TechCrunch
A ride in a Waymo driverless car
TechCrunch contributor Ed Niedemeyer gets a ride in Waymo’s driverless Chrysler Pacifica minivan in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler. The company is starting to match members of its early rider program with driverless rides as it starts scaling up its robotaxi service. For more on Waymo’s driverless car: TechCrunch is a leading technology media property,…
Paul Chen
November 1, 2019 at 4:55 pm
You can’t simulate the last 9s
Clark Vaughan
November 1, 2019 at 5:05 pm
There’s a place for Waymo’s technology. Perhaps an airport shuttle fleet. If Tesla FSD didn’t exist, I’d be more impressed. It’s about solving the biggest problems with the most scalable solutions. LIDAR tech is probably the limiting factor. Good stuff though.
tommy aronson
November 3, 2019 at 2:11 am
what are you talking about? they’re picking up customers without anyone driving or constantly asking driver to hold the steering wheel, running into fire trucks. Are you a moron sir?
Shaun Anderson
November 4, 2019 at 10:54 am
The only company that thinks LIDAR is a limiting factor is Tesla. Eventually we will need to get rid of LIDAR, but that’s at least a decade away. Tesla cars will continue to kill people without Lidar. Today we will blame the deaths rightfully on the driver, as they are required to pay attention and take control. What happens though when Tesla cars get to Level 4. Then what!!
tommy aronson
November 4, 2019 at 10:59 am
@Shaun Anderson in the meanwhile Tesla just announced they’re able to see cones! Next year, they’ll try to see firetrucks.
Lostrelics
November 1, 2019 at 8:00 pm
Love it .. I cant wait until everyone can ride in these cars
jan simonides
November 3, 2019 at 11:04 pm
Why do you care about whether I can use them? I would never use them.
Neil Robertson
November 4, 2019 at 11:29 am
Perhaps you haven’t heard of “taxis”. Their where you get to ride in the back and someone else drives you. Except the driver is earning some income for his family whereas this is earning income for some silicon valley billionaires.
Andy KJ
November 2, 2019 at 3:02 am
It’s interesting to see a fusion of words in the Indian and American accents
New Balance 2019 USA
November 2, 2019 at 4:42 am
Most probably Tesla is finished against Waymo!
Florian Wolf
November 3, 2019 at 7:08 pm
@Tiger Fang Believe what you want. As long as it’s not driving anywhere autonomously in all weather conditions it’s not self driving but assisted driving.
Alex Carter
November 4, 2019 at 4:22 am
@Tiger Fang still waymos tech is considerably better. If you wish for a more in-depth explanation I would be happy to provide. But I’m summary Tesla’s approach is more accessible but less robust then waymo.
Shaun Anderson
November 4, 2019 at 10:50 am
Waymo creates a driver, not a car. They will be a taxi service, probably #1 at that. Tesla will remain unbeaten in the electrified vehicles you can buy section.
New Balance 2019 USA
November 4, 2019 at 1:56 pm
I understand better now what Waymo is! Thank you for Your input.
Tiger Fang
November 4, 2019 at 5:24 pm
@Alex Carter that’s nice of you. Based on the way it seems to be implemented waymo is like a mainframe sandboxed browser with no cookies. They have been at it for 10 years and are still losing almoet a billion dollars Tesla is an iPhone. That is the difference in the way it is implemented and how it will impact the rate of growth evolution scale and ramp of the two models. It’s pretty clear how Teslas will scale. How does waymo scale
New Balance 2019 USA
November 2, 2019 at 4:57 am
Wikipedia :
Waymo LLC is a self-driving technology development company. It is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. Waymo originated as a project of Google before it became a stand-alone subsidiary in December 2016.
New Balance 2019 USA
November 2, 2019 at 4:59 am
Wikipedia -:
In April 2019, Waymo announced plans for vehicle assembly in Detroit at the former American Axle & Manufacturing plant, bringing between 100 and 400 jobs to the area. Waymo will use vehicle assembler Magna to turn Jaguar I-PACE and Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans into Waymo Level 4 autonomous vehicles.[24][25] Waymo subsequently decided to continue retrofitting existing car models rather than manufacturing a new design like the Firefly..
insanity54
November 2, 2019 at 4:35 pm
1:00 No questions at all for the operator on the other end of the phone call?! That’s like saying you have no questions in a job interview, which suggests little interest. Reeeeee journalists ask questions, wut r u doin m8?
Ricardo VA
November 2, 2019 at 6:33 pm
I love self driving and by the way it’s not lazy because everyone can still go to the gym and do sports
tommy aronson
November 3, 2019 at 2:09 am
when will we get self exercise machine
Ricardo VA
November 3, 2019 at 2:26 am
@tommy aronson maybe in 2024
kiko synth
November 3, 2019 at 5:51 am
OMG…😲😲😲
JBreviews
November 3, 2019 at 11:30 am
Personally I am really excited about driverless cars because there’s so many idiot drivers out there. Driverless cars would be a lot cheaper and you could get stuff done whilst in the car, instead of trying to make awkward conversation with the taxi driver.
