I live very close to LAX, and we have hundreds of Waymos in our area. At first i was a little weary, and kinda weirded out by all of them.
They have become completely normal, and cause WAY fewer traffic incidents than human drivers. They are very predictable, and will always let you pull in front of them when changing lanes (unlike a lot of other LA drivers).
I have seen a few incidents where they seem 'stuck', and it was a bit annoying and kind of funny, but again, it does not happen nearly as often as for human drivers.
I also like taking them. It is nice to just get in and relax and not have to talk to anyone or worry about who is going to pick you up. You can control the temperature and music from your phone, you can drop the pin exactly where you want to be dropped off and picked up, and the ride is smooth and comfortable.
We can debate all the knock on effects of Waymos, but the user experience is pretty great.
epolanski 14 minutes ago [-]
It's very interesting, because on one side we have clear data showing that autonomous cars at the Waymo level are safer than humans.
On the other hand we don't give technology the same pass we give to humans, meaning that we don't tolerate machine incidents the same way we tolerate human ones.
Which means that self-driving cars need to be a magnitude of order safer than humans.
And even though a self-driving car will never road rage or use the car as a weapon on christmas markets, we'll still tolerate humans driving more than one odd 1-in-a-billion ai-error caused incident.
overgard 4 minutes ago [-]
I don't think you can just look at the statistics though. What I mean is that, the main issue is that the category of mistakes they make are going to be inherently different from the category of mistakes that humans make. IE, humans are more likely to make emotional mistakes, but self driving is probably more likely to make perceptual mistakes or fail to respond to novel situations. I think the "fail to respond to novel situations" is probably the biggest blocker for people to trust them enough for widespread deployment. I'd love to see one of these things drive on a poorly mapped dirt road up in the mountains, for instance (I'm not saying it can't -- I just mean I would personally love to see how it can adapt to that kind of situation)
JumpCrisscross 3 minutes ago [-]
> we don't give technology the same pass we give to humans
This was the hypothesis. But based on e.g. FSD, it doesn’t seem borne out in reality.
sudokatsu 5 minutes ago [-]
We don’t tolerate machine incidents because who is liable if an accident occurs? A company with a $4.6 trillion market cap? They’re not a legal opponent any of us really want to take on.
YKutsev 15 minutes ago [-]
Been in a Waymo in SF — impressive tech. But I keep wondering: does the math actually work? Car + all the sensors + maintenance + mapping. Can a single vehicle ever turn a profit?
otterley 2 minutes ago [-]
These companies are taking a very long view (and are funded accordingly). The future vision is one in which cars with drivers just aren't a thing in cities anymore. Nobody owns a car to use in day-to-day intra-city journeys; instead, you just take a drive in an autonomous vehicle on demand.
twosdai 5 minutes ago [-]
I thought about this as well. The dsytopian world I think will exist in the future where the Waymo is priced higher and people will want to take it more, over a cheaper Uber. Precisely because the human driver is removed from the equation.
So yes, I think they will be able to turn a profit by charging more for the experience. Which is a humanless car.
arjie 47 minutes ago [-]
Surprisingly low hype for a company running perhaps the most advanced consumer-interactive robots. I’m quite fond of these machines and will periodically rescue them when someone has misused them (door not closed, most commonly). Hope they do well. Very good road participants.
cyanregiment 42 minutes ago [-]
[flagged]
hmokiguess 60 minutes ago [-]
Missed opportunity to say "Open to Y'all"
BugsJustFindMe 57 minutes ago [-]
"Open to All Y'all"
raddan 51 minutes ago [-]
Isn't there supposed to be a liaison in there? "Open to Alls Y'all"
I doubt the geofence exclusion is because of the demographics of those areas and not the demand for autonomous vehicles in those areas, although I don't doubt the latter is a result of the former.
smt88 50 minutes ago [-]
I doubt this is correct. “It’s expensive to be poor” — a lot of people who can’t afford cars (or have bad credit) end up Ubering to/from work every day
epolanski 13 minutes ago [-]
How can that be anywhere near financially sustainable.
In any case I pity the state of public transport in US.
elictronic 11 minutes ago [-]
Tesla has fewer miles than I have driven in my lifetime. It’s currently still a half baked product. This might be a story in a few years but today you’re comparing an F150 to a Delorean.
quxbar 1 hours ago [-]
Here in Austin, I'm stuck calling an uber and hoping I get a Waymo. When does that deal expire?
That's also when the partnership with Rivian really takes off. Uber clearly wants its own fleet of robotaxis; they already unsuccessfully burnt a lot of money on it years ago. Looks like they're content letting other companies take the risk while helping fund them.
chrisXOXO 19 minutes ago [-]
I am really wondering, how they tackle the long trail problem of unknown situations. Sure they are monitor them constantly but I am asking precisely, how to handle situations that occur ridiculously infrequently: do they sample them 1000x in sim? Or do they use a different model and track uncertainty in the model constantly?
