Waymo

[Bitdepth]

 

[diplomat33]

SF downtown rush hour is not easy. Waymo handles it great IMO. Very nice!

 

[Dewg]

SF downtown rush hour is not easy. Waymo handles it great IMO. Very nice!

Interestingly at 2:50 it's preparing to make a right turn, but then adjusts to the left. Many people were complaining about FSD Beta doing similar maneuvers when turning, so I'm glad to see Waymo doing it too. Similar to FSD Beta at 3:25 when it yields when it didn't necessarily need to.

 

[kabin]

Interestingly at 2:50 it's preparing to make a right turn, but then adjusts to the left. Many people were complaining about FSD Beta doing similar maneuvers when turning, so I'm glad to see Waymo doing it too. Similar to FSD Beta at 3:25 when it yields when it didn't necessarily need to.

The 'cautious yield' is related to the black SUV slowing late and moving beyond the stop sign white line. Nothing wrong there.

The slight left before right turn seemed logical given the need to turn tight between the single lane curb and cars on the other side of road. The important point is not occupying multiple lanes like FSD.

Many times FSD turns right before left turns which make little sense given the wider turn radius. Add to that, in the process, FSD occupies adjacent turn lanes or veers into oncoming traffic from the opposing left turn lane. Very unnerving. For me the issue seemed to start after adding UPL median logic.

 

[Dewg]

The 'cautious yield' is related to the black SUV slowing late and moving beyond the stop sign white line. Nothing wrong there.

The slight left before right turn seemed logical given the need to turn tight between the single lane curb and cars on the other side of road. The important point is not occupying multiple lanes like FSD.

Many times FSD turns right before left turns which make little sense given the wider turn radius. Add to that, in the process, FSD occupies adjacent turn lanes or veers into oncoming traffic from the opposing left turn lane. Very unnerving. For me the issue seemed to start after adding UPL median logic.

My car acts more like the Waymo.

 

[spacecoin]

Very interesting Q&A in this presentation from Tekedra Mawakana, Waymo Co-CEO:

Really great questions from the audience (starts at 31.15)!

She talks about expansion ("LA going well, Austin next"), ODD ("not black ice, not heavy snow, but working on it"), and a lot of other things.

Over 10k rides per day.

 

[diplomat33]

Very interesting Q&A in this presentation from Tekedra Mawakana, Waymo Co-CEO:

Really great questions from the audience (starts at 31.15)!

She talks about expansion ("LA going well, Austin next"), ODD ("not black ice, not heavy snow, but working on it"), and a lot of other things.

Over 10k rides per day.

Tekedra seemed to leave the door open for Waymo to bring their tech to consumer cars at some point. She said that ride-hail is their "first business", that carmakers are focused more on driver assist systems right now but that they are interested in Waymo tech and Waymo is always in conversations with them. I think as L4 matures more, we could see Waymo license their tech to consumer cars. Waymo just does not want to do driver assist systems.

 

[spacecoin]

Tekedra seemed to leave the door open for Waymo to bring their tech to consumer cars at some point. She said that ride-hail is their "first business", that carmakers are focused more on driver assist systems right now but that they are interested in Waymo tech and Waymo is always in conversations with them. I think as L4 matures more, we could see Waymo license their tech to consumer cars. Waymo just does not want to do driver assist systems.

It sounded like she thinks that's about 10 years out though. "you want it to be able to drive everywhere" (et.c).

 

[diplomat33]

It sounded like she thinks that's about 10 years out though. "you want it to be able to drive everywhere" (et.c).

I don't think she gives a specific time frame but yeah, it will be many years. I was not suggesting that it would happen soon, just that it is a possibility in the future. Waymo is not interested in driver assist systems so they will only deploy the Waymo Driver on consumer cars as a fully autonomous system. And yes, she points out that consumer cars have to be able to drive anywhere the person needs to go. I took that to mean that Waymo will wait until they can remove the geofence. That is why we see Waymo working to expand their ODD. So, as I see it, Waymo will only deploy their tech on consumers cars once it is both safe and true full autonomy (driverless) and works with no geofence. It is a high bar for sure. 10 years could be about right.

Having said that, I still think that Waymo should consider deploying L4 highway on consumer cars after they finish validating highway driving. IMO, that would be a good intermediary step on the path to full autonomy everywhere. It would meet their criteria since it would be a fully autonomous system and it would work in a decent ODD that would be useful to many consumers. And it is something that they could offer sooner while they work towards full autonomy everywhere. We see other companies with this goal. For example, Mobileye is partnering with Polestar to deploy their Chauffeur system that will offer "eyes off" on highways with a target goal of 2026, I think. Tekedra says they are always talking to carmakers about their tech. So presumably when Waymo has validated safe driverless on highways, they could ask carmakers if they would be interested in a fully autonomous system for highway driving and if a carmaker said yes, then Waymo could agree to a partnership.

 

[diplomat33]

Curated timestamps:
00:00 Flashback
01:02 Three point turn escape
02:05 Tricky unprotected right
02:49 Waymo hallucinates a car
03:42 Phantom brake (hallucinated bicycle
04:13 Cop directing traffic (watch the path planner)
04:44 Busy crosswalk
04:55 Cool right lane change
05:10 Nudging for bus
05:45 Unprotected right
08:30 Protected right
11:15 Super cool long range pedestrian detection

 

[Terminator857]

I rented a house in downtown scottsdale next week. I'm planning on testing waymo how easy or hard it is to request a ride. Let me know if there is something else you'd like me to keep a keen eye on.