Pat Murphy
November 4, 2019 at 12:46 am
Wayslow
Super Man
November 4, 2019 at 12:47 am
why ia there a steering on a driverless car. or you tech crooks are trying to replace “drivers” with “operators” so some one behind the wheel can take shit if something bad happens. Greedy Bastards !
Alex Carter
November 4, 2019 at 4:20 am
Cuz it’s a modified car…..
Shaun Anderson
November 4, 2019 at 10:47 am
Govt also requires the ability to manually control these cars. A police officer for instance will be allowed to manually override these cars.
Jazz E
November 4, 2019 at 4:51 am
Woohoo! Go Waymo! I would work for you if I had the knowledge! I want to serve AV tech.
Kanting Tsai
November 4, 2019 at 6:36 am
Which is better, 10 billion miles of simulation in real world with the owners and the public, or in computer?
Badmus Kaybee
November 4, 2019 at 9:24 am
More power to big tech. Less employment to people
Andrei
November 4, 2019 at 11:31 am
The guy who filmed this was the cameraman for the Bourne movies?
Stuttgart
November 4, 2019 at 11:43 am
Who will be first on P*rnHub?
Amanuel Temesgen
November 4, 2019 at 6:09 pm
So so happy self driving cars waymo congratulations so excited. Finally. Way way safer than any other driving ride.
Dogbertforpresident
November 11, 2019 at 9:16 pm
Between Waymo and Tesla we should be seeing a majority of autos driverless, and hopefully electric.
Bruno Malek
November 15, 2019 at 12:11 am
@Mark Plott we just saw a driverless Waymo drive around a city, so no need to talk about “feature-complete FSD” where you still have to have your hand on the wheel
Mark Plott
November 15, 2019 at 3:13 am
@Bruno Malek – lets see what happens when you transport a WAYMO to a NON Geofenced area, the Waymo cant do anything, you can Drive a Tesla from California to New York all by using FSD and it wont get lost and it can even Priotorize Supercharging based on your needs.
Bruno Malek
November 15, 2019 at 7:23 am
Mark Plott The Tesla will disengage hundreds of times on such a long drive. You also have to keep your hand on the wheel the whole time. Sometimes they crash into barriers or fire trucks or tractor trailers and kill you. It’s not even comparable.
Mark Plott
November 15, 2019 at 8:18 am
@Bruno Malek – NOPE, as long as you are on the Highway the FSD stays engaged, I can use Lemons to keep FSD from Disengaging and by keeping aware I wont crash into anything.
there are NOT that many Firetrucks on the Highway.
when I get Tired, I can have Nav on Autopilot select a Rest location with a Destination charger near Lodging, usually they are FREE to use for Hotel guests.
or I can Take advantage of a Nearby Supercharger and CAMP in my Tesla with my Dreamcase.
Bruno Malek
November 15, 2019 at 8:22 am
Mark Plott You must be the only guy in the world who’s Tesla AP doesn’t ever disengage. Or you don’t even have a Tesla at all and are making shit up. In any case, Waymo’s autopilot is way ahead, and valued at over $100b, is worth more than all of Tesla.
krish
November 12, 2019 at 6:45 am
I think Tesla will be first. They have shit loads of data more than Waymo and their approach is very AI and human intervention learning based. Soon there’s going to be a million Teslas out there mapping and learning everything. It’ll be hard to catch up.
Bruno Malek
November 15, 2019 at 12:10 am
@Human001 Yeah I don’t know what this guy is talking about. We just literally saw a driverless taxi in a real city. Teslas, in the meantime, are killing people by crashing into firetrucks and accelerating into barriers.
Mark Brand
November 16, 2019 at 7:55 am
Teslas don’t create and upload maps.
ForestNinjaZero
November 17, 2019 at 5:59 pm
Their data is Waymo accurate than Tesla’s, which is why they can actually train the vehicle for detection of surfaces, lines, and boundaries, without killing anyone.
krish
November 17, 2019 at 7:05 pm
@ForestNinjaZero yes more accurate but more reliable? Reliability comes with training under many many circumstances. I see only Tesla doing that at scale.
ForestNinjaZero
November 17, 2019 at 7:14 pm
With AI, accuracy = reliability. The algorithm either recognizes the pattern, or it doesn’t. Misdetection causes death of passenger, and the volume of data is irrelevant, if the AI can’t differentiate road tiles of varying texture/color from sidewalk, which is a major problem for Tesla.
Benjamin Feddersen
November 12, 2019 at 12:04 pm
You, an expert: Self driving cars will never happen.
Google: Uh, they’re literally on the road right now.
You: Never….happen…
Darron Smith
November 18, 2019 at 2:57 pm
😂 😂 😂
Andrew Scott
November 12, 2019 at 5:43 pm
It seems they are seriously improving with this technology/software.
