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Alphabet's Self-Driving Cars To Get Their First Real Riders (bloomberg.com)

Posted by msmash on from the they-are-here dept.

After almost a decade of research, Google's autonomous car project is close to becoming a real service. From a report on Bloomberg: Now known as Waymo, the Alphabet self-driving car unit is letting residents of Phoenix sign up to use its vehicles, a major step toward commercializing a technology that could one day upend transportation. For the service, Waymo is adding 500 customized Chrysler Pacifica minivans to its fleet. Waymo has already tested these vehicles, plus other makes and models, on public roads, but only with its employees and contractors as testers. By opening the doors to the general public with a larger fleet, the company will get data on how people experience and use self-driving cars -- and clues on ways to generate revenue from the technology.

53 comments

  1. Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2

    What could possibly go wrong?

    1. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      What could possibly go wrong?

      they unionize and form robot uber

    2. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you send your resumé to your 800 headhunters, you'll be able to offer your 20 years of Python scripting experience to Alphabet to prevent accidents.

      Get to it! Drop your caramel-coated popcorn bucket and get that 425 pound frame hopping!

    3. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What could possibly go wrong?

      People keep asking that but the answer is always the same.
      Best case scenario and unexpected scientific discovery that leads humanity to a new golden age, worst case scenario we all die, the universe is destroyed.

    4. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by NotInHere · · Score: 1

      Alphabet has been testing these since a decade or so. They really don't rush it, which is good.

    5. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      [...] worst case scenario we all die, the universe is destroyed.

      That's a common misconception among people. Humanity can die off just like the dinosaurs and the planet will continue on for another four billion years until the sun becomes a red giant. Neither the planet nor the universe cares about humanity.

    6. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      By riders they mean victims.

    7. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      Alphabet has been testing these since a decade or so. They really don't rush it, which is good.

      Has it been that long? Seems like only yesterday that they announced it.

    8. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Best case scenario and unexpected scientific discovery that leads humanity to a new golden age, worst case scenario we all die, the universe is destroyed.

      Whether they show it in the movie or not, all the characters in the movie die in the end.

      Earth is the same.

    9. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What could possibly go wrong?

      Over reactions by Luddites has.

    10. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What could possibly go wrong?

      The buses now show nothing but Google Ads.

    11. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      They really don't rush it, which is good.

      Last year, 1.3M people died worldwide in accidents involving human driven cars. Another 20 million were seriously injured. Costs exceeded $1T. So why is it "good" to delay SDC technology?

    12. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Google's self driving car project was formerly led by Sebastian Thrun, former director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-inventor of Google Street View. Thrun's team at Stanford created the robotic vehicle Stanley which won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge and its US$2 million prize from the United States Department of Defense.[6] The team developing the system consisted of 15 engineers working for Google, including Chris Urmson, Mike Montemerlo, and Anthony Levandowski who had worked on the DARPA Grand and Urban Challenges.

    13. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And yet not a single video of them working in any type of adverse conditions. Or maybe my search skills are lacking. Can anyone prove me wrong? Please? Lane following on a highway doesn't cut it.

    14. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously?

      I can think of one scenario....

      "Alphabet - Google self driving car has software glitch and runs into group of children on field trip killing all of them."

      And if all of their cars encounter a bug at the SAME TIME, we would have a FLEET of cars going causing mayhem.

      Prudent testing when dealing with human lives never ever goes to waste. After, we are not talking about some dipshit smart phone app here.

    15. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by NotInHere · · Score: 1

      Well, eventually they will figure it out how to make self driving cars safer than more than 99% of human drivers. When that happens, I'm not sure, but it will happen. Now, if you introduce them too early, a very risky and unsafe version of self driving cars that is maybe safer than 20% of the human driver population, but less safe than 80%, then anybody of those 80% using a self driving car would mean a safety risk.

      Also, the first accident with a self driving car will surely be in the news, and if you haven't proven that you have introduced them very gently and driven many millions of miles/kilometers in test setups, then you will be blamed for the death, and such an accident may become a reason for the public and politicians to stop believing in the potential of self driving cars to be safer than 99% of human drivers, which in turn might give you many regulations and require you to jump through even more regulatory hoops and red tape. And the car manufacturers who don't have self driving cars would abuse that and try to convince politicians to forbid self driving cars completely. This would set back the whole industry and cause google and other self driving car companies to waste tons of resources on improving the image that could otherwise be spent on actually making the cars safer.

    16. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by alvinrod · · Score: 1

      Reminds of one of George Carlin's bits: "The planet is fine. The people are fucked."

