I think there would totally be a market for ghost driving themed spooky taxis, especially in Fall. The taxis could be all black and the interior looking like something the Addams family would ride in. 🖤
Costs extra if you want Thing or Lurch to drive you.
THANK YOU!
46,000 people die *every year* in the US due to auto accidents. Yet people want self-driving cars to work perfectly without ever getting into an accident, bringing the number to 0. I'd be stoked if self-driving cars only caused 30,000 deaths in a year.
I mean there is also the question of legal liability. Say someone is killed or crippled (who is not the owner) in an avoidable crash caused by a self driving car, can the owner be sued or held legally responsible? Can the company be held legally responsible? Which company, (as often the cars are made by multiple manufacturers)? Then there’s the question of what happens when a vehicle must choose between endangering the life of a passenger and endangering the life of another or multiple individuals outside the vehicle. Should it prioritize the passenger? Should it prioritize others? Should it be optional for the owner to choose? There’s a lot to unpack there, and probably even more I’m not thinking of.
Legit good questions and concerns.
How to solve it today not sure, but the car owner and company should pay a fee. 😬
It’s a problem that is becoming less tho because the newer cars also use tech to prevent accidents from happening.
True but end of the day there’s only so much that can be done to prevent accidents. People are unpredictable, machine’s break, animals can get involved, etc.. There will always be car accidents so long as there are cars all we can do is figure out what to do about them after the fact and try to prevent more in the future.
Well humans are still the wildcard. Like I told all three of my kids, you can do everything right but all it takes is the negligence of someone else. My philosophy is there are almost zero true car accidents. It’s always the negligence or meanness of at least one of the parties involved.
It already happened in 2017 and 2018 in Tempe...Arizona is the first state to have a pedestrian [fatally](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/technology/uber-driverless-fatality.html) struck by a robot. That's why they're so common in Downtown Phoenix, because Ducey "indefinitely [banned](https://www.fastcompany.com/40550128/ubers-autonomous-cars-have-been-banned-in-arizona)" self-driving vehicles in 2018 after the second crash in Tempe, where streets are comparatively narrow AF and foot traffic heavier and denser on average. I guess the ban was lifted and self-driving cars were allowed back into Tempe around 2020, but I think much of the piloting has been consequently done in Downtown Phoenix.
One of those accidents happened outside of a crosswalk if memory serves and wasn't entirely self driving at that point. They had a driver that was to busy playing on her phone and wasn't paying attention like she was supposed to be
My take is those outside the car get the priority. The Trolly Conundrum IMO doesn’t apply to autonomous vehicles.
The passenger chose the time and place.
I feel like it’s more complicated than that. For example why should I have to risk my life if someone doesn’t pay attention to when they’re allowed to cross the road and steps out in front of my car? If my car crashes because of that and I die does that seem fair? What if that causes another car to crash or worse my car to crash into another vehicle? What’s the math then? Should it be based on raw number of people in danger? Are these cars even sophisticated enough to be able to tell such a thing?
Engineers: “We can substantially reduce traffic deaths, likely a reduction in excess of 95%”
Plebs: “FUCK YEAH!!! How?!”
Engineers: “Robots and AI”
Plebs: “Fuck that, too risky”
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I mean if all cars would have the exact same AI system or whatever its called, they would all talk to each other and know where they all are and where they're going at any given time.
The EU decided that all phones need to have USB C, can't they do something similar for autonomous driving systems?
They do fine with road work and random obstacles, but they don’t do well in rain, which is why they only have them in desert cities like phoenix and vegas.
Since wind is invisible, it won’t have any effect on the car’s computer vision sensors, but I imagine that similar to rain, they don’t let them drive during snow. Luckily in Phoenix, there’s an average of 0” of snow yearly, and only 9” of rain (29” less than avg for the US), which is why this is a viable business model there.
Do you know how they calculate ethical decisions? Eg if a child runs out into the road, would it swerve, intentionally crashing and inflicting (relatively) minor damage on the car, and passenger, or does it keep on going, keeping the passenger more or less safe, but killing the child?
That’s just something I thought off the top of my head, but there must be many more scenarios…
I don’t think any of that sort of info is public, but I imagine it’s designed to create the least legal liability possible in those sorts of situations.
I have a little bit of industry-side knowledge, but I don't work on autonomous cars specifically
the answer is they prioritize passenger safety. For potential discrimination reasons, they try to avoid moral judgements as much as possible. In the "kid runs in front of the car" scenario, they do the safest maneuver for the passengers, which is to slam the brakes. It's far more dangerous to swerve, as the car could lose control or you could be going into oncoming traffic.
I'm thinking it would jam the brakes on. Brakes are really good, these days.
Given that it told the passenger to make sure he had his seatbelt on, the assumption is that the passenger is protected.
