Waymo's Robotaxis Are Coming To London (theguardian.com) 20
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: People in London could be hiring driverless taxis from Waymo next year, after the US autonomous vehicle company announced plans to launch its services there. The UK capital will become the first European city to have an autonomous taxi service of the kind now familiar in San Francisco and four other US cities using Waymo's technology.
The launch pits an innovation sometimes dubbed the "robotaxi" against London's famous black cabs, which can trace their history back to the first horse-drawn hackney coaches of the Tudor era. But a representative of the capital's cab drivers said they were not concerned by the arrival of a "fairground ride" and questioned the reliability of driverless vehicles. Waymo said its cars were now on their way to London and would start driving on the capital's streets in the coming weeks with "trained human specialists," or safety drivers, behind the wheel.
The company, originally formed as a spin-off from Google's self-driving car program, said it would scale up operations and work closely with Transport for London and the Department for Transportto obtain the permits needed to offer fully autonomous rides in 2026. Uber and the UK tech company Wayve have also announced their own plans to trial their driverless taxis in the capital next year, after the British government said it would accelerate rules allowing public trials to take place before legislation enabling self-driving vehicles passes in full.
The launch pits an innovation sometimes dubbed the "robotaxi" against London's famous black cabs, which can trace their history back to the first horse-drawn hackney coaches of the Tudor era. But a representative of the capital's cab drivers said they were not concerned by the arrival of a "fairground ride" and questioned the reliability of driverless vehicles. Waymo said its cars were now on their way to London and would start driving on the capital's streets in the coming weeks with "trained human specialists," or safety drivers, behind the wheel.
The company, originally formed as a spin-off from Google's self-driving car program, said it would scale up operations and work closely with Transport for London and the Department for Transportto obtain the permits needed to offer fully autonomous rides in 2026. Uber and the UK tech company Wayve have also announced their own plans to trial their driverless taxis in the capital next year, after the British government said it would accelerate rules allowing public trials to take place before legislation enabling self-driving vehicles passes in full.
...arrival of a "fairground ride" (Score:2)
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We shall see.
Having driven a lot on London and various parts of the US, I'd say driving in London isn't like driving in America. The roads are small, narrow and crowded. Pedestrians common and allowed, and do, cross almost everywhere. Junctions tend to be much more varied and intricate or of you prefer, bizarre. There's also a surprising number of places where there simply isn't room for both directions and you have to negotiate with other drivers, in ways that will get you to fail your driving test and are
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Surprising number? These places are everywhere, all across the UK. Especially residential streets that are only one car wide once cars are parked on one or both sides of the road.
Actually, this is also why I stopped using Waze. Coming back from Heathrow once, I could have just taken the M4 and South Circular, but Waze claimed it would save me more than seven minutes on
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It's not a surprising number for a Londoner. But it is a surprising number for someone not used to driving here I'd say. I mean it's bad enough on side roads of course. It's when you need to do it on the south circular because offloading lorries and badly parked SUVs that it adds spice to life.
I do agree that the advantages from everyone else's point of view is sticking to the speed limit, no rushing and of course giving cyclists the mandatory 1.5m which no drivers ever do. I do question though whether Way
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1.5m? That'd be nice.
Case-in-point: we have chicane going up a hill nearby to cross the rail tracks with a gap on either side with bike lanes. Cars often try to overtake through the chicane, but there's not enough (you can tell by the patched potholes in the bike on the exit.) This morning with my 8 year old son, I went, as usual, through the chicane rather than follow him through via the bike lane, yet the guy coming the other way against the priority signs slowed only a little and missed me by a small a
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1.5m? That'd be nice.
Indeed.
With all the bUt CyClIsTs ArE aLwAyS bReAkInG tHe LaW shit flinging from drivers, turns out very very very very very few drivers actually obey the rules of the road either. I doubt 1 car in 50 gives me 1.5m as specified in the highway code, and 75% routinely speed in London. Also in my experience about 80% roll through the stop line at traffic lights (illegally) and into the bike box. Naturally the police won't fine them even with CCTV evidence.
Also, when did indicating in a car
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No malice and no impatience, even if the passenger didn't plan properly and is running late.
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It'll happily send you off an easy, fast, well-lit motorway onto a difficult, narrow, unlit B road if it thinks it can save two minutes on a two-hour trip.
It also appears to believe that in the absence of traffic you will be traveling at the speed limit, down those said single vehicle wide unlit twisty B roads.
You could even go further by looking at the number of digits - single-digit routes tend to be simpler than three-digit ones. Sure, there would be exceptions (like the M25 compared to the M6)
I think it
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It'll be interesting to see how Waymo handles driving in Amsterdam, with all of its semi-chaotic bicycle traffic, if Waymo ever expands to that city.
Can they pass the knowledge of London? (Score:3)
Can they pass the knowledge of London?
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Probably not. "The knowledge" is far more than just a mental map of London's roads, it's knowledge of things like how those roads are at the present time of day and what the best routes are.
I think Tom Scott did a video where he competed with a London taxi driver on how to get between places - the taxi driver using his knowledge, Tom using a GPS. I think the taxi driver won by about half an hour simply because knowing where the traffic jams were and how to get around them.
Ignore all .. (Score:3)
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Will they occasionally switch to driving on the ri (Score:2)
Is all the training data from London, or is some from the US? In some unusual circumstance, will they start driving in the right lane?
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I'm sceptical, but I'm not on the "never" path. It was going through one of the most annoying parts of my drive - for those that know the area, just outside of St Pancras heading up to Pentonville Road. At that point you have a lane split, comically bad driving, buses overlapping the lane, psychotic cyclists ignoring lanes and red lights and pedestrians on a tiny sliver in the middle of the three lanes continuall
Best wishes (Score:2)
comfort (Score:2)
London traditional taxis are high and therefore easy to enter and exit. Waymo's Jaguars are svelte, low, and inconvenient for elderly, women in dresses, etc. It ain't just getting there; it's how you get there.