Waymo might be expanding its autonomous taxi services to northern cities like Minneapolis and Detroit, but back in Santa Monica, the company’s strained relationship with local residents has reached a breaking point.
According to the Santa Monica Daily Press, the city council has issued a formal demand that Waymo end overnight operations at two charging facilities there. City counselors unanimously approved the measure, which doesn’t mention Waymo by name, but instead orders two lots the company uses to charge and dispatch vehicles to cease nighttime operations.
Could you describe the ruckus?
Such a clickbate title.
Two dispatch lots won’t be operating at night because the noise is disturbing people who need to sleep.
Honestly, the city should’ve never permitted this spot to begin with. You shouldn’t do cab dispatch in residential neighborhoods.
not even a video about the honking parking lot?
Linking with a timestamp to the end of the video (no more honking) is quite the comedic turnaround
woops
Current full self driving cars terrify me. Someone gets in a car, runs a red, shatters a grandma, flattens her dog, they can be held accountable. An officer comes and apprehends them. No big deal.
A software bug compels a waymo to do the same and the company apologizes, pays a fine, and continues its activity. Possibly before the end of the day. Executives are too immune to prosecution for e-taxis to be a reasonable proposition to me.
It’s odd that the thing that terrifies you is that nobody is able to be punished. Grandma and her dog are dead in both scenarios. We want whatever will cause that scenario to happen the least.
I’d rather 1 grandma is run over without a clearly responsible party than 10 grandmothers be killed while 10 drivers are sent to prison.
A person who’s not paying attention or drunk is always going to exist no matter how many grandmas are flattened. The software bug can be fixed and sensors can be improved.
Self-driving cars are the worst they will ever be and they will only get better. Human drivers are not going to improve.
The problem isn’t that nobody is able to be punished, its that the punishment isn’t anywhere near severe enough to incentivize fixing the issues that caused grandma to get hit.
When negligence is a small fine and a finger wag of “make sure this doesn’t happen again”, they aren’t going to do more than lip service claiming they will fix the issue, maybe fire someone at the bottom of the ladder to prove their sincerity.
Until it’s no longer more profitable to make their cars safer, companies will make their cars safer, I agree. That’s the summation of my reasoning. As companies attempt to relieve themselves of their need for humans, the math becomes murkier. “Because they’ve become safer over time, they’ll continue to do so indefinitely” doesn’t work for me.
Until it’s no longer more profitable to make their cars safer, or regulation requires they make their cars safer, or a competitor decides to take market share by making their cars safer.
“Because they’ve become safer over time, they’ll continue to do so indefinitely” doesn’t work for me.
That’s fine because that’s not what I said.
Which of these do you disagree with?:
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Human driving capability has shown no indication of improving.
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Autonomous vehicle capabilities are showing indications of improving.
It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to recognize that these measures of performance will eventually intersect (unless you think there’s something fundamentally special about human driving that is impossible to replicate).
In the specific locations and conditions that waymo is allowed to operate, they are absolutely safer! And I expect self driving cars to improve up to the point that they are economically incentivized to do so.
I’ll say again, I don’t disagree with you, I just need personal accountability to feel assured of the trend not being bucked, and I do not expect that to ever be on offer in the United States where money is equivalent to your voice
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It’s a systemic issue with Waymo and any all the taxi “disruptors.” Choices are made to put people in danger in order to extract profit by using cars AT ALL that is the problem, not who or what is operating them. Technology jesus isn’t going to save grandma.
Choices are made to put people in danger in order to extract profit by using cars AT ALL that is the problem, not who or what is operating them.
How is this any different than a person operating a cab, or a business choosing to offer food delivery?
Operating any motor vehicle in public puts people in danger and yet many people profit from the operating of motor vehicles.
What’s the difference here?
The executives should not have any immunity to prosecution, we need to start holding them accountable. The technology is never the problem, technology just provides us with tools, like any tools sometimes they can be dangerous and deserve immense respect, but it’s the people using them and deciding how they are used who are making those tools and technologies actually hurt and kill people, not the technology. A tool is not inherently good or bad, it does not have intentions or motivations. People do. Let the technology be a technology, and hold the people accountable.
Waymo has proven to be far safer than human driven cars though. Sure, hold them accountable if they’re really negligent, but some accidents are inevitable, but at a much lower rate than what human drivers cause.
@[email protected] There isn’t a problem that could not be solved by legislation here. The police is already able to give tickets to self-driving cars in some states. You can certainly argue that the megacorps aren’t inclined to care when the amount of money involved is tiny but then again that problem exists in most places just as much when it comes to fining rich people. You could always up the amounts if the politicians are willing to do that.
The more consequential thing that can already be done currently is grounding the entire fleet if there’s a good reason for that so it’s not like officials are completely helpless.
I don’t want to sound pessimistic, but consumer protections in the US feel like a far off thing, given its current sociopolitical swing. I cannot trust politicians to do right by me, so I espouse wariness of companies
Using “ruckus” I the title and not referencing Wu Tang in the article? Straight to jail.