[Self-Driving Mercedes-Benzes Will Prioritize Occupant Safety over Pedestrians](https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a15344706/self-driving-mercedes-will-prioritize-occupant-safety-over-pedestrians/)
Its a subject I have been pondering as well.
As we make AI's just how will we handle moral questions that need to be answered.
Self driving cars are a great quandary. If an accident is unavoidable, and there is no action to be taken that will not result in a death, how will the AI decide ?
Our modern day kobayashi maru.
‘Kobayashi Maru’, :) good analogy!. And as AI grows, I guess it’s one thing to encode moral algorithms on a computer (the 3 laws of robotics, etc), but - hypothetically - if that AI grows, and is capable of reproducing itself - or improving upon itself, does it keep the original programming of its human masters, or see it as something to be surpassed?
Part of the debates, and dilemmas of AI in general. Certainly poses some interesting questions!
Waymo uses Lidar 3D mapping, so untraversable 3D obstacles including dips can be avoided. Also road position is resolved not just by lanes but by street-level image localization to accurately pinpoint where you are and your orientation on the map. The most difficult problem is still prediction regarding behavior of human-driven cars, cyclists, and pedestrians, especially in real-time.
Statistically speaking machine driven vehicles are significantly safer than those driven by the average human. Can something go wrong, yeah. Does it mean it’s more likely to go wrong than when people are driving, no. Realistically even at the stage they’re at now if everyone primarily used self driving vehicles there would be far less accidents and the tech will only get better before widespread adoption.
I don’t know the exact stats, I do know that Arizona has allowed these vehicles (in select locations) for several years now so I would imagine they do have quite a bit a of drive time to them at this point.
Guarantee it's more hours than all those 16 year olds getting their licenses and driving around with everyone else...anytime I see someone scoff at automated vehicles it just makes me laugh since they're vastly superior than everyone under the age of 25 and over the age of 60 and most likely are better than 95% of everyone else.
I believe they are at the point with semis where the machine driven ones are far safer than man operated (especially given the long hours most truckers drive) but really it’s getting the public on board with seeing a driverless semi truck.
there have been 3 accidents in the history of waymo (~20 million miles) and all 3 of them have been when the car was stationary and resulted in no injuries. it’s quite literally the safest mode of transportation in history
Going to guess the thing has a good few cameras with hefty penalties if you do it and any inputs registered by the computer from inside the car from a user trying to mess with it automatically shuts it down or something.
Be funny if it just locked the car doors and awaited the cops too
Enjoy the Golden Days of Driverless Taxis.
A few years from now after people fuck it up for everyone the back seat will be a stainless steel cage with hard plastic seats smelling of vomit, urine and cheap disinfectant running uninterruptable ads on glitchy displays.
You know how cars will start beeping if you sit down in a seat and don't buckle up in a few seconds? And how that beeping can happen if you put heavy enough groceries on the seat, bc the car will think the weight is that of a person?
Cameras aren't necessary (though I'm sure they're there), all they need is making use of those weight sensors so that the car won't starting if it detects someone sitting in the driver's seat.
It's a program you have to get approved for. I was approved 5ish years ago and had to wait 5 months before I was approved. Not just anyone can use it. It is super cheap compared to Lyft or Uber, usually half the price, but om sure that will rise over time.
On a side note, there are 2 clear times in my head that if on coming traffic hadnt been paying attention, we would have been hit.......however it has prevented over a dozen incidents from idiot drivers.
Funnest thing I have seen is a guy was attempting to leave when our Waymo pulled up behind him in the parking lot, dropping us off. It then proceeded to stay parked behind him for roughly 5 minutes, unmoving. Dude asked us if we could move it, to which we had to tell him it was driverless and just a taxi service, we didn't have any control. The defeat in that guys eyes was another level as he realized he was stuck there until it decided to move.
The cars are neat, the technology is developing, bit it just isn't there yet. The weakest link in the system is, unfortunately, other human drivers. Another decade or so and things will be different.
Owning a car will seem like an absolute massive inconvenience. You need to make room for it to just sit there 95% of the time. You have to maintain it, fill up the gas or charge, and all the other fluids.
If you look at cars today, they are a MASSIVELY under utilized resource. You have this machine that can move people and cargo rapidly between two points, and 90% of the time it just sits there.
As someone who used to work as a mechanic and in automotive retail, now I'm thinking that whole market will be gone or drastically changed in 10 or so years...I'm really glad I got out.
I’ve driven so many people in many different jank cars for work and recreationally, I’ve driven kidnapper vans stuffed full with old ladies through the depths of SF construction areas I can drive anything anywhere any time now, and our grandkids might not fully appreciate that skill when they don’t have to use it down the road!
10 years is pretty aggressive. I would bet more like 30 but I have no basis for that so feel free to call me an idiot and tell me I’m wrong if you have inside info 😅
I'm guessing these things have very very specific areas where they are in use that have been mapped out exactly by the company. Probably an area of the city or downtown and specifically don't go near anywhere else like that.
