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Alphabet's Waymo Reveals Its Self-Driving Chrysler Pacifica Minivans (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the soccer-mom dept.

Artem Tashkinov writes: Waymo, what used to be a Google division and now is a new division in Alphabet, has revealed its first production ready fully autonomous car based on Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid. The new vehicle for six passengers will retain all its human driving features such as a steering wheel and foot pedals. A limited production -- a fleet of 100 cars -- is expected to hit the road in 2017.

25 comments

  1. Less space than a Nomad. by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 2

    production ready fully autonomous car

    I've been told on Slashdot that this will never happen. These cars will never be in production. Self driving cars will never hit the road. Google spinning this off meant the technology was dead.

    What gives? Slashdotters have never been wrong about technology. /s

    Bring on the self driving cars. I wonder how much better these vans are against motorcycles vs soccer moms.

    1. Re:Less space than a Nomad. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I wonder how much better these vans are against motorcycles vs soccer moms.

      Soccer moms are way better at smashing them off the road. You did say "against", right?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:Less space than a Nomad. by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      I saw people more afraid that they would be put out half-baked, either driving too slowly for prevailing traffic or killing people and/or animals. Until we see how this works, it looks to me like that is coming true.

      --
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    3. Re:Less space than a Nomad. by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      I'm the one who said it. And I was right. This is will never happen. This is just bullshit.

      "A limited production -- a fleet of 100 cars -- is expected to hit the road in 2017"

      So basically more test cars. You can't buy one. "Production" in this case means nothing.

    4. Re:Less space than a Nomad. by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 2

      This is will never happen

      And as I said last time, can you please cement in your goal posts.

      Define a 'production' run.

      There is a good chance these might never make it down to the average consumer. These are going to be bought by fleets in droves. Some people view car ownership like they view horse ownership. No one is going to come take away your hor^H^H^H car.

      Is it when they make 1,000? 10,000? When the first corporation buys one? When someone earning less than $50k leases one? What is your goal post for what will *never* happen because every year you're going to get proven more and more wrong. Military and heavy equipment makers have had commercially available options for a while now. Caterpillar, Oshkosh, etc have been beating the tech to death off road since the 2004 DARPA.

      Most car makers are going bottom up adding auto stopping, blind spot detection and lane assist to all new vehicles. I wouldn't be shocked if near full autonomy was a software upgrade away.

      I honestly don't get how a website for a technical crowd still has people that think this isn't going to happen. Start reading academic papers on picture description and how long we've had the tech to identify every little thing in a photograph. Every time you complete a reCaptcha you're training a google self driving car. Forward neural nets are trivial to run on modern hardware. I wouldn't be shocked if ASIC chips doing image identification were already out there.

      The sensors watch 360 degrees, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They don't drink, they don't become tired, their reaction times don't depend on how old they are, they only get better with time. We have to retrain an entire fleet of drivers when they hit 16.

      In my opinion for them to be on the road they only have to be statistically safer than a 16 year old. In the future if you want a drivers license I wouldn't be shocked if you had to beat an AI in a driving test. Don't beat the AI, don't get to drive on public streets. That way all of you driving experts on the road can still keep your drivers license. You can still drive as much as you want and never have to worry about a soccer mom again. [Since we're making prediction on Slashdot for the next few decades, expect your insurance premiums to go up, way up. If you own a vehicle that anyone can easily control you are a liability.]

      Lead, follow or get out of the way. The rest of us want to move on so 2116 makes 2016 look like 1916, ... range(1906, 0, -100).

    5. Re:Less space than a Nomad. by AvitarX · · Score: 1

      The article says "production ready", which I take to mean as designed in such a way as to be mass produced.

      A limited run of 100 I wouldn't say is "in production"

      For me, a "production" automotive needs to:
      1) have minimal built by hand going on (these 100 I suspect have a lot of it, but the design would work for more traditional assembly)
      2) be for sale to end users (businesses or people)
      3) be made as people are buying it (not made in limited quantity and then sold)
      4) be street legal

      I don't think this car will be production, I do think a self driving car will be soon. I suspect the reason they are testing these production ready cars is that they don't want to have the tech right and then start thinking about assembly.