How to get another 0 between the dot and the percent sign in situations where the model makes the wrong choice with a significant probability?
jdlshore 12 minutes ago [-]
There was an article a while back that talked about their simulated world model. It has the ability to do things like floods, elephants on the road, etc.
semiquaver 1 hours ago [-]
> Dallasites
Is that seriously the demonym? Terrible. Try harder, Dallasites.
dgunay 1 hours ago [-]
It sounds too much like "parasite" for me to be comfortable using it. I'm assuming some random person made it up. It's okay to just say "people of/from <place>", guys.
raddan 49 minutes ago [-]
But then you lose extra important information from words like "masshole."
ndm000 1 hours ago [-]
Having grown up in Dallas, I usually just say "Texan" and call it a day.
adrianmonk 40 minutes ago [-]
What's your better suggestion? Dallasonian? Dallaser? Dallasan?
Also, do you have the same issue with the demonyms Manhattanite or Seattleite?
v64 2 minutes ago [-]
I live here and use Dallasian myself
gryfft 1 hours ago [-]
Dallasians?
Dallasers?
Dallaslets?
Dallards?
CalRobert 1 hours ago [-]
Dalwegians?
stronglikedan 21 minutes ago [-]
Dallazens
JacobAsmuth 1 hours ago [-]
Dallonians
dyauspitr 53 minutes ago [-]
Dallamites, Dallsatians
seizethecheese 1 hours ago [-]
Texas -> Texan
Kansas - Kansan
Honduras -> Honduran
It should be Dallan?
gumby271 48 minutes ago [-]
Dallmatians
chasd00 51 minutes ago [-]
better than "cityofhate" which is what we're called most of the time.
triceratops 47 minutes ago [-]
Understandable, I'd also hate to live in Dallas /s
mchusma 1 hours ago [-]
I thought it was a typo, or strange url at first.
bijowo1676 1 hours ago [-]
I like North Texans
elianaive 1 hours ago [-]
Keeps on being rolled out in red states while being delayed in blue states, quite unfortunate.
runako 50 minutes ago [-]
Divide this differently:
- states where the major cities commonly have snow for > 3 months
- states where the major cities commonly have snow for < 1 month
Inclement weather is likely the differentiator. Blue state California gets Waymo in its biggest cities, which handily do not get much snow. The other Waymo cities are all below the Mason-Dixon Line.
xnx 41 minutes ago [-]
Blocked even from testing in NYC. Blocked from DC and Boston. Unfortunately this does have more to do with bad government than bad weather.
runako 17 minutes ago [-]
Boston, according to Waymo[1], is dependent on the legislature making autonomous vehicles legal. Apparently NY state laws also require a human driver at the wheel.
The only surprising thing about this is that other states did not require changes in law. It's Good, Actually, that big companies are (sometimes) bound by the same laws that bind the rest of us.
In any case, there are more than 2-3 "blue" states. We can note that it's also not running in cold "red" states either. The climate angle fits the data best and aligns with what Waymo says, which aligns with what we have known about the tech for at least a decade.
(That note also suggests they are still testing their cold-weather kit and are not quite ready.)
I personally saw a Waymo in NYC on June 26th at 14th St and 8th Avenue, so they’ve done some recent testing at least.
porphyra 38 seconds ago [-]
the metro areas where it gets rolled out are all blue regardless of state
cortesoft 48 minutes ago [-]
They have been fully open here in Los Angeles for almost two years now.
Zigurd 47 minutes ago [-]
It's easier to roll out in places where it seldom snows.
xnx 39 minutes ago [-]
Definitely true, but snow affecting driving conditions is becoming pretty rare in cities like Chicago.
skeeter2020 14 minutes ago [-]
maybe weather events that disrupt travel, but impact things like visibility, lane definition, etc? That's still super-common in Chicago and a lot of the US.
dmitrygr 1 hours ago [-]
"Maybe it's something you've got that they haven't got." - Owen Kellogg
km3r 1 hours ago [-]
The anti-science slopulism of the far left is infecting blue states. Hopefully the liberal left can fight back to prevent the party being taken over like maga did to Republicans.
wwalexander 56 minutes ago [-]
What “anti-science slopulism” are you referring to? And what does corporate rollout strategy have to do with science?
xnx 36 minutes ago [-]
History of being anti-nuclear. Now against "AI" and self driving cars because they like trains.
mrtesthah 1 hours ago [-]
Is it unfortunate, though?
rawgabbit 2 hours ago [-]
No freeways. But Waymo now is available to all of Dallas?