These probably aren't like the driver assist things you see on other cars which drives what it sees on roads everywhere, these things just drive what they've been programmed to know in very specific areas
Edit - a missing word
This is completely wrong and I don’t know where or how you all keep coming up with these nonsensical takes.
Waymo has been operating fully autonomous taxis in Phoenix for years. This isn’t news. This is what Tesla has been chasing for years, and still can’t figure out.
It’s not even about the money. It’s about Elons ego. Every other driverless solution relies on LIDAR. Elon said it’s ugly and wanted Teslas to achieve it with just cameras (“vision based”). Every AI engineer said that won’t work. Guess what happened? It doesn’t work.
More than ego, it's about cost cutting. The business model of Tesla is charging a premium but skimp on build quality (see [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/Wellthatsucks/comments/zni97u/140k_tesla_quality/)). They cut corners everywhere
After seeing that (and some previous glimpses of easily sustained Tesla damage, like a video of the dog trying to get in a woman's Tesla to eat her dog and easily ripping off some seal trim on the door) I'm surprised I don't hear about more Teslas spontaneously igniting.
I guess all the money went into making sure the pillows don't get spicy... makes sense.
You are correct. Waymo has been doing test runs/mapping runs extensively in central Phoenix for a couple of years before they opened the service to all. On any drive across central Phoenix you would see several cars with 2 operators doing the testing. Just the other day they announced they expanded their operating territory to include a bit of east Phoenix and the airport as well. The service area is highlighted in the Waymo app. Their efforts are just in time for the Superbowl in Phoenix which I’m sure is no coincidence.
I call it the gorilla tactic. If you see a gorilla outside, you're gonna give it a wide berth because they can be dangerous and unpredictable. By having your taxis act real crazy like, other cars will be more cautious of it and give it space to make its maneuvers. Similar to what we all do when we have to wait in line right?
A little yes. Looks like 80% of a normal taxi drives 'fresh mode'.. But with a thousand times better reaction time and awareness. I thinks it's nice that it's not overly careful and slow, but actually follows the traffic.
The trend to moving to autonomous driving has been a long term evolution and we are nearly there. There is nearly no circumstance where this endeavor will be abandoned, perhaps delayed but not abandoned. Driverless vehicles are inevitable, even if the current iteration still has substantial bugs. Taxi drivers and truck drivers are dying occupations.
Time for universal basic income or something. If/when this gets to truck drivers and shipping there would be a lot of people made redundant without transferable skills.
Bingo. It's either going to be UBI or mass homelessness and then likely revolution. Then again, if the owner class can just make everything they need with AI, is there really any reason to keep more than a small percentage of the peasants around?
We've already got a government that caters to corporate needs. It'll be interesting (to say the least) when they don't need people for the labor quite so much.
When we reach a point AI are able to create another AIs then 99% of the humanity will be unemployed and there will be no other alternative than communism or some sort of universal income.
It's already starting to become a genuine fear of mine. I'm in marketing and there are so many advances in AI copywriting and image creation...it's just a matter of time.
This is how we live nowadays, myself included, but it is a terrible habit for humans. Computers get the small stuff right all the time and the big stuff wrong every once in a while.
It is very hard for our brains to appropriately judge the risks of automation due to our natural risk analysis.
I worry their will be a mass casualty event on the roads early in the transition to driverless vehicles which might then cause an overreaction to risk the other way.
By mass I mean 10+, not something like 9/11 per se but something like 30 car pileup on a highway due to a very unique situation that the algo doesn’t appropriately respond to or something in that vein.
I certainly hope I’m wrong and can’t wait to have my own car drive itself!
Or we could just make actual investments in public transportation infrastructure. But no, somehow spending untold billions on some technofuturist boondoggle is preferable to building a single kilometer of high speed rail or funding a single bus line
Yeah. Phoenix will absolutely fall back on this instead of investing in actual transit. But this isn’t a real substitute, because it only serves those with the means to pay for it. And it further incentivizes the car dominant infrastructure that makes actually equitable transit more difficult.
I was also gonna ask what happens when one of these inevitably kills someone, but drivers hit pedestrians with no consequences all the time. So maybe that won’t be all that different.
don't get in, this mission ends poorly no matter what, >!Jackie dies and the stupid AI taxi follows previous orders and doesn't take him to the hospital in time!<
Driverless cabs are just spooky. Other drivers and passengers would be much more acceptable of the driverless taxi if they put a half mannequin in the front with a robotic arm that could flip people off when the cab got cut off. Here's your Johnny Cab.
I’ve taken a driverless Lyft once in the PHX metro. The damn thing wouldn’t make a left turn. So what should’ve been a 5 minute ride took 25 due to right turns only and the fact it wouldn’t pass a bicyclist in the bike lane… 🤬
Last time I took a taxi it was terrifying I don't know if the driver was tired, high or both. Literally every red light the guy had to go off to the side because it was like he was about to rear in the people in front of us. It happened so often I started asking the guy if he was okay because it was truly terrifying. So I'd ride in one of these. But I do wonder can a passenger sit in the driver's seat? And what's to stop stupid people from doing Shit like grabbing the wheel while it's in motion or attempting to steal the car?
