Waymo

[diplomat33]

JJ Ricks is back with another Waymo video:

Timestamps:
00:00 Car approaching
00:10 Boarding
00:20 Ride start
01:12 Stop sign right turn (no traffic)
02:55 Stop sign right turn onto main road
03:05 Series of lane changes
04:05 Weird hesitation
05:18 Protected left and lane change
06:06 Stop light right turn into neighborhood
07:00 Four way stop
08:15 Duck passes close in front of the car, shows on visualization
08:25 Right turn on red
13:37 Attempted left lane change
14:35 Squeeze into left turn lane

 

[diplomat33]

Waymo just announced that they have decided to push back their timeline on trucking and focus on scaling ride-hailing.

Full blog:

At Waymo, we’re developing a generalizable, fully autonomous Driver – the Waymo Driver – designed to integrate with a variety of vehicle platforms and commercial applications including ride-hailing, trucking, local delivery, and personal car ownership. Given the tremendous momentum and substantial commercial opportunity we’re seeing on the ride-hailing front, we’ve made the decision to focus our efforts and investment on ride-hailing. We’re iterating more quickly than ever on our technology by pushing forward state of the art AI/ML, and seeing significant business growth and rider demand in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles.

With our decision to focus on ride-hailing, we’ll push back the timeline on our commercial and operational efforts on trucking, as well as most of our technical development on that business unit. We’ll continue our collaboration with our strategic partner, Daimler Truck North America (DTNA), to advance technical development of an autonomous truck platform. Both our companies share the common goal of improving road safety and efficiency for fleet customers, so we’ll follow through with the platform investments we’ve made to create a redundant chassis to facilitate autonomous trucking. We look forward to continuing to bring together our autonomous tech with DTNA’s autonomous-ready Freightliner Cascadia® platform and exploring the potential of future platforms. Our ongoing investment in advancing Waymo Driver capabilities, especially on freeway, will directly translate to trucking and benefit its development efforts.

Our goal is to set our company on a solid path of value creation by focusing on achieving commercial success for our ride-hailing business in the near term. We are rapidly improving the Driver, shaping and overcoming hurdles in the regulatory landscape, and testing use cases that will provide valuable insights for partners in the long run. We continue to see a significant future commercial opportunity for our trucking solution alongside other commercial applications of the Waymo Driver. Laser-focusing on ride-hailing today puts us, our partners, and our customers in a strong position to be successful in the future across all of the business lines we pursue over time, showcasing the breadth of the Waymo Driver.

Source: Waypoint - The official Waymo blog: Doubling down on Waymo One

 

[JJRicks]

JJ Ricks is back with another Waymo video:

And now, one on every Wednesday morning for the foreseeable future

 

[diplomat33]

Waymo just released this little PR video to explain their safety approach:

 

[diplomat33]

 

[Bitdepth]

Thanks for sharing @diplomat33

Another example of pose estimation, being able to read hand gestures is important for any ADS and is definitely not a rare occurrence if you live in a busy city. Waymo correctly sees the hand gesture as a temporary stop sign.

 

[diplomat33]

Thanks for sharing @diplomat33

Another example of pose estimation, being able to read hand gestures is important for any ADS and is definitely not a rare occurrence if you live in a busy city. Waymo correctly sees the hand gesture as a temporary stop sign.

You are welcome. Yes, I saw that. It is quite impressive IMO. It is definitely something that driverless cars needs to be able to do. It shows how advanced the Waymo Driver is becoming.

 

[diplomat33]

Changes in business and strategy are coming to Waymo. We already know about the shutdown of trucking to focus on ride-hailing.I really hope the changes work out for the best.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1685290480571990016

https://twitter.com/x/status/1685291114234867712

https://twitter.com/x/status/1685310244543483904

 

[Doggydogworld]

We already know about the shutdown of trucking to focus on ride-hailing.

They didn't shut down trucking to focus on ride hailing. They did it to cut losses. "Doubling down" is PR spin.

I've harped on Waymo's poor business model and lack of entrepreneurial skills for five years. The day of reckoning is finally drawing nigh. They desperately need to show a path to economic viability. Unfortunately they really suck at the whole "making money" thing.

They must drive utilization way up and operating costs like remote monitoring way down. Fortunately Cruise forced them into San Francisco, where high natural demand drives utilization. But just as they were about to make San Francisco the crown jewel of their Powerpoint deck, the coneheads struck. Now it's not clear when, or even if, they'll be allowed to charge fares. Bye bye viability.

They need much lower direct operating costs (plus highways) to be viable in other cities like Phoenix and LA. They don't even disclose hints about direct operating costs, so we don't know how many years away they are. It's probably San Francisco or bust.

