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Self-Driving Car Company Zoox Is Now Allowed to Carry Passengers (usnews.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the taken-for-a-ride dept.

The AP reports that self-driving cars have reached a new milestone in California: The Public Utilities Commission granted Zoox the first permit to ferry riders in autonomous vehicles under a pilot program. But Zoox can't charge for the service and a backup driver must be in the car. Under the program, Zoox will submit information to the commission on the number of passenger miles traveled in the test cars and any incidents that occur, along with pollution and safety data.

There was no immediate word on when Silicon Valley-based Zoox would start its service, which would likely be confined to the San Francisco Bay Area. More than 60 companies have California permits to test autonomous vehicles. But so far they can only carry employees and researchers.

33 comments

  1. Progress by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

    This self-driving car only needs one driver. Uber self-driving cars require two drivers. I'm going to start a self driving car company, but it will need three drivers.

  2. Backup driver in car by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    AKA, what every other 'self driving' car company is doing.

    Nothing to see here. Carry on.

  3. Can't carry paying passengers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That seems like a real barrier to entry and anti-competitive decision to make. Only the wealthiest of companies can afford to piss away money like that on these sorts of unpaid trial runs. Although given who is doing all the autonomous car development, I guess they fit the bill.

    1. Re: Can't carry paying passengers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My gf makes all these car professionals look really dumb, and she does not even have a car

    2. Re: Can't carry paying passengers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Carry cargo? Does backup driver have to be awake?

    3. Re: Can't carry paying passengers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I bet even your other other imaginary girlfriend is better at self driving cars

    4. Re: Can't carry paying passengers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If the cost of a minimum wage ride a long driver is a make or break then they cant afford to be in this business anyway.

      Real peoples lives are on the line, in particular the alpha tester pedestrians/bike riders and beta tester drivers in other vehicles who never volunteered to be experimental subjects in some stupid VC funded start up who has zero concept of safety engineering and has no moral or ethical qualms murdering a few people on the way to bringing us self driving cars the public never asked for and many actively do not want on our roads.

      In short, my life and health are not a zero cost element in some assholes business model.

    5. Re: Can't carry paying passengers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is she a man tranny?

    6. Re: Can't carry paying passengers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > In short, my life and health are not a zero cost element in some assholes business model.

      I think you'll find they *are* just such an element. You don't think they should be, which is understandable to be sure. But it doesn't change the fact you are an accounting glitch to them.

    7. Re: Can't carry paying passengers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ok yes you are correct. This is the main reason I am opposed to computer controlled cars in public. I have worked many startups up the years and do not want to be an alpha tester for some dumb ass sociopathic ceo striving for first mover advantage or whatever stupid phrase they use these days.

      Shut it down. Shut it all down, now.

  4. Slash tires, smash cameras, destroy the things. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Shovel ready jobs for unemployed taxi medallion owners who bankrupted themselves investing in playing by the rules : I offer $5 per destroyed autonomous vehicle.

    1. Re:Slash tires, smash cameras, destroy the things. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When the game is corruption and rent-seeking, playing by the rules should not be rewarded.

    2. Re:Slash tires, smash cameras, destroy the things. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Horse and buggy operators went bye-bye too, Luddite

      Shouldn't you be at work today at the CRT factory?

    3. Re:Slash tires, smash cameras, destroy the things. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If the game is disruptive anti-existing-business tactics that bend laws and create new safety hazards for consumers, what's to stop anyone else throwing money at disrupting their disruption? Vinyl wraps for taxis to confuse the AR, etc.

      I think when a few dozen of them drive into the San Francisco Bay in 20 minutes because someone hung a banner off an overpass, people might begin to think about the unconsidered ramifications of their convenience bullshit.

    4. Re:Slash tires, smash cameras, destroy the things. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      https://www.centralpark.com/tours/horse-carriage-rides - Shouldn't you be working for Trump, since lying and reductionism comes so easily to you? Sarah Huckabee could use the smoke break.

  5. Cool visualization on Zoox home page by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Curious about what angle Zoox had, I visited the Zoox home page, it has a very nice visualization showing what self driving cars actually "see"...

    What do they actually mean to do? That I'm still not sure about. :-)

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  6. P.S. Possible fail in traffic light detection? by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Looking through the Zoox video more carefully, there's one point where it does a good job of turning, but slowing down to avoid a pedestrian crossing against the light....

    Or are they? Because looking at the light that is flagged green, I see only a lower right turn arrow on - even though the car is turning left into that street, the actual green light is not on (but then neither are any of the other light colors, odd).

    Looking at a screen capture I'm not sure who that light is really for.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re: P.S. Possible fail in traffic light detection? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They are using the Unreal game engine, holy fuck! As if a game engine which is designed from the ground up to only handle the bare minimum necessary to play shooter games is appropriate for the real world of not getting people killed.

      These guys are fucking crazy. And looking at their open jobs link, they are hiring a trivial number of QA people, *one* safety person and dozens of generic knucklehead engineers of various sorts.

      How many will these guys kill before this madness is stopped? Funny how they are always allowed in area that are not where our legislators live.

    2. Re: P.S. Possible fail in traffic light detection? by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      They are using the Unreal game engine, holy fuck! As if a game engine which is designed from the ground up to only handle the bare minimum necessary to play shooter games is appropriate for the real world of not getting people killed.

      So they are admitting their hardware will not run Crysis?

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  7. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE CONSEQUENCES KEN DOLL NAZI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    THERE WILL ALWAYS BE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR LIES AND PROPAGANDA NAZI 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.

  8. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE CONSEQUENCES NAZI KEN DOLL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    THERE WILL ALWAYS BE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR LIES AND PROPAGANDA NAZI 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

  9. Re: Slash tires, smash cameras, destroy the things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My coworkers lives were not at risk when I brought a flat screen into the office you self righteous ignorant prick.

  10. Re: P.S. Possible fail in traffic light detection by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They are using the Unreal engine?

    Oh man... How long until it takes over and starts hitting people yelling "Headshot!" "M-m-monster kill!"

  11. Why do you care about visualization rendering by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    They are using the Unreal game engine!

    Ahh, you do realize the visualization is only for humans, to illustrate the raw data the car is collecting, right?

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re: Why do you care about visualization rendering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ahh, you do realize that a company putting cars on the road with real humans as targets that is hiring dozens of people but only 3 in any real way related to QA or safety is going to murder a lot of innocent people, right?

  12. Gad Zoox! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'll show myself out...

  13. and uber killed an person by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    and uber killed an person.

    1. Re: and uber killed an person by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They won't be the only ones. All these companies with autonomous cars will go down the tubes.

  14. Re: P.S. Possible fail in traffic light detection by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    It only yelling out your score (death race 2000 system)

  15. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE CONSEQUENCES NAZI KEN DOLL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    THERE WILL ALWAYS BE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR LIES AND PROPAGANDA NAZI 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.

  16. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE CONSEQUENCES NAZI KEN DOLL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    THERE WILL ALWAYS BE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR LIES AND PROPAGANDA NAZI 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.

  17. Can they see and avoid small animals? by TzTerri · · Score: 1

    This article talks about the difficulty of getting robots to recognize cats. https://www.builtinchicago.org... So what happens when a dog or cat runs out in front of the car? For that matter how well do these cars deal with snow, ice, fog, or anything other than good weather?

    1. Re: Can they see and avoid small animals? by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Reports are they don't deal well with bad weather at all.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."