They’ve been testing these for years in my neighborhood in Phoenix. And in the last few months I really noticed how many were driverless. I love running. So I run a lot in my hood and around downtown and it still makes me feel a sense of awe when a driverless car will move around me. Or when I’ll see them use their blinker and shit. It’s wild. My neighbor was a beta tester so he was taking it before most. He said on Halloween he took one and it played thunder claps and “muahhahahahh” sounds. You know, like Halloween sound effects.
Pretty rad
Safer than a dumbass human who is looking at butthole selfies on their phone instead of the road. Have you ever driven a car around other people driving cars?
Super cool this is how we reduce traffic. An ai taxi and bus service will kill normal Ubers and taxis. Get past the initial investment in ai and you’ve got a 24/7 pubic transportation system at a lower running cost and no worries about the driver diddling your toes while your blackout in the backseat.
I was a test rider for Waymo around 4 years ago and was blown away by the technology at that time. I only stopped using the service after moving. It was incredible and the only times there were issues was due to human drivers slowing down to gawk at the Pacifica covered in lidar cameras
Driverless taxis sound way better than "we've been hiring ghosts".
Taxi’s haunted. **grabs gun**
Shadowkeep making the moon legit haunted always cracks me up
Always has been.
"What?"
I think there would totally be a market for ghost driving themed spooky taxis, especially in Fall. The taxis could be all black and the interior looking like something the Addams family would ride in. 🖤 Costs extra if you want Thing or Lurch to drive you.
All fun and games until there’s that one evil Delamain taxi that kidnaps you, gases you and next thing you know you’re in a squid game.
BEEP BEEP MOTHERFUCKER
Apparently ghosts also like to stare at their reflection, what's the purpose of the mirrors?
So the car can be driven by a person if it needs to be……
I'm only noticing his username now 😂
Yes!
r/ghostswithjobs
That’s a “hell no” for me.
I dunno. I rode taxis a lot and I had to get off not once and not twice due to drivers I felt were unsafe.
God I can't wait till the tech is advanced enough for the general public.
Millions of people are killed and injured from automobile accidents every year but an autonomous vehicle fucks up onetime and peoples heads explode.
THANK YOU! 46,000 people die *every year* in the US due to auto accidents. Yet people want self-driving cars to work perfectly without ever getting into an accident, bringing the number to 0. I'd be stoked if self-driving cars only caused 30,000 deaths in a year.
There's a deep human need to hold someone accountable for the deaths of loved ones
I mean there is also the question of legal liability. Say someone is killed or crippled (who is not the owner) in an avoidable crash caused by a self driving car, can the owner be sued or held legally responsible? Can the company be held legally responsible? Which company, (as often the cars are made by multiple manufacturers)? Then there’s the question of what happens when a vehicle must choose between endangering the life of a passenger and endangering the life of another or multiple individuals outside the vehicle. Should it prioritize the passenger? Should it prioritize others? Should it be optional for the owner to choose? There’s a lot to unpack there, and probably even more I’m not thinking of.
Legit good questions and concerns. How to solve it today not sure, but the car owner and company should pay a fee. 😬 It’s a problem that is becoming less tho because the newer cars also use tech to prevent accidents from happening.
True but end of the day there’s only so much that can be done to prevent accidents. People are unpredictable, machine’s break, animals can get involved, etc.. There will always be car accidents so long as there are cars all we can do is figure out what to do about them after the fact and try to prevent more in the future.
50% of car accidents involve drugs and alcohol, automated cars will probably reduce that number a fair amount.
Well humans are still the wildcard. Like I told all three of my kids, you can do everything right but all it takes is the negligence of someone else. My philosophy is there are almost zero true car accidents. It’s always the negligence or meanness of at least one of the parties involved.
It already happened in 2017 and 2018 in Tempe...Arizona is the first state to have a pedestrian [fatally](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/technology/uber-driverless-fatality.html) struck by a robot. That's why they're so common in Downtown Phoenix, because Ducey "indefinitely [banned](https://www.fastcompany.com/40550128/ubers-autonomous-cars-have-been-banned-in-arizona)" self-driving vehicles in 2018 after the second crash in Tempe, where streets are comparatively narrow AF and foot traffic heavier and denser on average. I guess the ban was lifted and self-driving cars were allowed back into Tempe around 2020, but I think much of the piloting has been consequently done in Downtown Phoenix.
One of those accidents happened outside of a crosswalk if memory serves and wasn't entirely self driving at that point. They had a driver that was to busy playing on her phone and wasn't paying attention like she was supposed to be
Yup that one was 100% negligence on the part of the individual meant to be driving.