    17. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by Kjella · · Score: 1

      Well, eventually they will figure it out how to make self driving cars safer than more than 99% of human drivers. When that happens, I'm not sure, but it will happen. Now, if you introduce them too early, a very risky and unsafe version of self driving cars that is maybe safer than 20% of the human driver population, but less safe than 80%, then anybody of those 80% using a self driving car would mean a safety risk.

      Except that's not really how it happens, you don't need to be a race car driver to be a good street driver. A good street driver is merely consistent, appropriate speed, paying attention, obeying the traffic rules. It's not a skill level, it's a fail rate. You do things right for a year or five years or twenty years and then for some reason you fuck up. As in failed to yield, ran a red light, didn't see the pedestrian, fell asleep at the wheel, didn't check their blind spot, lost control of the car fail. I can guarantee you that all the SDC test vehicles are better than 100% of humans at not rear-ending anyone.

      If it's not coming officially it's coming unofficially with all sorts of assistants where technically you drive yourself. And people will ignore it, but we'll dismiss them as Darwin awards.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    18. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Because it could easily kill more people? Seems pretty obvious to me. Seems the only alternative is for them to drive 35 which will in turn cause accidents as people try to maneuver around them.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    19. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      If they see a snowflake they stop in the middle of the street and wait for you to get out.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    20. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nothing, the cars are hungry, problem solved.

    21. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      The stuff you mention is no issue. Self driving cars don't get a rating to drive on public roads unless they have a track record of several million miles anyway.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    22. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Seems the only alternative is for them to drive 35

      My Tesla already does 70 while auto-driving on the freeway.
      Computers react faster than humans.
      There is no reason for them to drive slower.
      Not now, nor in the future.

    23. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If they see a snowflake they stop in the middle of the street and wait for you to get out.

      Bullshit.

      Like every other post you make.

    24. Re: Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, I think self driving cars are not a good business to be in unless you can have a large enough first mover advantage. It's very expensive to invest in and when it's finally ready it's looking like it's gonna be a very crowded market as every car company seem to be near having a self driving system. If it gets commoditised too quickly, then Google won't be recovering its years and years of investment.

      Autonomous start ups get good funding so it's great to be one of them, just that most investors might not get their money back.

      So yeah if it goes wrong..... google lose money.....pay fines and compensation for a few deaths....big deal they have lots of money.... it'll just be another expensive play-thing funded by the ads you view.

    25. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Define existence. What would it mean to say "the universe exists" when every known sentient observer has died? And who would say it?

    26. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Does it pass slow large vehicles automatically on a single lane highway? And I was referring more to vehicles without steering wheels.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    27. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Also, I hope 70 is actually the speed limit where you are driving. Otherwise you are in the way and people are swearing and trying to get around you.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    28. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That proverb is actually just "stakes that stick out get hit." (deru kui ga utareru). Nail (kugi) sounds like post/stake (kui) in Japanese, but the original is stake.

    29. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      so they don't kill 1.4m people world wide in a year?

      are you stupid?

    30. Re:Beta testing self-driving vehicles... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      That proverb is actually just "stakes that stick out get hit." (deru kui ga utareru). Nail (kugi) sounds like post/stake (kui) in Japanese, but the original is stake.

      This is the fifth variation I've been told about on Slashdot.

  2. Ads. Listening devices. Streamed bloopers. by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 2

    >> clues on ways to generate revenue from the technology

    Step 1: Plaster everything with ads. Include annoying TV screens with loud advertisements.

    Step 2: Install listening devices to tailor ads to match anything the people in the car say.

    Step 3: Install cameras and live-stream babies throwing up, brothers beating on each other and other mundane events to YouTube. Include more ads.

    1. Re:Ads. Listening devices. Streamed bloopers. by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      Step 3 might be not be a good idea if customers are making babies while the self-driving car goes around the block 30 times.

    2. Re:Ads. Listening devices. Streamed bloopers. by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 2

      >> Step 3 might be not be a good idea if customers are making babies while the self-driving car goes around the block 30 times.

      No, they save that stuff for YouTube's Red channel. Maybe they could call it "Fake Taxi"...

    3. Re:Ads. Listening devices. Streamed bloopers. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hi Creimer, I have a feeling you are new here.
      Welcome to the internet.
      We would ask that you please watch this introductory video

      Thanks.
      The AC Welcome Wagon

    4. Re:Ads. Listening devices. Streamed bloopers. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >> clues on ways to generate revenue from the technology

      Step 1: Plaster everything with ads. Include annoying TV screens with loud advertisements.

      Step 2: Install listening devices to tailor ads to match anything the people in the car say.

      Step 3: Install cameras and live-stream babies throwing up, brothers beating on each other and other mundane events to YouTube. Include more ads.

