Waymo

[enemji]

Yes

That is another thing that FSDb still needs to learn...

 

[enemji]

Uh oh

 

[diplomat33]

Uh oh
View attachment 950859

That article is from April 13. It is outdated. Here is video from 2 weeks ago of Waymo driving just fine in heavy fog:

 

[diplomat33]

 

[flutas]

Interesting excerpt, sounds like if they don't have a destination they will just circle a few blocks forever.

For some reason — no one seems to know just why — the self-driving cars can’t stay away from a random sleepy block in Santa Monica.


You can see for yourself: Get a cup of coffee at Primo Passo on 7th and Montana, and take a seat. Before long they’ll cruise by, one after another — Waymo’s autonomous taxis, white electric Jaguar SUVs with a bulbous sensor apparatus spinning up top. I sat on the corner for less than an hour and counted at least 10 self-driven laps.


“I’m here every single morning, and they’re driving by. All day, they’re driving by,” says Jennifer, a film producer and local resident, who asked that I not use her last name. “It’s a fixture down here,” she adds. “It’d be nice to know why.”


As we chat, another one pulls up to the stop light. I jog over and ask the safety driver behind the wheel — behind but not touching it — why they’re circling the block. “There’s no specified route,” he says, smiling, as the car pulled away. Five minutes later, another one rolled up.

Column: Self-driving Waymo cars might worsen L.A. traffic - How smart Technology changing lives

For some reason — no one seems to know just why — the self-driving cars can’t stay away from a random sleepy block in Santa Monica. You can see for yourself: Get a cup of coffee at Primo Passo on 7th and Montana, and take a seat. Before long they’ll…

voonze.com

 

[diplomat33]

Ride along interview all over San Francisco with Waymo’s Chief Product Officer, Saswat Panigrahi:

Topics Covered:

00:00 - A first look at Waymo
02:06 - 5 levels of autonomy
04:20 - Technology challenges
06:55 - The technology behind Waymo
11:58 - LiDAR vs video debate
16:21 - How Waymo differentiates
19:01 - Technological unlocks on the horizon
21:26 - The role of AI in autonomous vehicles
24:17 - How Waymo views safety
31:25 - Collaborating with regulators
37:12 - Learnings from the first 2m miles
39:48 - Driving user retention
44:16 - Waymo’s expansion strategy
47:55 - Changing regulation
48:42 - Societal unlocks enabled by autonomy
53:47 - Will self-driving cars replace humans?
54:26 - Closing thoughts

Some interesting tidbits IMO:

If you try to grab the steering wheel, the Waymo will sense that it is being interfered with and will pull over.
Massive difference between L3 and L4. L3 there is still expectation that human might have to take over in x seconds. L4, there is no expectation for the human to ever take over.
Waymo develops everything in-house, all hardware and all software. This allows them to optimize the hardware for their software and speed up learning.
Waymo is not worried about lidar cost. The cost has already come down drastically and expectation is that hardware costs will continue to decrease.
Waymo Driver will keep a "buffer" just in case other vehicles or pedestrians don't behave as expected. Waymo Driver can see if oncoming car has red light but is not slowing down and might run the red light.
Waymo will detect when visibility is reduced (rain, fog etc) and automatically slow down.
Waymo is generalizing very well across different driving environments like SF and Phoenix. With deep learning AI, there is less need to manually fine tune. 5th Gen in LA worked "shockingly" well from the get-go.
Waymo's safety approach is not just reducing collisions but also reducing "unnecessary risk". This is important because the AV might have done something risky and just got lucky that there was no crash. So you cannot assume safety because of low collisions. Some risk is sometimes necessary but you need to reduce unnecessary risky behavior that could cause collisions. Important for rider to feel safe.
Waymo has tested and collected data from 20 cities across US in order to build a generalized driver that can work anywhere.

 

[Bitdepth]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1673403230804385813

 

[diplomat33]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1673403230804385813

Yep. I think we already knew this but it is nice to see CA actually call out the SF officials for their manipulation.

 

[Bitdepth]

Ride along interview all over San Francisco with Waymo’s Chief Product Officer, Saswat Panigrahi:

Topics Covered:

00:00 - A first look at Waymo
02:06 - 5 levels of autonomy
04:20 - Technology challenges

Waymo brakes for a car that ran a red.

 

[diplomat33]

Waymo brakes for a car that ran a red.

Yep. We know Waymo Driver has very good behavior prediction which is key for situations like that. A true L4 vehicle has to be able to predict things like that.

 

[cwerdna]

Video shows Waymo car stop in middle of SF street as debate over driverless vehicles heats up made local news tonight.

"New video from this past weekend's Pride Parade in San Francisco is offering new fuel for a debate about robotaxis in the city..."

 

[Bitdepth]

 

[Bitdepth]

This is hilarious

 

[ThomasD]

Maybe the area she wanted to go wasn't mapped.

 

[Bitdepth]

Maybe the area she wanted to go wasn't mapped.

I doubt it. Probably just blacklisted.

On a different note waymo rerouted by construction worker.

 

[Doggydogworld]

This is hilarious

I'm not sure what to think here. Mayasf on YouTube says she's taken Waymo to the Randall before. After seeing this clip she pulled up the app and scheduled another ride there - her screenshot shows it will drop her off at the front door, as before.

Maybe the reporter triggered some weird bug. And also happened to have one of the extremely rare rides that gets stuck in an intersection. Or maybe they rigged it, like the NY Times reporter who had the battery die during his Tesla review (after he drove around in the parking lot for an hour or so). It'd be pretty easy, and make a much better story.

 

[diplomat33]

Very informative. We see Waymo is making great progress with difficult scenarios like dense urban traffic and adverse weather. Waymo's plans to expand 10x by next summer is also very promising.

 

[Doggydogworld]

Update, Maya shared the clip of her trip to the Randall Museum. The car goes all the way up Museum Way and stops right next to the building. I'm now convinced the reporter rigged the story.

 

[Tam]

Update, Maya shared the clip of her trip to the Randall Museum. The car goes all the way up Museum Way and stops right next to the building. I'm now convinced the reporter rigged the story.

Didn't she reach customer support? If so, it's hard to rig it.

 

[diplomat33]