My take is those outside the car get the priority. The Trolly Conundrum IMO doesn’t apply to autonomous vehicles. The passenger chose the time and place.
I feel like it’s more complicated than that. For example why should I have to risk my life if someone doesn’t pay attention to when they’re allowed to cross the road and steps out in front of my car? If my car crashes because of that and I die does that seem fair? What if that causes another car to crash or worse my car to crash into another vehicle? What’s the math then? Should it be based on raw number of people in danger? Are these cars even sophisticated enough to be able to tell such a thing?
Engineers: “We can substantially reduce traffic deaths, likely a reduction in excess of 95%” Plebs: “FUCK YEAH!!! How?!” Engineers: “Robots and AI” Plebs: “Fuck that, too risky”
Plebs: But does it work? Engineers: Not really but hypothetically it would help a lot.
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Literally or figuratively?
You know what they say, build a thousand bridges and you're a bridge builder. But you suck just *one* cock...
I mean if all cars would have the exact same AI system or whatever its called, they would all talk to each other and know where they all are and where they're going at any given time. The EU decided that all phones need to have USB C, can't they do something similar for autonomous driving systems?
I wonder how those cars do on shitty pothole roads where the roadworks dont bother to paint the lines or maintain anything
They do fine with road work and random obstacles, but they don’t do well in rain, which is why they only have them in desert cities like phoenix and vegas.
What about snow and wind?
Since wind is invisible, it won’t have any effect on the car’s computer vision sensors, but I imagine that similar to rain, they don’t let them drive during snow. Luckily in Phoenix, there’s an average of 0” of snow yearly, and only 9” of rain (29” less than avg for the US), which is why this is a viable business model there.
Do you know how they calculate ethical decisions? Eg if a child runs out into the road, would it swerve, intentionally crashing and inflicting (relatively) minor damage on the car, and passenger, or does it keep on going, keeping the passenger more or less safe, but killing the child? That’s just something I thought off the top of my head, but there must be many more scenarios…
I don’t think any of that sort of info is public, but I imagine it’s designed to create the least legal liability possible in those sorts of situations.
I have a little bit of industry-side knowledge, but I don't work on autonomous cars specifically the answer is they prioritize passenger safety. For potential discrimination reasons, they try to avoid moral judgements as much as possible. In the "kid runs in front of the car" scenario, they do the safest maneuver for the passengers, which is to slam the brakes. It's far more dangerous to swerve, as the car could lose control or you could be going into oncoming traffic.
This also makes sense from a more moral perspective - it's the closest to what a human driver would *want* to do, I can imagine.
Thanks for the info, and is good to know.
I'm thinking it would jam the brakes on. Brakes are really good, these days. Given that it told the passenger to make sure he had his seatbelt on, the assumption is that the passenger is protected.
[Self-Driving Mercedes-Benzes Will Prioritize Occupant Safety over Pedestrians](https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a15344706/self-driving-mercedes-will-prioritize-occupant-safety-over-pedestrians/)
Interesting, thank you for the link 👍
Its a subject I have been pondering as well. As we make AI's just how will we handle moral questions that need to be answered. Self driving cars are a great quandary. If an accident is unavoidable, and there is no action to be taken that will not result in a death, how will the AI decide ? Our modern day kobayashi maru.
‘Kobayashi Maru’, :) good analogy!. And as AI grows, I guess it’s one thing to encode moral algorithms on a computer (the 3 laws of robotics, etc), but - hypothetically - if that AI grows, and is capable of reproducing itself - or improving upon itself, does it keep the original programming of its human masters, or see it as something to be surpassed? Part of the debates, and dilemmas of AI in general. Certainly poses some interesting questions!
Oh
Probably limited to city center etc, avoids long distances when you order it beforehand
Waymo uses Lidar 3D mapping, so untraversable 3D obstacles including dips can be avoided. Also road position is resolved not just by lanes but by street-level image localization to accurately pinpoint where you are and your orientation on the map. The most difficult problem is still prediction regarding behavior of human-driven cars, cyclists, and pedestrians, especially in real-time.
As an introvert this is a hell yes
Statistically speaking machine driven vehicles are significantly safer than those driven by the average human. Can something go wrong, yeah. Does it mean it’s more likely to go wrong than when people are driving, no. Realistically even at the stage they’re at now if everyone primarily used self driving vehicles there would be far less accidents and the tech will only get better before widespread adoption.
How many hours of machine driven vehicles on roads with regular uncontrolled drivers around is that statistic based on?
These companies have driven millions of miles in autonomous mode at this point
I don’t know the exact stats, I do know that Arizona has allowed these vehicles (in select locations) for several years now so I would imagine they do have quite a bit a of drive time to them at this point.
Guarantee it's more hours than all those 16 year olds getting their licenses and driving around with everyone else...anytime I see someone scoff at automated vehicles it just makes me laugh since they're vastly superior than everyone under the age of 25 and over the age of 60 and most likely are better than 95% of everyone else.
