Comment by dsfyu404ed | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dsfyu404ed | Hacker News Reader

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>Trucking: Waymo has outfitted several Peterbilt Class 8 semi trucks with autonomous packages. The hardware is exactly the same as what’s used on its Pacifica minivans, and Krafcik says the software is 95 percent similar

Is that 5% the 5% that lets them pick routes that don't include under-height structures , stupidly sharp turns, highly congested areas, or other places one generally prefers to not be driving something larger than a panel van?

If so I highly look forward to the eventual (and already severely overdue considering how trivial the problem is) release of this feature to their consumer facing maps product.

Yes, I'm kind of annoyed that it's 2018 and I can't just check a checkbox that says "avoid known under-height structures"

>The experience of riding in a Waymo is surprisingly mundane. The robotaxi drives like a very careful human

I would really like to know how careful they mean. There's a fine line between a good chauffeur for grandma and being so timid that anyone capable of driving themselves would be very frustrated with its performance and people would honk or make obscene gestures at you regularly

For the carefulness comment.

>While making a left turn in a large multi-lane intersection, the car signals and creeps forward before accelerating into the turn. Waymo drives conservatively, to be sure, but the robots aren’t cowards. Gone are the days where two self-driving cars facing each other in a parking lot might freeze up from an overabundance of politeness:

You can check that box, just not in consumer grade mapping software. Commercial software exists for that, e.g. pcmiler.com

> I would really like to know how careful they mean.

Most of the Waymo vehicles i saw on the street around Mountain View were pretty timid. Not enough that I needed to honk, but they basically were sending out engraved invitations to pull in front of them. Most recent example, in rush hour, at ~ 5 - 10 mph, maintaining 3 car lengths following distance, signaling for an offramp maybe 10 car lengths before the painted exit lane opened, and then following the traffic until the painted lane started -- but the shoulder was wide and the exit lane was clear. Most human drivers in this situation would either not signal until they were just about to turn, and would probably have driven on the shoulder outside the lines for some of the way, given the wide shoulder and clear exit lane.

I'm a rule follower, and it sometimes gets me into trouble in exactly the situation above. Say there is a merge and a long solid white line before the two lanes are supposed to mix. I always wait until legal to do change lanes, but often I have cars behind me jump the white line into the lane I want to get into, making it difficult for me to get into that lane.

Here's an analogy: Hey, here's a great life-hack. The next time you are in a movie theater, stand up to get a better view. The people who are sitting behind you might complain, but they are simply chumps for not standing up too.

So…following the rules? Keep in mind that the moment someone takes a picture of a Waymo car blasting through a shoulder, the program is going to get a lot more scrutiny.

So following rules is a problem now?

If Waymo gets caught violating even a small rule, there will be a thousand articles on HN on self-centered Big Bad Silicon Valley.

Following the rules is better than say, merging into a bus and hoping it moves or basically anything the Uber cars did ever. But following the rules when it's totally safe to bend them means trips in a self-driving car take longer than trips where a skilled human is driving, which lowers potential accpetance.

You are just saying that the rules are bad.

The rules are missing nuance, but nuanced rules are hard to enforce.

The better rule would be "don't block the shoulder", instead of "don't drive on the shoulder". But then someone ticketed for blocking the shoulder could claim they weren't blocking it; but blocking is a question of degree, not a question of fact.

If you're aware of the situation, and know you won't block the shoulder, it's reasonable to drive on the shoulder, and you're unlikely to be ticketed for it, even if an officer observes you, but not doing it in the presence of an officer is part of situational awareness.

Yes, selective enforcement, but driving rules enforcement is going to be selective unless you live in a police state or have big brother watching your high res GPS all the time.

I would think that vehicle height is so rarely an issue that consumers face that they don't bother integrating it for the free product, because instead that data can be sold as part of a commercial maps offering to the trucking companies who need that information to do business.

How about a checkbox to avoid tunnels? Maybe that won't matter, hopefully there aren't too many autonomous Hazardous Materials trucks rolling around full of explosives.

I imagine the first step is to get them running on manually vetted routes.

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