      I wish you were joking.

    5. Re:Ads. Listening devices. Streamed bloopers. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >> clues on ways to generate revenue from the technology Step 1: Plaster everything with ads. Include annoying TV screens with loud advertisements. Step 2: Install listening devices to tailor ads to match anything the people in the car say. Step 3: Install cameras and live-stream babies throwing up, brothers beating on each other and other mundane events to YouTube. Include more ads.

      You were probably going for funny, but... none of these are how Google will make money on self-driving cars. Google is a technology company whose most popular products are currently most effectively monetized with advertising, not an advertising company, and is perfectly willing to make money in other ways. Indeed, although advertising still makes up the bulk of Google's revenues, the percentage of non-ad revenue has been climbing for years. According to the 2016 10-K, in 2016 Google received over $10B in non-advertising revenues and it expects that to continue growing faster than advertising revenues.

      In the case of self-driving car services, it's very clear that ads can't foot the bill, and that there's no need to try. People are perfectly happy to pay directly for transportation.

    6. Re:Ads. Listening devices. Streamed bloopers. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Google is not an advertising company. Just like newspapers and tv shows, they are an advertising vehicle. In this case their advertising vehicle is an actual vehicle.

    7. Re:Ads. Listening devices. Streamed bloopers. by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 1

      >> Google is a technology company whose...products are...monetized with advertising, not an advertising company

      (Trimmed for clarity.) Are you an attorney, perhaps? Anyway, here's what TFS said:

      >> company will get data on how people experience and use self-driving cars -- and clues on ways to generate revenue from the technology

      It seemed pretty clear they were not only talking about primary sources of revenue (ride fares), but secondary sources (e.g., advertising) as well.

  3. Sorta Kinda Autonomous by tsqr · · Score: 1

    From TFA:

    Waymo is still moving cautiously. Chosen users for the Phoenix service will sit in passenger seats, and Waymo will put contractor or employee testers in the driver seat -- although Krafcik said the goal is to remove them eventually.

  4. Still waiting for my Google Fiber by Drewdad · · Score: 2

    Now I have to wait for my Google self-driving car.....

    1. Re:Still waiting for my Google Fiber by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Guess you'll have to compromise with the Google Sneakernet. They'll resurrect 80s station wagons to barrel some tapes of data to your doorstep, completely automated!

  5. Waymo Sally by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

    Waymo Sally, think you better slow your waymo down.

    Nah... doesn't have the same feel to it.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  6. BS by 110010001000 · · Score: 0

    All of these cars will have a driver (at least one) provided by the company. More BS.

  7. Discontinue by DogDude · · Score: 1

    If it's like everything else that Google has done other than search and advertising, they'll suddenly discontinue it soon.

    --
    I don't respond to AC's.
  8. yes and no by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Self driving car, yes please.

    Car that sends all my travels back to Alphabet/Google, no thanks.

  9. Let's kill some passengers! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now that somebody is doing enough trips that the less-probable situations will be encountered, we can raise, and resolve, the legal questions that some have said will be an impediment to wide-scale adoption.

    Not that I'm glad, mind you, about any particular death, just as I'm sorry about the hundred or so people that human drives will kill in the U.S. today. I think that robot drivers will surely be safer than humans in the long run, and may be already. I just think that the first few people who die that way will inadvertently become useful test cases.

    If I lived in Phoenix, I'd sign up. (Though I'd hope not to be a useful test case.)

  10. Self-driving vehicles... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What could possibly go wrong?

    FTFY

  11. Revenue streams by fox171171 · · Score: 1

    No windows. Just screens showing ads.

    It's 32C. Would you like to order air conditioning?

    The vehicle has arrived at the destination earlier than expected. Doors will open in ten minutes. Pay now to open them early?

    A shady looking person is hailing the vehicle. Pick them up or for just $25 keep going?

    The vehicle is stopped in a bad part of town. Would you like to lock the doors for only $20?

    The vehicle has detected that an accident is imminent. For $100, safety features can be activated. Do you accept the charge?

    1. Re:Revenue streams by BradleyUffner · · Score: 1

      That's Comcast's self-driving car.

    2. Re:Revenue streams by djinn6 · · Score: 1

      A shitty, flesh and blood taxi driver can do all of these already. Good thing we have laws against them.

  12. re: clues on ways to generate revenue from the tec by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    clues on ways to generate revenue from the technology

    If they really haven't figured that part out yet, then it's time to teach them about an amazing new form of revenue called a "taxi service."

    Seriously, self-driving taxi = license to print money.

  13. Neegers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Test them first with neegers.