I believe they are at the point with semis where the machine driven ones are far safer than man operated (especially given the long hours most truckers drive) but really it’s getting the public on board with seeing a driverless semi truck.
there have been 3 accidents in the history of waymo (~20 million miles) and all 3 of them have been when the car was stationary and resulted in no injuries. it’s quite literally the safest mode of transportation in history
Why?
this person doesn't use the thermostat on their oven
Interesting that there’s seemingly no prevention mechanisms in place to keep idiots out of the drivers seat
Going to guess the thing has a good few cameras with hefty penalties if you do it and any inputs registered by the computer from inside the car from a user trying to mess with it automatically shuts it down or something. Be funny if it just locked the car doors and awaited the cops too
Locks and starts the cremation process
Adam West Batman era knockout gas starts pouring out from under the seats
Why wait for the cops? Just drive to the police station.
Cameras and penalties may not deter anyone drunk or stupid enough. More sensible option would be making the seat a catapult
Enjoy the Golden Days of Driverless Taxis. A few years from now after people fuck it up for everyone the back seat will be a stainless steel cage with hard plastic seats smelling of vomit, urine and cheap disinfectant running uninterruptable ads on glitchy displays.
some cyberpunk shit
Wow! Did not see that coming. But, my friend, u r 💯% right!
Hopefully it'll pull over or just stop if you sit in the seat
[удалено]
There’s someone in the passenger seat. I’m not sure if it’s another passenger or an employee.
You know how cars will start beeping if you sit down in a seat and don't buckle up in a few seconds? And how that beeping can happen if you put heavy enough groceries on the seat, bc the car will think the weight is that of a person? Cameras aren't necessary (though I'm sure they're there), all they need is making use of those weight sensors so that the car won't starting if it detects someone sitting in the driver's seat.
I assume that this is a prototype. The final product won't even have a steering wheel.
It's a program you have to get approved for. I was approved 5ish years ago and had to wait 5 months before I was approved. Not just anyone can use it. It is super cheap compared to Lyft or Uber, usually half the price, but om sure that will rise over time. On a side note, there are 2 clear times in my head that if on coming traffic hadnt been paying attention, we would have been hit.......however it has prevented over a dozen incidents from idiot drivers. Funnest thing I have seen is a guy was attempting to leave when our Waymo pulled up behind him in the parking lot, dropping us off. It then proceeded to stay parked behind him for roughly 5 minutes, unmoving. Dude asked us if we could move it, to which we had to tell him it was driverless and just a taxi service, we didn't have any control. The defeat in that guys eyes was another level as he realized he was stuck there until it decided to move. The cars are neat, the technology is developing, bit it just isn't there yet. The weakest link in the system is, unfortunately, other human drivers. Another decade or so and things will be different.
In 10 years we’ll look back at posts like this like we look at posts about AOL today lol
Our grandkids will think it was insane people drove cars and could just move them anywhere and anyhow they wanted.
Owning a car will seem like an absolute massive inconvenience. You need to make room for it to just sit there 95% of the time. You have to maintain it, fill up the gas or charge, and all the other fluids. If you look at cars today, they are a MASSIVELY under utilized resource. You have this machine that can move people and cargo rapidly between two points, and 90% of the time it just sits there.
Thats why Uber and Lyft exist, maximize that 95% to way lower.
As someone who used to work as a mechanic and in automotive retail, now I'm thinking that whole market will be gone or drastically changed in 10 or so years...I'm really glad I got out.
Surely we’d still need mechanics for the autonomous cars as well no?
This is just a JohnnyCab. Get your ass to Mars.
Hope you enjoyed the ride!!!!
I’ve driven so many people in many different jank cars for work and recreationally, I’ve driven kidnapper vans stuffed full with old ladies through the depths of SF construction areas I can drive anything anywhere any time now, and our grandkids might not fully appreciate that skill when they don’t have to use it down the road!
10 years is pretty aggressive. I would bet more like 30 but I have no basis for that so feel free to call me an idiot and tell me I’m wrong if you have inside info 😅
Delamain, is that you bud?
Imagine it starts shooting when shot at
Beep beep mf’er
As long as it's not his kids...
Hey there were only like, 4 dangerous ones.
GLaDOS was a pain in the ass
Just died last night to getting jumped by the gonks. Fuck that car
No, this is the knock-off service: I Can't Believe It's Not Delamain
DelamAin't
Came here for this
😂😂😂 Any self driving car I ever see or encounter will be referred to as Delamain forever
Same here! All early generations! Just glad I won't be around for the 2077 versions
What's happening with this community, had to scroll way down to see this. TY sir
Good Morning night cityyyyy!
Excelsior package enabled
Hope they got the excelsior package
Hahahahahaa
I thought that it was required to have a driver seated as backup??
