service, Waymo One, is now available to everyone in San Francisco, nearly four years after a similar move in Phoenix, Arizona. Driverless vehicles are expected to drive commercial success for automakers even as regulatory scrutiny remains tight amid concerns of investors about growing investments in the nascent technology. Waymo had started a test service with its research-focused program in San Francisco in 2021, which included an autonomous specialist on board for all rides at that time, as it looked to commercialize the technology.
The company said that about 300,000 people had signed up to ride with Waymo since it first opened a waitlist in the city, signaling strong demand. Now with open access, anyone can request a ride on its app. The company had opened access to everyone in Phoenix, Arizona without a waitlist in 2020. Mountain View, California-based Waymo is a self-driving technology pioneer, which started its first U.S. driverless taxi service in 2020 over a decade after it was born in 2009 as a project inside Google. In March, the company received approval from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to start its Waymo One in Los Angeles and some cities near San Francisco.
The company said that about 300,000 people had signed up to ride with Waymo since it first opened a waitlist in the city, signaling strong demand. Now with open access, anyone can request a ride on its app. The company had opened access to everyone in Phoenix, Arizona without a waitlist in 2020. Mountain View, California-based Waymo is a self-driving technology pioneer, which started its first U.S. driverless taxi service in 2020 over a decade after it was born in 2009 as a project inside Google. In March, the company received approval from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to start its Waymo One in Los Angeles and some cities near San Francisco.
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I live in the Bay Area, and people in SF whine about random stuff more than anywhere else I've ever been.
You'd think SF people would be forward-looking, but there are plenty of granola-chomping Luddites pining for the good ole days of the 1960s.
I don't understand why Waymo wants to roll out in SF so early. They are certain to get blowback, and it will be magnified by all the media based there.
Re: Be sure to pay your fare (Score:2)
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It could be they don't have enough users, and are hoping this will increase the number of people using the service.
Obviously. But they can do that anywhere.
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Re: Be sure to pay your fare (Score:2)
It can't come soon enough for me. My vision is fast declining, to the point I can no longer safely drive at night. I hope the service comes to my neck of the hills soon, and operates after dark.
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You know there's Uber, Lyft, and taxis for that, right?
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Even 25 years ago, before I learned to drive, taxis would refuse to show up in the middle of the night until the next day. I spent some nights at the office because of it. The situation has not improved since.
Uber and Lyft will take about an hour to show up in the middle of the night at my place. Better than the next day, but still quite long.
There are places where there is no ride-sharing and also no taxis. My mother owns an apartment in France in such a place. It's a beach town, mostly populate in the sum
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Thank you for taking Jonny Cab ! Hope you enjoyed the ride !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
So how is it that we're not about to see (Score:4, Interesting)
I realize it's the densest place but New York City alone has 75, 000 people either driving cabs or Uber/Lyft. There's around 300,000 full-time cab drivers and something like 1.5 million people doing Uber gig work, though I think some of that is probably Uber eats.
But I think it's safe to say we probably got nationwide half a million people at least that drive other people around for a living and they're about to lose their jobs. And that means they're about to hit the job market, a job market they have already had a tough time functioning in since I don't know a lot of people who drive cab for a living by choice.
I don't think we're ready for this but I don't see how you could possibly stop it.
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We are absolutely at the beginning of big tech taking over the most popular form of transportation and people in SF are all about it. They don't really see, understand, or care about the long term consequences of this. They just want their own personal driver to chauffeur to drive them wherever they (so they think) want in privacy. Those of us over 40 probably won't see the final consequences of this. But the younger generations, who are eschewing learning how to drive, are happily walking into a future
Re: So how is it that we're not about to see (Score:2)
Hopefully there will be competition. It will not be just Google.
People of a certain age may have issues preventing them from driving and hopefully will see the consequences.
I just turned 48 and vision is already an issue, sadly.
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Hopefully people come to their senses before whatever group of tech companies managers to convince people that they don't need to own a car or even know how to drive.
Also, let's not act like the elderly don't already have plenty of transportation options. AVs are not some magic tech that finally liberates them.
Re: So how is it that we're not about to see (Score:2)
I live on a very steep hill. Its neither walkable nor bikeable. The nearest bus stop is 3 miles away. I certainly was not planning on getting this much vision decline when I bought the place 14 years ago.
Private cars are the only transportation option for me, whether I drive, as I'm still able to during the day, or rely on another car, driven by a human or a machine. The machine would need to be cheaper, safer and/or more available than the human to be able to compete. Taxis got disrupted because so-called
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>Also because the taxi supply was too low in certain locations and times.
and most importantly, because taxi regulation in most places was not run to benefit or protect consumers, but to lock out new entrants and completion--that is, as a way to maintain anti-competitive cartels.
Re: So how is it that we're not about to see (Score:2)
Waymo typically costs more than Uber and Lyft, usually about double whenever Iâ(TM)ve tried to make speculative bookings over the past several months.
Re: So how is it that we're not about to see (Score:2)
Uber and Lyft charge below actual costs, by short changing the drivers who don't know how to do math especially on capital depreciation.
Guess Waymo didn't want to operate at a loss.
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Indeed, but the R&D costs need to be averaged over the useful lifespan of the technology, not over a few quarters or even a few years.
I haven't seen their actual pricing as I haven't gone up to SF in quite a while, but Waymo must have taken their marginal costs into accounts to come up with it.
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What local news found for the few rides they tried was that Waymo was slightly cheaper than Uber or Lyft.
now is the time (Score:2)
wow (Score:2)
Wowee. Local news station tried them. They loved it. The only small problem is that it took a roundabout route that took 30 mins for a normal 15 min ride. No doubt this is because Waymo has way mo' trouble at certain intersections, so simply avoids them.