Does that include the suburbs?
nolastan 1 hours ago [-]
It's open to _everyone in Dallas_, not available _in all of Dallas_.
ooopsss 52 minutes ago [-]
everyone != everywhere
cco 1 hours ago [-]
I believe they paused freeways everywhere because they drove through some construction (or didn't handle construction zones well).
looks like Bishop Arts -> Fair Park -> White Rock -> NW Hwy -> Hampton/Inwood, with a weird section jutting out toward Irving along 114
so, no suburbs, only enclaves
PcChip 29 minutes ago [-]
our group sees them all the time while skating the katy trail and through downtown dallas
rawgabbit 31 minutes ago [-]
Thanks
cyanregiment 21 minutes ago [-]
Why isn't downtown called the superurbs?
Sheeny96 55 minutes ago [-]
Why are the cars so big? Wouldn't it make sense to have a bunch of much smaller, single person vehicles?
porphyra 24 minutes ago [-]
Tesla Cybercab has about three or four times the efficiency and like a fifth of the price by having smaller, two person vehicles. Indeed, the vast majority of trips are taken by single people and it's ridiculous to have a giant machine for them. It would also be okay to have a handful of larger, Model Y-sized vehicles for the multi-person trips.
To actually answer your question: Part of the reason why the Waymo cars are so big is because they got a deal on buying all the Jaguar I-Pace vehicles, which checked several boxes:
* Electric vehicles and hybrids are preferable for self driving cars as they have robust electrical power for the sensors and compute
* Larger minivans or SUVs are preferable for both development work and early scaling up where you can't afford to have both smaller and larger vehicles
* The I-Pace wasn't selling well so they managed to snag the whole production batch
* Though Jaguar isn't exactly known for their great reliability and electrical systems, the I-Pace, manufactured by Magna Steyr, is actually decent
The first two reasons are why the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid, the only hybrid minivan sold in the US, was so popular for early self driving car efforts (including with Waymo) in the 2010s.
That said, Waymo's Ojai is somewhat more space efficient than the older I-Pace. They also have the Ioniq 5 coming.
cortesoft 49 minutes ago [-]
Why would it make more sense? It isn't like a car half the size would cost half as much, but it would severely limit the capacity. Now, you can get a waymo for 1-4 people, but if some (or all) were single occupant, you would be limited.
Being smaller does not help that much much in cost per mile, but has a big cost for functionality.
jwpapi 51 minutes ago [-]
I’m thinking that since 2015. Like BMW C1 just with doors on the side and a bit more security. This would approx allow 3-4x as many travellers on a given route compared to traditional cars.
grim_io 44 minutes ago [-]
A C1 with more security, meaning more material and air between you and a potential high-speed obstacle, is called a car and is sized like one.
smt88 48 minutes ago [-]
SFC costs don’t scale linearly with volume or number of seats.
The cameras, LIDAR, and sensors are all fixed costs. You need them on even a single-person car. And they’re extremely costly.
arccy 35 minutes ago [-]
Americans are fat, they don't fit.
boc 19 minutes ago [-]
The All-American Retatrutide is (nearly) here to save us all thankfully.
It’s an extremely consistent experience, and you can sit in the front seat (something I like personally). With Uber and taxi services, you never know what kind of driver or ride you’re going to get.
ooopsss 48 minutes ago [-]
Uber is at least 1000x better than traditionally taxi, without any rating system.
sbuttgereit 38 minutes ago [-]
They use to be (along with Lyft). But it's been a very long time since that was clearly true.
In reality I think you can get better experiences than a taxi with a rideshare service (which they really aren't for a very long time), but it's very hit or miss.
So less consistently bad as a taxi service... but far from consistently good.
giancarlostoro 1 hours ago [-]
The real test is, can these self-driving cars drive I-4 without getting into any sort of wreck?
I love Waymo. The only problem I have with it is that it further siphons wages from local economies into Silicon Valley, beyond what Uber/Lyft already did.
boc 14 minutes ago [-]
You could argue that cheaper/safer local rideshare would boost traffic to local bars and restaurants in denser areas though. If you want to keep the $ local, just add an AV tax that goes to the city.
Geezus_42 1 hours ago [-]
Dallas drivers are bad enough already...
ape4 55 minutes ago [-]
Anyone with a credit card
ventana 33 minutes ago [-]
Debit card works just fine with Waymo, just like with Lyft and Uber.
1over137 51 minutes ago [-]
And presumably their app?, which requires either an Apple or Google account.
smt88 48 minutes ago [-]
Uber app only requires an email address
wilg 36 minutes ago [-]
I'm sure you can imagine why it might be unnecessarily complicated for a Waymo to take cash.
vel0city 16 minutes ago [-]
There are tons of automated systems which take cash. I do agree it would add some complexity to the equipment in the car, but its not like it would be that difficult to do it. These cars have to go back to the depot eventually, emptying the cash bins would just be one more cleaning step. I do agree though they don't bother because it probably would cost more to manage in the end than the amount of rides they're losing not accepting cash.
