Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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.

28 of 53 comments (clear)

  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 NotInHere · · Score: 1

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

    3. 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.

    4. 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.

    5. 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?

    6. 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.

    7. 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.

    8. 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."

    9. 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
    10. 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.
    11. 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.
    12. 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.
    13. 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.

    14. 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.
    15. 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.
    16. 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 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.....

  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. 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.
  7. 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.