 

[diplomat33]

0:00 Pull out
0:10 Narrow parking aisle
0:40 Awkward and/or genius trajectory
1:41 Toyota Level 5 sighting
3:42 Offroad construction site
4:30 Nudge for pedestrian entering street
5:43 Nudge and slow for pedestrian in street
6:05 Awkward creep for sharp left turn
9:19 Stopping for system problem
10:24 Narrow gap
11:38 Reversing with remote assistance
12:07 Stuck again
12:37 Reversing
12:57 Multi-point turn
13:46 Support call
13:58 Pull over

 

[JJRicks]

Curated timestamps:
00:00 Flashback
01:02 Three point turn escape
02:05 Tricky unprotected right
02:49 Waymo hallucinates a car
03:42 Phantom brake (hallucinated bicycle
04:13 Cop directing traffic (watch the path planner)
04:44 Busy crosswalk
04:55 Cool right lane change
05:10 Nudging for bus
05:45 Unprotected right
08:30 Protected right
11:15 Super cool long range pedestrian detection

First SF video of many goes out tomorrow

 

[diplomat33]

First SF video of many goes out tomorrow

Looking forward to it. Thanks.

 

[diplomat33]

It handled lots of things smoothly that I’ve felt other self driving cars be more “jumpy” on… parked car doors opening, people walking on edge of road, erratic lane switching by others, and rain… which must be training data from a non-LA geo

https://twitter.com/x/status/1724994640942870801

 

[diplomat33]

JJ Ricks rides in SF!

00:00 Intro
01:10 Ride start
01:23 Unprotected right on stop
02:35 Motorcycle passes in front
03:40 Tracking a truly ludicrous amount of pedestrians
04:37 Thank you to Array Labs for sponsoring this series!
06:02 Nudging around double parked cars
06:48 Lol
09:20 Nudging around double parked car
11:34 Slightly random pause
12:55 Going around parked FedEx truck
13:35 Tricky right turn and dense traffic
14:20 Safe right turn yielding to pedestrians
14:43 Nudging around double parked car
16:40 Giving space to pedestrians
16:55 Unprotected right
17:25 Giving space to scooters and bikes
23:07 Yielding to pedestrian, intent to cross
24:46 Crazy guy plays chicken with the car
25:20 Crazy guy proceeds to block us for a light cycle
26:50 Yielding to cyclist
27:35 Nice PUDO

 

[kabin]

Curated timestamps:
00:00 Flashback
01:02 Three point turn escape
02:05 Tricky unprotected right
02:49 Waymo hallucinates a car
03:42 Phantom brake (hallucinated bicycle
04:13 Cop directing traffic (watch the path planner)
04:44 Busy crosswalk
04:55 Cool right lane change
05:10 Nudging for bus
05:45 Unprotected right
08:30 Protected right
11:15 Super cool long range pedestrian detection

Some interesting hallucinations. He showed @3:42 to be a waymo car image reflecting on the building window so maybe sourced from the camera sensor. No nearby building/windows for @2:49 so maybe it's being sourced from a lidar or radar multipath return. Those are good catches.

 

[Doggydogworld]

He showed @3:42 to be a waymo car image reflecting on the building window....

There is also an oncoming car just on the other side of the building. It's to the right of Waymo due to road curvature. Joel's backseat camera can't see the oncoming car until a fraction after braking starts, but Waymo's front-mounted lidar and other sensors probably did. Perhaps sensor fusion combined that sudden appearance of a very real car with headlights reflecting off the window to hallucinate a collision course.

 

[kabin]

There is also an oncoming car just on the other side of the building. It's to the right of Waymo due to road curvature. Joel's backseat camera can't see the oncoming car until a fraction after braking starts, but Waymo's front-mounted lidar and other sensors probably did. Perhaps sensor fusion combined that sudden appearance of a very real car with headlights reflecting off the window to hallucinate a collision course.

Who knows for sure but it's fun to analyze.

The video shows the angled glass is maybe 15ft wide so it makes sense the reflection would be brief and that coincides with Waymo's UI. It's on a collision course, is close, and Waymo needs to respond. It's impressive how quick the Waymo detects, reacts, and then eliminates the threat. It's a balancing act of increased sensitivity versus false alarms.

The Waymo UI displays the vehicle around the corner where it should. It's on a different path and different distance to the reflection. I can't think of any reason for the Waymo to brake for it.

 

[diplomat33]

Another JJ Ricks ride in SF with more interesting cases:

Curated timestamps:
00:00 Ride start
00:15 Bit of a squeeze
00:30 Unprotected right stop sign and angry cyclist
04:47 Zoox test vehicle
05:45 Weird shaking
06:28 Attempting right lane change
07:40 Lane change and back to avoid truck
07:50 Hey Luke
08:00 Yielding to pedestrians to enter parking lot
08:40 Yielding to car turning, smart prediction
09:05 Evasive action
09:17 Cool unprotected right
10:15 Playing chicken with cars coming off the freeway
12:05 Nudging slightly for bus
12:33 Making sure not to block intersection
16:19 Giving space to scooter
18:00 Nudging for truck
19:21 Attempted left lane change
21:10 Yielding for parallel parking car
21:50 No hesitation squeeze
23:30 Hill four way stop
23:52 The Painted Ladies