 

[diplomat33]

They didn't shut down trucking to focus on ride hailing. They did it to cut losses. "Doubling down" is PR spin.

I've harped on Waymo's poor business model and lack of entrepreneurial skills for five years. The day of reckoning is finally drawing nigh. They desperately need to show a path to economic viability. Unfortunately they really suck at the whole "making money" thing.

They must drive utilization way up and operating costs like remote monitoring way down. Fortunately Cruise forced them into San Francisco, where high natural demand drives utilization. But just as they were about to make San Francisco the crown jewel of their Powerpoint deck, the coneheads struck. Now it's not clear when, or even if, they'll be allowed to charge fares. Bye bye viability.

They need much lower direct operating costs (plus highways) to be viable in other cities like Phoenix and LA. They don't even disclose hints about direct operating costs, so we don't know how many years away they are. It's probably San Francisco or bust.

That's why it will be interesting to see what happens Q3/Q4 when Ruth Porat takes over Alphabet. We will see what kind of changes are made to address the business concerns that you raise. Hopefully, Waymo figures out the business side. Maybe the robotaxi business model is not ready yet but the Waymo hardware and software is too good IMO to just give up. Surely, the Waymo Driver could be adapted to other autonomous driving applications. Waymo mentions that it is generalized for a variety of AV applications. In other words, I think the Waymo tech is good and L4 is right, it's just the robotaxi application that maybe might not be the right model right now. Or maybe Waymo just needs an extra revenue source to help fund scaling robotaxis? That is why I keep pushing the idea of licensing the tech. Mobileye has a profitable business model, licensing their tech to automakers. It is helping Mobileye fund their development of higher autonomy. It would give Waymo an extra revenue stream to help them achieve profitability. Maybe Waymo sells their hardware to carmakers? Maybe they license the Waymo Driver to be used in ADAS to prevent collisions? Or maybe they work with an automaker to do "eyes off" highway powered by the Waymo Driver? I am not saying that Waymo should give up on L4 (quite the contrary) but ADAS could generate revenue while they continue to scale driverless to more areas.

 

[ThomasD]

I read an article that Waymo is going to start in Nashville soon. That will give them a lot more different Weather conditions to train in. Heavy Rain, Strong Storms, Snow, and other types of Weather that you don't get in San Fransisco Phoenix or Houston. Plus I 24, I 40 and I 65 run through the city.

 

[diplomat33]

I read an article that Waymo is going to start in Nashville soon. That will give them a lot more different Weather conditions to train in. Heavy Rain, Strong Storms, Snow, and other types of Weather that you don't get in San Fransisco Phoenix or Houston. Plus I 24, I 40 and I 65 run through the city.

Cruise is in Nashville, not Waymo.

Waymo is in Orlando to test in heavy rain.

 

[ThomasD]

I got the two confused.

 

[diplomat33]

Waymo has 100,000 people on their waitlist for San Francisco. IMO, this bodes well for when they get their commercial permit which should happen on Aug 10 if the CPUC meeting goes well.

Nalavade claimed that the company has 100,000 people on the waitlist for its San Francisco passenger services (keep in mind the city’s population is just over 800,000)

In San Francisco, robotaxis navigate more than just steep streets

As the debate over autonomous vehicles heats up, Tech Brew retests the Waymo passenger experience.

www.emergingtechbrew.com

 

[Bitdepth]

Waymo going around a stationary cruise during an emergency.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1686365150973173760

 

[rbt123]

Is that a fire hose across the roadway? The fire chief specifically complained about cruise vehicles running over firehoses didn't they, and here they've put them out seemingly with the expectation that everyone would drive over them. That's a complicated set of heuristics for the learning system to pickup.

I'm very interested to know if the Waymo vehicle detected the hose and somehow decided it was not in active use (not charged, no people trying to move it into place). Not detecting the hose would be a pretty big failure, even if driving over it was coincidentally the right thing to do here (in my area I think emergency services would expect you to U-turn, but they'd also have a cop at that intersection within a couple minutes of the hose being put down).

 

[ThomasD]

I thought anyone could get a ride with Waymo anywhere in San Fransisco.

 

[diplomat33]

I thought anyone could get a ride with Waymo anywhere in San Fransisco.

You can ride anywhere in SF but there is a waitlist to get invited.

 

[ThomasD]

Any time frame on when anyone in the City can get a Waymo without being on a list?

 

[Doggydogworld]

Any time frame on when anyone in the City can get a Waymo without being on a list?

When CPUC finally lets them charge fares. They can't afford to give the whole city free rides. There's a hearing in a week or so. Maybe. It's been postponed and canceled / reinstated, so there's no telling what will actually happen.