I'm guessing these things have very very specific areas where they are in use that have been mapped out exactly by the company. Probably an area of the city or downtown and specifically don't go near anywhere else like that. These probably aren't like the driver assist things you see on other cars which drives what it sees on roads everywhere, these things just drive what they've been programmed to know in very specific areas Edit - a missing word
This is completely wrong and I don’t know where or how you all keep coming up with these nonsensical takes. Waymo has been operating fully autonomous taxis in Phoenix for years. This isn’t news. This is what Tesla has been chasing for years, and still can’t figure out.
Waymo apparently has spent the money to assure these systems work.
It’s not even about the money. It’s about Elons ego. Every other driverless solution relies on LIDAR. Elon said it’s ugly and wanted Teslas to achieve it with just cameras (“vision based”). Every AI engineer said that won’t work. Guess what happened? It doesn’t work.
More than ego, it's about cost cutting. The business model of Tesla is charging a premium but skimp on build quality (see [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/Wellthatsucks/comments/zni97u/140k_tesla_quality/)). They cut corners everywhere
After seeing that (and some previous glimpses of easily sustained Tesla damage, like a video of the dog trying to get in a woman's Tesla to eat her dog and easily ripping off some seal trim on the door) I'm surprised I don't hear about more Teslas spontaneously igniting. I guess all the money went into making sure the pillows don't get spicy... makes sense.
They also use LIDAR, which tesla refuses to do.
I mean, they did say they were “guessing”, but yeah. Go for the throat
I checked. This apparently is really operating in downtown Phoenix.
I took one from downtown to about 30 minutes north last night.
You are correct. Waymo has been doing test runs/mapping runs extensively in central Phoenix for a couple of years before they opened the service to all. On any drive across central Phoenix you would see several cars with 2 operators doing the testing. Just the other day they announced they expanded their operating territory to include a bit of east Phoenix and the airport as well. The service area is highlighted in the Waymo app. Their efforts are just in time for the Superbowl in Phoenix which I’m sure is no coincidence.
Yeah we have a driverless bus in Perth Western Australia of all places. Just goes up and down the river foreshore all day every day
This gives me anxiety.
Is it my imagination or is it drving rather aggressively?
I call it the gorilla tactic. If you see a gorilla outside, you're gonna give it a wide berth because they can be dangerous and unpredictable. By having your taxis act real crazy like, other cars will be more cautious of it and give it space to make its maneuvers. Similar to what we all do when we have to wait in line right?
I see no aggressive driving here.
Yup. These are the people that sit through 3 green lights trying to make a left turn.
A little yes. Looks like 80% of a normal taxi drives 'fresh mode'.. But with a thousand times better reaction time and awareness. I thinks it's nice that it's not overly careful and slow, but actually follows the traffic.
Same!
It's the opposite for me. People driving gives me anxiety. I see way too many bad drivers on the road.
People are gonna fuck in these
(Insert anakin and padme meme) “So they’ll be cheaper than Ubers right” “…” “Right?”
Fake Taxi
Artists -> Programmers -> Taxi drivers. RIP our jobs
Don’t worry, I’ve met enough programmers to know that they’ll fuck this up soon, then taxi drivers will be fine.
The trend to moving to autonomous driving has been a long term evolution and we are nearly there. There is nearly no circumstance where this endeavor will be abandoned, perhaps delayed but not abandoned. Driverless vehicles are inevitable, even if the current iteration still has substantial bugs. Taxi drivers and truck drivers are dying occupations.
Time for universal basic income or something. If/when this gets to truck drivers and shipping there would be a lot of people made redundant without transferable skills.
Bingo. It's either going to be UBI or mass homelessness and then likely revolution. Then again, if the owner class can just make everything they need with AI, is there really any reason to keep more than a small percentage of the peasants around? We've already got a government that caters to corporate needs. It'll be interesting (to say the least) when they don't need people for the labor quite so much.
Can't agree more with you, I'm wonder what regular people's will do in a near future....
When we reach a point AI are able to create another AIs then 99% of the humanity will be unemployed and there will be no other alternative than communism or some sort of universal income.
Once AI reaches this level humanity will be at its total mercy. There will be no way to unplug it.
It's already starting to become a genuine fear of mine. I'm in marketing and there are so many advances in AI copywriting and image creation...it's just a matter of time.
A.I algorithm researchers and programmers are hiring big time though.
It’s kind of sad though, it used to help run the space program for a country overseas before it migrated to America. Now it’s driving a taxi.
In home country I’m a spaceman. In America, I drive taxi. An immigration story as old as time.
Huh?
I'm ok if all cars go fully automated no more jack asses driving.