Just another example though, while credit card processing fees aren't always cheap its not like its free to process cash.
smt88 49 minutes ago [-]
[flagged]
dymk 40 minutes ago [-]
Credit cards are not free money lmao
Cider9986 50 minutes ago [-]
It does seem necessary to have cameras inside driverless cars but I don't want to if Google is running the show. Your biometrics will probably be stored for "enforcing Google's policies" at a minimum [1].
And then a Waymo dropped teenagers off at the police? I don't care if that was a human, I don't want no snitch car service [2].
They have become completely normal, and cause WAY fewer traffic incidents than human drivers. They are very predictable, and will always let you pull in front of them when changing lanes (unlike a lot of other LA drivers).
I have seen a few incidents where they seem 'stuck', and it was a bit annoying and kind of funny, but again, it does not happen nearly as often as for human drivers.
I also like taking them. It is nice to just get in and relax and not have to talk to anyone or worry about who is going to pick you up. You can control the temperature and music from your phone, you can drop the pin exactly where you want to be dropped off and picked up, and the ride is smooth and comfortable.
We can debate all the knock on effects of Waymos, but the user experience is pretty great.
On the other hand we don't give technology the same pass we give to humans, meaning that we don't tolerate machine incidents the same way we tolerate human ones.
Which means that self-driving cars need to be a magnitude of order safer than humans.
And even though a self-driving car will never road rage or use the car as a weapon on christmas markets, we'll still tolerate humans driving more than one odd 1-in-a-billion ai-error caused incident.
This was the hypothesis. But based on e.g. FSD, it doesn’t seem borne out in reality.
So yes, I think they will be able to turn a profit by charging more for the experience. Which is a humanless car.
Hmm. Maybe in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris,_Texas?
In any case I pity the state of public transport in US.
Also, do you have the same issue with the demonyms Manhattanite or Seattleite?
Dallards?
It should be Dallan?
- states where the major cities commonly have snow for > 3 months
- states where the major cities commonly have snow for < 1 month
Inclement weather is likely the differentiator. Blue state California gets Waymo in its biggest cities, which handily do not get much snow. The other Waymo cities are all below the Mason-Dixon Line.
The only surprising thing about this is that other states did not require changes in law. It's Good, Actually, that big companies are (sometimes) bound by the same laws that bind the rest of us.
In any case, there are more than 2-3 "blue" states. We can note that it's also not running in cold "red" states either. The climate angle fits the data best and aligns with what Waymo says, which aligns with what we have known about the tech for at least a decade.
(That note also suggests they are still testing their cold-weather kit and are not quite ready.)
1 - https://waymo.com/blog/shorts/back-to-boston/
https://www.twu.org/twu-tech-newsletter-waymo-no-mo-in-nyc-f...
Does that include the suburbs?
so, no suburbs, only enclaves
To actually answer your question: Part of the reason why the Waymo cars are so big is because they got a deal on buying all the Jaguar I-Pace vehicles, which checked several boxes:
* Electric vehicles and hybrids are preferable for self driving cars as they have robust electrical power for the sensors and compute
* Larger minivans or SUVs are preferable for both development work and early scaling up where you can't afford to have both smaller and larger vehicles
* The I-Pace wasn't selling well so they managed to snag the whole production batch
* Though Jaguar isn't exactly known for their great reliability and electrical systems, the I-Pace, manufactured by Magna Steyr, is actually decent
The first two reasons are why the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid, the only hybrid minivan sold in the US, was so popular for early self driving car efforts (including with Waymo) in the 2010s.
That said, Waymo's Ojai is somewhat more space efficient than the older I-Pace. They also have the Ioniq 5 coming.
Being smaller does not help that much much in cost per mile, but has a big cost for functionality.
The cameras, LIDAR, and sensors are all fixed costs. You need them on even a single-person car. And they’re extremely costly.
People hate human drivers more than they hate the idea of AI drivers
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/business/uber-sexual-assa...
In reality I think you can get better experiences than a taxi with a rideshare service (which they really aren't for a very long time), but it's very hit or miss.
So less consistently bad as a taxi service... but far from consistently good.
https://www.worldatlas.com/places/the-most-dangerous-highway...
Just another example though, while credit card processing fees aren't always cheap its not like its free to process cash.
And then a Waymo dropped teenagers off at the police? I don't care if that was a human, I don't want no snitch car service [2].
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49027861
[2] https://www.404media.co/waymo-called-police-on-teens-san-mat...