diplomat33
Average guy who loves autonomous vehicles
The hearing about the unexpected stops is Aug 7. The meeting to grant the commercial permit is Aug 10.
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Waymo
- Thread starter Daniel in SD
- Start date
The hearing about the unexpected stops is Aug 7. The meeting to grant the commercial permit is Aug 10.
diplomat33
Average guy who loves autonomous vehicles
It's official: Austin will be Waymo's 4th ride-hailing city after LA. Waymo has already finished early testing in Austin and will begin initial phase of operations this Fall with fully autonomous deployment to the public "in the months following":
waymo.com
Waymo One heads to Austin
It’s official. Austin will be Waymo’s fourth major ride-hail city, joining Metro Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles, as we continue to expand and build momentum for our commercial ride-hail business.
waymo.com
Doggydogworld
Active Member
Nice little dig at Cruise. The areas they describe seem to encompass about 25 sq miles. That's useful, but not sure I'd call it a "large portion". Schedule is vague - beta test riders under NDA with safety drivers this fall (October?). Probably open to the public without safety drivers in mid-late 2024.
diplomat33
Average guy who loves autonomous vehicles
It is a dig at Cruise. Cruise's area in Austin is 5 sq mi and night only. And Waymo starts 24/7 whereas Cruise starts with night only. So that makes the Waymo area more useful right there. And I suspect Waymo will try to enlarge the area like they have done in Phoenix.
If Fall means Sept-Oct for beta test riders and they are aiming for public driverless a few months later, that could easily be Feb-March. That's not mid-late 2024. So I think mid-late 2024 is too pessimistic.
But overall, I am optimistic for Waymo. If they get their commercial permit on Aug 10 as planned, they can start scaling a commercial service in SF. And it looks like we will see see Waymo launch early riders in both LA and Austin by the end of this year. So by mid 2024, Waymo could have a fully commercial driverless robotaxi service in 4 major US cities which should put them in a good position for generating meaningful revenue.
diplomat33
Average guy who loves autonomous vehicles
diplomat33
Average guy who loves autonomous vehicles
Waymo just posted a big blog on how Waymo Driver improves and new capabilities:
Some interesting bits:
Fleet learning
"The Waymo Driver covers tens of thousands of miles — equivalent to a lifetime of human driving experience — in a matter of days; in simulation, it does so in minutes. But driving is a social and complex task, so it’s not just about accumulating miles, but learning from each one. Our Driver has a unique ability to learn from road events across the entire fleet, advancing its capabilities at incredible speeds. This rapid pace of learning is one of the key factors that has enabled our recent expansion across multiple major U.S. cities."
"Being ML-primary, the tech behind the Waymo Driver, also adapts to new challenges and learns from experience fast. That, combined with robust training and evaluation infrastructure, allows us to rapidly and regularly enhance the Waymo Driver’s capabilities." Our software updates come out like clockwork. Each update undergoes rigorous testing and unlocks new features and performance improvements for the Driver across our entire fleet — from parking and multi-point turn maneuvers to handling heavier levels of fog and rain — as if a driving lesson for one teaches the whole fleet. This allows us to safely deploy not just individual cars but our entire fleet in increasingly more complex driving environments and expand to new cities faster."
Better performance in rain and fog.
Waymo maintained 99.4% uptime during CA winter season. Working to handle even heavier rain and fog.
Better performance in construction zones.
Responding to handheld signs, maneuvering around construction cones that come in all colors and sizes, and changing lanes for road work ahead even if the proper signage is missing,
Emergency vehicles & First Responders
The vast majority of such events when our car comes to a stop—or would have come to a stop in the past—are now resolved by the Waymo Driver, without assistance. To help resolve such situations more efficiently and make the Waymo Driver’s actions more predictable, we recently introduced new external audio alerts — for example, to inform pedestrians around the stopped vehicle that we’re working to get it moving, or that they’re in a path that we’re intending to take when safe.
Two clips of audio alerts the Waymo will say:
Some interesting bits:
Fleet learning
"The Waymo Driver covers tens of thousands of miles — equivalent to a lifetime of human driving experience — in a matter of days; in simulation, it does so in minutes. But driving is a social and complex task, so it’s not just about accumulating miles, but learning from each one. Our Driver has a unique ability to learn from road events across the entire fleet, advancing its capabilities at incredible speeds. This rapid pace of learning is one of the key factors that has enabled our recent expansion across multiple major U.S. cities."