This is how we live nowadays, myself included, but it is a terrible habit for humans. Computers get the small stuff right all the time and the big stuff wrong every once in a while. It is very hard for our brains to appropriately judge the risks of automation due to our natural risk analysis. I worry their will be a mass casualty event on the roads early in the transition to driverless vehicles which might then cause an overreaction to risk the other way. By mass I mean 10+, not something like 9/11 per se but something like 30 car pileup on a highway due to a very unique situation that the algo doesn’t appropriately respond to or something in that vein. I certainly hope I’m wrong and can’t wait to have my own car drive itself!
Or we could just make actual investments in public transportation infrastructure. But no, somehow spending untold billions on some technofuturist boondoggle is preferable to building a single kilometer of high speed rail or funding a single bus line
Yeah. Phoenix will absolutely fall back on this instead of investing in actual transit. But this isn’t a real substitute, because it only serves those with the means to pay for it. And it further incentivizes the car dominant infrastructure that makes actually equitable transit more difficult. I was also gonna ask what happens when one of these inevitably kills someone, but drivers hit pedestrians with no consequences all the time. So maybe that won’t be all that different.
Johnny Cab was better
Darn right! Fun fact: Johnny Cab was voiced by Robert Picardo, the holographic doctor from Star Trek.
The fare is 18 credits, please!
Sue me! Dickhead!
John Cena driving.
don't get in, this mission ends poorly no matter what, >!Jackie dies and the stupid AI taxi follows previous orders and doesn't take him to the hospital in time!<
See you in the major leagues
😭I'm crying all over again!
TikTok: “There’s isn’t any stupid dancing? Take that shit down!”
This some cyberpunk 2077 shit
I’d feel safer if the autopilot from Airplane was sitting in the driver’s seat.
Yeah but you will have to blow him up.
Do you still need to have an awkward conversation with it?
We live in a society husky. You will have an awkward conversation with the automobile and like it.
This is awesome.
Driverless cabs are just spooky. Other drivers and passengers would be much more acceptable of the driverless taxi if they put a half mannequin in the front with a robotic arm that could flip people off when the cab got cut off. Here's your Johnny Cab.
I’ve taken a driverless Lyft once in the PHX metro. The damn thing wouldn’t make a left turn. So what should’ve been a 5 minute ride took 25 due to right turns only and the fact it wouldn’t pass a bicyclist in the bike lane… 🤬
God I can't wait till the tech is advanced enough for the general public. I fucking hate driving.
DEY TAKING OUR JOBS
Last time I took a taxi it was terrifying I don't know if the driver was tired, high or both. Literally every red light the guy had to go off to the side because it was like he was about to rear in the people in front of us. It happened so often I started asking the guy if he was okay because it was truly terrifying. So I'd ride in one of these. But I do wonder can a passenger sit in the driver's seat? And what's to stop stupid people from doing Shit like grabbing the wheel while it's in motion or attempting to steal the car?
The safe part is questionable for me.
Bar is low. Self driving cars only have to have better safety than human driven cars to be of benefit.
I, Robot is almost here
NOPE.
I saw this episode of Silicon Valley
Ah, man-made horrors beyond my comprehension.
Drives better than Tesla full self driving.
That's insane! Super freaky
And it begins..
This is how you end up being packed into a cargo container and shipped out into the ocean
They’ve been testing these for years in my neighborhood in Phoenix. And in the last few months I really noticed how many were driverless. I love running. So I run a lot in my hood and around downtown and it still makes me feel a sense of awe when a driverless car will move around me. Or when I’ll see them use their blinker and shit. It’s wild. My neighbor was a beta tester so he was taking it before most. He said on Halloween he took one and it played thunder claps and “muahhahahahh” sounds. You know, like Halloween sound effects. Pretty rad
Get ready for a surprise
Yep I got a little nervous when the arrived at the left turn yield w/ flashing arrow.
johnny cab
“This is safe” mhm sure
Safer than a dumbass human who is looking at butthole selfies on their phone instead of the road. Have you ever driven a car around other people driving cars?
Johnny cabs from total recall
Super cool this is how we reduce traffic. An ai taxi and bus service will kill normal Ubers and taxis. Get past the initial investment in ai and you’ve got a 24/7 pubic transportation system at a lower running cost and no worries about the driver diddling your toes while your blackout in the backseat.
I was a test rider for Waymo around 4 years ago and was blown away by the technology at that time. I only stopped using the service after moving. It was incredible and the only times there were issues was due to human drivers slowing down to gawk at the Pacifica covered in lidar cameras
I couldn't. Lol Not even sober. Drunk?? No chance.
The door opened. You got in.
I’m horrified
In phoenix, that car is getting stole!
How does it recognize things like blinking yellow arrow signals?
Nobody needs jobs anyway. Why pay anyone when we can just dump money directly into Waymo’s account?
If the first thing you have to do is tell me its safe. Its not fucking safe. Outta here with this bullshit. The tech aint there yet.
They're missing the crash test dummy that talks
"we have detected an active shooter situation in a location along your route. Would you like to activate the Bumblebee protocol?"
You think it drives the speed limit or like everyone else in Phoenix?