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    6. Re:Less space than a Nomad. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I gave up on SD predictions when it was universally agreed the iPad was DOA. Yeah bit off the mark on that one.

    7. Re:Less space than a Nomad. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I suspect the reason they are testing these production ready cars is that they don't want to have the tech right and then start thinking about assembly.

      No, they're doing this because Tesla is beating them to market and Google's 10-year bet on self-driving tech is becoming obsolete. They have always had the technological upper hand (in lab). They just couldn't figure out how to market it. Now they're rushing out.
      I guess they always planned to perfect it in the lab and then license the tech. But Tesla's idea of incrementally adding autonomy is way more sensible: they have all the field data, all the product development experience. Yes, there's more risk to the end user. But this has always been the case, right?

    8. Re:Less space than a Nomad. by Solandri · · Score: 1

      What gives? Slashdotters have never been wrong about technology. /s

      Slashdotters are usually pretty good at being right about technology. What they suck at is predicting how popular a technology will be with non-slashdotters, where nebulous things like fashionableness, lack of options (simplicity), and peer pressure (desire to conform to other people's expectations) become a factor. In the case of the iPod, the idiot-proof UI (simplicity) was the predominant factor. Slashdotters didn't mind the complicated procedure to transfer your MP3 playlists from your computer to your Nomad. So they only saw the simplicity (reduced features) of the iPod as a negative. The general public OTOH hated that complexity, and latched on to the simplicity with which you could transfer your MP3 collection from iTunes to your iPod.

  2. Huh? by TWX · · Score: 1

    The new vehicle for six passengers

    Last time I rode in a Pacifica, the vehicle could accommodate seven passengers in standard configuration, two in the front row, two in the middle row, and three in the back row. On top of that there is an optional installable jumpseat that goes between the middle-row captains' chairs to enable the van to seat eight.

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    1. Re:Huh? by Drew+M. · · Score: 1

      With full steering controls and pedals, it's likely they don't want a passenger sitting in the drivers seat

    2. Re:Huh? by FrankHaynes · · Score: 1

      What if you're a pleasantly plump driver with your generous thighs squeezing against the steering wheel, how will the automation be able to steer the thing??

      --
      slashdot: A failed experiment.
    3. Re:Huh? by kylemonger · · Score: 1

      You jest, but actually that's an interesting question. Will a self-driving car break your arm if it has to spin the wheel suddenly to avoid a cow or insurance fraudster ambling out onto the road?

  3. Not for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hell I don't even like automatic transmissions! Evil I say! Evil!!!

  4. What they really need by durrr · · Score: 1

    Is self driving trucks, without steering wheels, we need it to keep Europe going in face of the imminent ban of Truck drivers.

  5. Re:Give the to Trump / Putin supporters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You first. If you're stupid enough to believe fake news then you are too dumb to drive.

  6. What a business model by ragahast · · Score: 1

    Car is assembled by robots in the factory. Car drives itself off the factory floor and into the nearest city. Car starts hailing rideshare passengers. No question marks, just profit.

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    .:Semper Absurda:.
  7. I'm torn by b0bby · · Score: 1

    I'm torn - on the one hand, I really want a self driving car. On the other hand, I hope to never own a Chrysler again. Oh, the humanity!

    1. Re:I'm torn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When's the last time you've owned one? The K-car is long gone, y'know...

    2. Re:I'm torn by b0bby · · Score: 1

      Late '90s Grand Caravan. But I've driven friends' recent Grand Cherokees etc and even the newer ones seem to have crappy long term quality. Like a Grand Cherokee with 50k miles which feels like it's falling apart.

      Sure, I'd reconsider if I read a few years of reviews saying they're now built well. But so far, that's not what I'm seeing.

  8. automatic death machines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The automatic Fiats have already started murdering Star Trek actors and soon they will be mowing us all down.

  9. Names, Waymo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...I suppose Wham-O products will sue for name infringement? ...Waymo sounds like they need to work WayMo' on that name. ...Waymo also sounds a little too much like the infamous Maemo/Meego/iDunno phone OS!

    Any others?