Robotaxis Get Full GREEN light

[bradfordwhite]

They've already been out there in limited numbers and in trial mode. Now San Francisco has given approval for full commercialization of 24/7 Driverless taxis.

At this point they are at where Gmail was around 2004. Remember when you waited for an invitation to create a Google account. Then a couple months after I heard of Gmail I got my account and haven't looked back.



https://wolfstreet.com/2023/08/11/full-commercialization-of-robotaxis-has-arrived-in-san-francisco/

 

[cfz2882]

Apparently not really ready yet....

...i think those might be the ones i heard stopped working when they lost their WiFi connection because of interference from a concert nearby

 

[bradfordwhite]

When the time comes that I can get rid of my car and rely on robotaxis it will be great.

I don't want to have to buy another car.

https://waymo.com/waitlist/

 

[tolivac]

"Johnny Cab" as on the Terminator?

 

[parunner58]

Roger Rabbit Taxi. No Thank You. The cab may be safe, but you can never rely on some of the drivers around you.

 

[bradfordwhite]

"The (robot) cab may be safe, but you can never rely on some of the (human)drivers around you."

Yes, very true. That's why we need to get human drivers banned and let the bots do ALL the driving. When left to interact with other bots:
They don't crash
they don't make stupid mistakes
they don't have weird desires to "floor it" from a stop or do "donuts" in parking lots.
Drive efficiently and politely. No sudden stops or swerving through traffic.

Being able to simply text in a request for a car, truck, or cargo truck for what ever you need to do is a god-send.
Imagine calling up a car to send your pet to get their hair cut. You don't even have to go. Just load them in there and let the groomer know they're on their way.

That's a time saver

As we get older and have difficulty driving, it won't cause us to lose our mobility. Order a vehicle and go wherever need be.

Regardless whether it's a robot taxi or human driver, as long as the later is allowed out there behind the wheel, or allowed to share lanes anyway, we are all at risk from THEIR bad driving.

 

[wayupnorth]

I wont see them here in my lifetime and what do they cost?

 

[kenwashesmonday]

As a former cab driver, I don't see how these cabs are going to deal with the late night drunk crowd.  Will the car be able to tell if someone puked in the back seat?

 

[thomasortega]

Well, former Lyft driver here...

Even before fully autonomous cars, Lyft could know somebody make a mess or disrespected the driver or did whatever in the car because of the "AMP" a pink moustache-looking device that we had to place on the dashboard and had built in cameras and microphones streaming to Lyft in real time.

They were in a huge lawsuit because of that some years ago because they never told anybody about the cameras, the only thing they said is that it had a digital panel showing the passenger's name, so drivers and riders sued them for privacy violation. In CA, if you have cameras in taxi or rideshare vehicles, you must have a giant sticker on 3 doors saying that video monitoring is being used. If you open the door and enter the vehicle, it is automatically understood that you agreed to be monitored. I still have my AMP (luckily a newer version, oblong, not that ridiculous moustache) thrown somewhere in my laundry room.

 

[donprohel]

That's my job...

I work exactly in this domain: safety of electronic systems (where "safety" means that nobody is killed).

While it is surely possible to produce a perfectly safe self-driving car, it is extremely difficult (for trains it is much, much easier, although the situation is not much better).

But what is worse:
- as years pass, competence and knowledge about "safety" is getting lost, and even now not much has remained of what I learned when I started more than 20 years ago
- knowledge of the science on which "safety" is built (I mean: mathematics, physics, probability theory, theory of systems, you name it) seems having disappeared and often I see that my colleagues have no idea of what I am talking about despite their university degrees
- "safety" is defined by norms and regulations, and those applicable to the automotive domain are the most miserable norms I have ever seen; they seem having been written for ignorant and incompetent idiots (the goal is to allow carmakers to save money hiring unskilled people on the idea that the norms are so simple that any moron can apply them)

 

[firedome]

Robotaxis...

"When the time comes that I can get rid of my car and rely on robotaxis it will be great."

Well it ain't gonna happen in rural areas like Vermont and Central NY, I can tell you that.
As too folks who actually like living in big cities, good luck!