Waymo goes full-autonomous ride-sharing in Phoenix AZ

[rcjordan]

Level 4.5, I'm guessing?  Phoenix, from what I've driven of it, is a good city to get the precise data needed.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-selfdriving/waymo-launching-ride-hailing-service-in-phoenix-with-no-human-behind-wheel-idUSKBN1D72BU

[ergophobe]

As much as a couple years ago I started telling people "This is coming sooner than you think," this came sooner than I thought. HHH

[rcjordan]

>this came sooner than I thought

Same.  Debbie says that Big G has the advantage here in a way that parallels Amz's Alexa and they're going to press that advantage as fast as possible. 

Somewhere around here we have an a-v thread that said cities would get levels 4-5 first because the current level of sensors and mapping would support it.  Make sense and looks like that's what's happening here.  I haven't looked, but I suspect Phoenix has a strong rectangular grid layout as a number of our 'newer' cities do.  Boston, OTOH, will be waaaay down the list.

[littleman]

>this came sooner than I thought

yep

https://medium.com/waymo/with-waymo-in-the-drivers-seat-fully-self-driving-vehicles-can-transform-the-way-we-get-around-75e9622e829a

[Brad]

>grid

A good start for N America.  London and N Europe will give them fits.  It maybe decades before such cars are ready for little narrow roads in medieval Italian towns.

[rcjordan]

Spooky video of Phoenix vans transporting passengers

http://mashable.com/2017/11/07/waymo-fully-self-driving-cars.amp

[Brad]

>video

I am impressed.  But my first thought was "these are the bunny slopes"  very light traffic.  I'd like to see it in downtown Chicago at rush hour.

Random thought, how does one of these deal with construction zones?  Also what about a flag man or a cop directing traffic I've seen some flagged so lazy with their signals I didn't know what they wanted me to do.

[rcjordan]

>bunny slopes"  very light traffic

Yeah, so early level 4 works there.  Phoenix has a lot of straight, wide streets on a grid pattern. I'm sure G has picked their trial area with particular care.

> construction zones

I'm thinking Waze group-sourcing is going to pay off in spades on this type of stuff.

>so lazy with their signals I didn't know what they wanted me to do.

Maybe we should program the first batch of A-Vs to run those sumbitches down. Then flagmen would learn to pay attention and get off their damn sphone.

[rcjordan]

This is definitely NOT a bunny slope; trial to test one of the vehicles on a public road in heavily congested Okinawa Prefecture

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201711190002.html

[littleman]

https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/27/waymo-racks-up-4-million-self-driven-miles/

[Travoli]

> construction zones

Reroute around construction zones?

[DrCool]

https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/06/lyfts-self-driving-pilot-with-nutonomy-begins-rolling-out-in-boston/

Looks like someone has the balls to take on Boston.

[Drastic]

> nutonomy

Ok that's funny, brand fail of the day.

[rcjordan]

>Looks like someone has the balls to take on Boston

Let me know when an autobot can get around in the Cambridge area or old Rt 60.  That's white-knuckle territory for sure.

[rcjordan]

Waymo starts testing self-driving minivans in San Francisco

https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/12/waymo-minivan-testing-in-san-francisco/