"Being ML-primary, the tech behind the Waymo Driver, also adapts to new challenges and learns from experience fast. That, combined with robust training and evaluation infrastructure, allows us to rapidly and regularly enhance the Waymo Driver’s capabilities." Our software updates come out like clockwork. Each update undergoes rigorous testing and unlocks new features and performance improvements for the Driver across our entire fleet — from parking and multi-point turn maneuvers to handling heavier levels of fog and rain — as if a driving lesson for one teaches the whole fleet. This allows us to safely deploy not just individual cars but our entire fleet in increasingly more complex driving environments and expand to new cities faster."
Better performance in rain and fog.
Waymo maintained 99.4% uptime during CA winter season. Working to handle even heavier rain and fog.
Better performance in construction zones.
Responding to handheld signs, maneuvering around construction cones that come in all colors and sizes, and changing lanes for road work ahead even if the proper signage is missing,
Emergency vehicles & First Responders
- The Waymo Driver uses its advanced sensor suite and cutting-edge perception system to detect and localize emergency vehicle sirens and flashing lights and is prepared to slow down and yield.
- First responders have a direct line of communication with Waymo’s team and can even transition the vehicle to a manual configuration to move it quickly if needed — a feature that we built in response to a request from first responders several years ago.
The vast majority of such events when our car comes to a stop—or would have come to a stop in the past—are now resolved by the Waymo Driver, without assistance. To help resolve such situations more efficiently and make the Waymo Driver’s actions more predictable, we recently introduced new external audio alerts — for example, to inform pedestrians around the stopped vehicle that we’re working to get it moving, or that they’re in a path that we’re intending to take when safe.
Two clips of audio alerts the Waymo will say:
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Wonder why it was in the far left lane with it's right turn signal on at the light in the rain example gif. Seems like a mistake FSD would make.
diplomat33
Average guy who loves autonomous vehicles
At the start of the gif when it makes the left turn, it has the left turn blinker on. At the end of the gif, I think it was planning to change lanes to the right, you can see the planning path arc to the right, that's why it had the right blinker on.
Yeah but that's the kind of planning issue FSD has and I see people moan about constantly. It should already be in the right lane at the light, not decide to gun it around another car and cut them off to get over.
Doggydogworld
Active Member
Some of today's blog post is rehash, e.g. the construction zone lady video is a couple months old. But reversing into a three point turn when blocked by an emergency vehicle was interesting. The video of that had an odd pause/mode change after it got free and clear of the blockage, but overall it was pretty slick.
diplomat33
Average guy who loves autonomous vehicles
diplomat33
Average guy who loves autonomous vehicles
Doggydogworld
Active Member
Not immediately. They have 100k on their wait list in San Francisco. If even half of those are regular customers it'll take time to scale their fleet and back office up enough to handle them all.
bkp_duke
Well-Known Member
Waymo car freezes, forcing drivers onto Valencia center bike lane
In a uniquely San-Francisco-in-2023 incident, a driverless Waymo car froze & forced drivers down the Valencia center bike lane.
missionlocal.org
Wooops
diplomat33
Average guy who loves autonomous vehicles
Waymo car freezes, forcing drivers onto Valencia center bike lane
In a uniquely San-Francisco-in-2023 incident, a driverless Waymo car froze & forced drivers down the Valencia center bike lane.
Wooops
Another biased article. It does not say why the Waymo froze. It describes the incident to put the robotaxi in the worst light. It quotes a tweet from an obvious AV hater who uses hyperbolic language "Can we end this experiment now or does someone need to be killed first?".
diplomat33
Average guy who loves autonomous vehicles
Not sure why you're just dismissing it like that.
They tried to get the reason the car broke down and Waymo didn't respond.
IMO your reply just comes off as dismissive without even trying to make a point.
I can change the words waymo/AV into anything and it works, something like:
Also, regarding his "hyperbolic language" if you actually looked at his account you'd see that line isn't about the waymo, but instead the bike lanes as they are part of a 12 month pilot program, and seemingly pulled it from another person. ex:
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