Mark Plott
November 14, 2019 at 3:26 am
ONLY Tesla is improving.
Mark Plott
November 14, 2019 at 3:21 am
Tech Crunch – Waymo is Decades behind what Tesla can do Today.
Corey
November 16, 2019 at 12:09 am
If you bothered to watch the video Tesla can’t even do what you just watched. How’s that auto summon working atm 🤣
Mark Plott
November 16, 2019 at 12:53 am
@Corey – Tesla Summon works well for a BETA product, the Point is to get People interested in it and let them try it out.
TESLA FSD will be Feature complete by end of 2019.
Corey
November 16, 2019 at 1:30 am
@Mark Plott Ya, ok 🤣
Anony mous
November 15, 2019 at 5:05 am
people shit on Uber’s stock, once this stuff is mastered it’s gonna be worth so much, it’ll just take years
Samuele Saini
November 18, 2019 at 12:06 pm
Anony mous once waymo has master head the self driving car, couldn’t they just launch a ride hailing app and put Uber out of business for good?
Samuele Saini
November 18, 2019 at 12:08 pm
Oh wait they already have 2, google maps and waze. They just need to add a button “book a ride”
Coyotexer
November 15, 2019 at 7:56 am
I’m just gonna wait until it can drive during bad weather.
Ten Slider
November 16, 2019 at 10:52 pm
hence why they’re only doing test pilot only on the west cost.
Heaven Seeker
November 15, 2019 at 12:00 pm
No volume on the roads or inclement weather factors taken seen on this video. Please bring ‘driverless’ technology to highway 401 in Toronto or Gardiner Expressway and see how well it does here.
Andrew F
November 18, 2019 at 4:35 pm
During a snowstorm
Mickiii P
November 15, 2019 at 10:30 pm
Jewmo
modomodo4891
November 16, 2019 at 1:52 am
I want to see them driving on Indian roads 😂
Stacha Stochmoll
November 16, 2019 at 4:12 pm
Propaganda .
No self driving cars ever .
Dream on .
Ean Erickson
November 27, 2019 at 3:28 pm
You can just move around to the last hold outs in the world.
Stacha Stochmoll
November 16, 2019 at 4:13 pm
Stupid .
Does the car understand changing conditions on road ?
How dumb can you be saying such bs.
Freddy Bell
November 19, 2019 at 9:39 pm
Ok boomer
Johnny Five
November 16, 2019 at 7:27 pm
Can it drive in rain or snow?
Adam Smith
November 26, 2019 at 2:20 am
No.
Ten Slider
November 16, 2019 at 10:54 pm
these things on the road with new york drivers is a sight to see, I can’t wait.
RJ 8U
November 17, 2019 at 2:07 am
Didn’t Waymo let go about 100 employees just last month 😕😕. These cars are pretty expensive..you guys should have ask how much each car cost with all of those self driving parts 👍
Zi-Yen Chew
November 17, 2019 at 8:49 am
Wonder if I will ever see the day where every vehicle is self driven. I’m honestly not sure what to think about that but if every vehicle is centrally controlled vehicle to vehicle accidents should be near impossible to happen
Mateo San
November 17, 2019 at 11:56 am
One issue they haven’t commented on is safety from robbers on the road, any person will be able to stop your car with an stop sign or whatever, and then proceed to do its ‘business’. Right now you have the option to accelerate and not stop, but its based on a judgement call that the car can’t make right now by itself. I hope they address this soon.
meowmeow
November 17, 2019 at 6:36 pm
I want the “I’m on meth….on the verge of blacking out” experience.
Or the
“I’m running from the police and have nothing to lose” experience.
Santo Deportes
November 19, 2019 at 7:02 am
1:42 ..hum good question lmao
Amanda G
November 19, 2019 at 1:09 pm
Idk if I would feel comfortable riding in a driverless car
c c
November 19, 2019 at 2:56 pm
9/11
…Psyop Staged By the United Terrorist Snakes (War Criminal)& the World Elite
King Mener
November 20, 2019 at 4:27 am
Aleins taking jobs from Americans
King Mener
November 20, 2019 at 4:28 am
I can’t wait to drink and not get paranoid about getting a DUI ….
First Customer Good Luck
November 24, 2019 at 4:45 am
Can’t you do that now by ordering a ride service lol?
Justin Dunaway
November 27, 2019 at 1:58 am
So…what if the car is hacked while in route to school with a car load of kids. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have a real, live, breathing human behind the wheel to take over in case of an emergency. I know I wouldn’t let my kids in a autonomous driverless vehicle. Dont fuel yourself people, these machines will make you lose your entrepreneurial freedom some day soon. Take action or dont take action.
Paul Byatt
November 27, 2019 at 7:35 pm
Totally agree. Future generations will have nothing to do & no jobs. Technology is how goverments will control every aspect of our lives.
marta pauvre
December 1, 2019 at 11:21 am
3:11 what happened to this guy’s forehead