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Waymo Gets the Green Light To Test Fully Driverless Cars In California (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Waymo, the self-driving unit of Google parent Alphabet, has been granted permission to operate fully driverless cars without human drivers behind the steering wheel on public roads in California. The company is the first to receive a driverless permit in the state. Waymo will restrict its driverless test cars to the neighborhoods of Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, and Palo Alto. "We know this area well," the company said in a statement, noting it includes its own headquarters (housed within Google's X lab) as well as Alphabet's main campus. If it seeks to expand its testing, Waymo says it will notify the new communities first and obtain permission from the DMV.
Waymo's permit includes day and night testing on city streets, rural roads, and highways with posted speed limits of up to 65 mph. "Our vehicles can safely handle fog and light rain, and testing in those conditions is included in our permit," the company says. "We will gradually begin driverless testing on city streets in a limited territory and, over time, expand the area that we drive in as we gain confidence and experience to expand." Waymo won't offer rides to the public right off the bat; the company is close to launching its first commercial taxi service using its fleet of autonomous minivans in Phoenix, Arizona. "Eventually, we'll create opportunities for members of the public to experience this technology, as we've done in Arizona with our early rider program," Waymo says.
Waymo's permit includes day and night testing on city streets, rural roads, and highways with posted speed limits of up to 65 mph. "Our vehicles can safely handle fog and light rain, and testing in those conditions is included in our permit," the company says. "We will gradually begin driverless testing on city streets in a limited territory and, over time, expand the area that we drive in as we gain confidence and experience to expand." Waymo won't offer rides to the public right off the bat; the company is close to launching its first commercial taxi service using its fleet of autonomous minivans in Phoenix, Arizona. "Eventually, we'll create opportunities for members of the public to experience this technology, as we've done in Arizona with our early rider program," Waymo says.
Fully autonomous cars are right around the corner.
THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR LIES KEN DOLL Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
...when this division is renamed to WHAMMO.
....I'll just see myself out.
I'd welcome Google trying out all this new kit. On streets where their families live, driving their kids to school. With their moms and grandparents. Let them demo and beta test with those who are most dear to them. Start with the execs, then move down the command chain.
I'm sooo highly suspicious of Google folks designing this stuff being raised on A B testing, and failing forward. So I want them to bet that they've got it right with those most precious to them, first. Really get some skin in. Before they test on anyone else.
I know that will never happen, but I'd be impressed if they eat their own dog food.
now creimer can take up both front seats!
The future is here, and now we get to count the bodies!
These cars are supposed to save lives, but they are guaranteed to kill a few people on the way to that fantastic goal. The question is, how many bodies are we willing to tolerate? Is 10 people in a year too high? Remember, for every X million miles of autonomous driving, that is another Y lives saved, so as long as the number of deaths stays lower than Y, that is progress!
1... 2...
Soon drunk drivers and bad drivers can be forced to use self-driving cars.
There are a lot of Waymo cars driving round Mountain View, so certainly they are "driving down Google employees' home streets".
The reference to a "Green light" in the title reminds me of cycling to work last week, where a human car driver just blasted across a red light while I was on green. That was Villa and Castro at about 6am, so they got away with it (apart from being immortalized on my bike cam).
I'm OK with testing and working the bugs out of driverless cars on Americans, since they're selfish empty husks, and not really "people" in the same sense as other humans around the world.
Since they value life that much lower I think this is the best approach.
It's almost time to dig up all those slashdot posts claiming that there would never be a driverless car without a human backup driver in it.
The rule requires constant human monitoring while the car is in use. There's still a "driver", just not in the car. This is more of a publicity stunt than a real change.
Eyeballs and skin were not designed to be bombarded by lasers
Is "ken doll" the hot new TDS meme or is it just this one moron? Not sure which would be more sad. OTOH at least it's original instead of just the usual appropriating of whatever 4chan was saying last week.
Instead of risking public safety testing these things in production, as it were, why not train the ai in a simulation?
You'd have to spend a lot of time really working on the simulation, making it as realistic as possible. However, you could illicit the public's help by making it an open source game for folks to offer feedback on.
Seems far safer than turning these things loose on public roads. I can't imagine any real engineer is anything but terrified by this.
Two years ago I had an argument with multiple SDC proponents who were claiming that Waymo had already been running driverless for six months.
I have not seen this large a difference between hype and substance since the first dot-bomb. SDC progress has been minimal over the last few years.
I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
Waymo's approach, by waiting for government approval, is the responsible way to introduce fully driverless cars.
In contrast, Uber repeatedly ignored California laws until California finally revoked Uber's licenses for its self-driving cars. Uber then concentrated on Arizona, where it famously struck and killed a woman who was jaywalking, carrying her bicycle in the dark, but who still could have been saved.
Uber has new leadership. But I still think that Uber does a disservice to self-driving cars. Waymo is much more responsible and apparently ahead of every other company in the race to fully autonomous cars.
Does this mean we can expect to see Waymo driverless cars on the road?
I'll be here all week. Try the fish!
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
It's referring to SuperKendall (or SuperKendal). I don't know why.
The risk here is losing all freedom of mobility in this country. That's how bad it is. On the flip side, I welcome the challenge to spoof the ai and force cars to slam on brakes or into each other from afar just to see the lawsuits unfold. Mark my words.. We WILL be able to hack and mess with these systems remotely. Wooooo.