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Lyft Launches a New Self-driving Division and Will Develop Its Own Autonomous Ride-hailing Technology (techcrunch.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Lyft is betting the future of the road centers on sharing autonomous vehicles. It aims to be at the forefront of that technology with a new self-driving division and a self-driving system car manufacturers could plug into their self-driving cars. The company expects to hire "hundreds" of people for the new division by the end of next year and has just signed a lease for 50,000-square-feet on the first floor of a Palo Alto facility where it plans to build out several labs and open testing spaces. The building Lyft refers to as "Level 5" will be developing its new "open self-driving platform" and a combination hardware and software system still in development. Lyft hopes auto manufacturers will then bring in a fleet of autonomous cars to its ride-hailing network. The plan is somewhat similar to one Uber announced earlier. Lyft's larger rival uses Volvo's XC90 to test its self-driving tech on the roads. Uber announced earlier this year it was also partnering with Daimler to operate self-driving cars on its network.
Technolojesus!
Lost your All-American manufacturing job?
Not creative enough to write the next Great American Novel?
Couldn't land your "big break" into the "tech" industry?
Too ugly for work as an actor-waiter?
Thought you could make a living by driving?
Now you're fucked.
Why am I supposed to tip a self-driving car?
So.... cab-hailing robots? We've replaced the human drivers and are now replacing the human passengers?
She could be doing porn with a vibrating penguin doll, and I still wouldn't watch.
Now all we have to do is worry about copyright lawsuits.
That, and maybe asphyxiation.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
"How hard could it be?" -_-
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
I guess the real reason for autonomous vehicles is to eliminate jobs. Also the mindset of both Uber and Lyft. It was never about anything else and when it comes right down to it. Eliminating the human factor saves the most money. But of course the proponents will always argue these are jobs nobody wants anyway or are hard to find people to work them. Did you ever think that the people that do might not be able to find any other work qualified for. This person could then become another burden to society on welfare? Be very wary of people who claim they know best, because many times the benefit their after is their own not yours.
Do they really expect this to pay off? And couldn't they have chosen a cheaper place? Renting 50,000 square feet in Palo Alto of all places is definitely a sign of dementia. While it's good to be next to Stanford can they afford it long term? Facilities cost alone must be $5 million. Then you need to buy another $10 million or more in hardware. 100 employees at $250K per year. That's 25 plus 15 million. Is Lyft willing to keep investing $35 million a year in driverless car r&d??
They are claiming the tech will be open. I hope so. Open is the only way to do driverless tech. A bunch of different proprietary systems would suck. Especially when dealing with things like merging. Car to car and traffic device to car communication will be important. Although systems should be resilient of cars or devices that lie.
...is what all this talk about AI, VR, and self-driving vehicles is. The CEOs and other officers buy some big houses, but produce nothing of note.
It's definitely possible each of those have some use/viability, but not to the degree the proponents claim. "AI" isn't real AI, it's automation or simulation/modeling. VR has uses, but AR may be better in work environments. As for self-driving vehicles, I'll start to get worried when self-driving trains make their debut (airport monorail does not count).
Word verification: hooted
Once thing I've wondered: if autonomous technology is getting so close to fruition, how come transit systems like San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit and the Washington DC Metro can't be the first things piloted by it? If an automobile can operate autonomously in a chaotic and messy environment like the streets of a city, a light rail environment ought to be trivial by comparison. Fixed path, limited access, pretty static environment. I'd think you could get the humans out of light rail long before cars are road-worthy. I haven't heard anyone suggesting it, though.
Some train systems have dual doors and are more autonomous. Right now it's taking a long time to get PTC rolled out.
not $15/hr more like min wage + tips or sub min + tips + a low MR.
What keeps an unattended car from getting stripped to the frame? You might have GPS on the car, so you know the locations, you might have cameras, but they rarely provide a clear enough picture to catch anyone. Even so, this is all to respond after the fact, the car can still be stripped before law enforcement arrives. In cases when people are not at risk the police put them at a low priority, as they should.
Not that many people care about getting caught, prisons are so overflowing in many parts of the nation that unless someone is seen slicing off someone's head on a live stream the "justice" system won't give them more than a few months it prison.
Then don't send a car to "bad" neighborhoods? Perhaps the car should keep moving unless picking up a person or dropping them off? We've seen in the news of criminals ripping off delivery and cargo trucks at stop lights, even in supposedly "good" neighborhoods. If a driverless Lyft car is stopped at a light then it's a target for theft.
Perhaps Lyft has this figured out, even if it means allowing some cars to get stripped and claiming insurance to save on having to pay drivers. Perhaps I overestimate the cases of this happening. If low skill people have trouble finding jobs then they turn to crime. Lyft might automate the driving but they might still need a person in the car to fend off thieves, thereby solving the unemployment problem.
I can imagine a day where Lyft will be advertising jobs for people with licenses to carry weapons, instead of licenses to drive.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
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