> Pedestrians frequently walk into traffic, and cars regularly stop illegally and swerve in front of other vehicles

Have you been to San Francisco or LA?

#1 place cabbies have tried to scam me. #2 being Boston. Uber is such a blessing

It still snows in Vegas from time to time. Also, sandstorms are not great for visibility.

If by robotaxi you mean the vehicles used in the tesla test in Austin and now in the bay area, they are just regular model y with an emergency "stop so you don't kill me button" on the right side. They have a special version of the software that is unreleased. The current model Y's / "robotaxi" have all the regular hardware, including pedals and steering wheel and sensors. If you search, you can even find cases during the Austin Texas where the safety drier gets into the driver seat in a few situations.

We don't really know what a special robotaxi hardware would look like.

I think that comment meant that the Highlanders have drivers.

I routinely had 8+h drives in the rear-facing seat of my family's circa 1970 Plymouth Satellite station wagon growing up. Completely unsafe, and very boring, but I don't recall barfing.

My sister and I would pass the time folding up a piece of paper and each of us got to draw part of a person without seeing what the other had drawn. Sort of like visual madlibs.

London Taxis have been configured this way since at least the 1950s and people don't seem to have any problem with it?

I'd be terrified if we allow them to go really fast. They have software and sensor faults, the Teslas are just regular teslas without redundant hardware. They don't have extra sensors, they don't have two sets of their HW4 hardware. If there is a fault the driver has to immediately take over. They can't handle rain well, snow etc. FSD is interesting but it's not nearly ready to be a near fulltime driver. Waymo is much more advanced and experienced but I don't want to see them driving at high speeds. Maybe after 10 years of exp with reundant hardware and software.

Reminds me of the .gif floating around years ago showing an intersection with cars blowing through it in both directions while very intentionally just missing other cars.

I think you misinterpreted, OP meant that robots will respect the rules, which humans typically don't, e.g. driving at 50 where the limit is 30.

I expect robots to run at 120mph only when it is safe. Meaning I can safely cross the road, if they are going 120mph it is because they have correctly figured out I'm not going to cross the road in front of them.

> Zoox is funded by Amazon

Amazon owns it, not just funded them.

> There is no steering wheel afaik

Maybe the control is in a remote centre then

Were they to cautious or is the typical driver far too aggressive?

Cruise was technically second, for whatever that's worth (apparently not much).

Is the remote operator actually driving under normal conditions, or do they just step in during an exigent circumstance?

Deployed recklessly, inevitably cluttering our pavements, filling our canals amoung other antisocial externalities that taxpayers get the bill for?

> getting so unbelievably tired of this smug comment

It's a dumb comment. But I find it interesting in how it reveals opportunities to leverage bridging expertise.

The infamous Dropbox comment [1] illustrated the complete lack of domain knowledge in marketing, sales and generally how non-tech people work that was commonplace among coders. A lot of people made a lot of money, and made a lot of other peoples' lives better, but bridging that gap.

This bus meme, on the other hand, illustrates a complete lack of domain knowledge around marketing and, in all likelihood, how governments and public transit work in the real world.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

I don't think the idea was trains at all. I think the idea was, if we're going to have N of them driving down The Strip, it would be more efficient to join them physically together than to have them maintain normal inter-car spacing.

And that could work, if the car in front can communicate power/brake/turn commands to the cars in the chain. And if you could dynamically drop cars out of the middle when needed. And if you could dynamically add cars when they're neighboring and going the same way. All those could be tricky, but they seem quite solvable.

I understand that you're being glib about buses or trains, but the driver is a large part of the operating costs of a bus, and additionally driverless buses might make more frequent but smaller buses more economical.

An automated van that has roughly regular routes but goes slightly out of its way to pick up/drop off people would be a good middle ground between taxis and buses —- not unlike Jeepnys in the Philippines.

You might be onto something. Don't stop that train of thought. Keep going.

The route share option, which does sound like a minibus/dollar van, is interesting.

I've tried the current basic share option and it's not great, and I say that as someone who used pre-pandemic UberPool. You typically don't save much off a standard UberX ride, it's only available for exactly one person, the arrival estimates are wildly optimistic, and if the other rider isn't in the car they seem to never be ready when you get to their pickup location.

It's unfortunately, but the current pricing model seems to attract passengers who really don't want to be paying for an Uber but at least this way they can save a couple of bucks, which means they're typically in a stressful situation. Very different vibe from the old, social and wildly cheap UberPool, but that probably was never sustainable.

You can always do some sports betting on your phone while your getting driven around.

I do agree that it's not the panacea some people are hoping but true self-driving would change the experience for many people from a couple hours a day of not doing anything other than listen to music / podcasts / audiobooks to being able to do real work if they have things which can be done a laptop. Since multiple generations have been moving further out to car-only suburbs, I think that'd be very popular even if it's still not as nice as having a shorter commute.

> The issue isn't that the act of driving is a laborious task

Said like someone who doesn't have elderly parents, and doesn't plan to age…

Too much time spent inside may be a problem, but FSD turns car cabins into rooms. If we're inside already, a room with a destination is often better than a stationary one.

It absolutely targets a problem that exists. Even in places with pretty great public transit, there is some demand for taxis/Uber/etc. Oftentimes even moreso, because if I don't need a car for 90% of trips, I might not have a car at all. So I use an Uber or a taxi when a certain trip demands it.

By far the worst part about said Ubers and Taxis is the driver. They're an unpredictable element in a situation where I greatly appreciate predictability. Unlike my parents, I didn't grow up with staff, so I'm not used to simply pretending this person I'm sharing a space with doesn't exist. Instead, I need to navigate the fuzzy line between courtesy and service.

Waymos have none of this shit. They're clean, show up when they say they will, I can play my own music, adjust the air conditioning, and have obnoxious conversations with my friends. They drive safely, and, as a cherry on top, they're cool as hell.

FSD should address safety - humans are bad drivers even when they are sober and not overtired.

The absolute worst I have seen was teeing into The Strip at the old Stardust Hotel. The Stardust was two blocks long, ten stories high, and covered in neon. And somewhere in the middle of that wall of neon was one little light that was either red, yellow, or green. The light was not brighter than the neon.

Plus drivers in vehicles that are total beaters with no tags, no insurance, and don't give a darn about anything and will sideswipe your car without flinching.

Insurance IIRC is 3 highest in the nation. I'm paying $3000 per year with max limits full coverage and this is lower than most people I talk to.

> Waymo has been a good actor in every way I can think of so far. They're transparent, their expansion is cautiously paced, and their safety record exceeds that of human drivers. I'm not sure what more we could ask for. Tesla on the other hand seems determined to put cars on the road ASAP and just hope for the best, but local regulatory hurdles seem to have stopped them for the most part. Zoox, from what I can tell, is taking the Waymo approach.

Why change the topic to safety?

> you sound pretty entitled and have a set of "rules" that aren't traffic rules.

> i'm glad we will have robot cars to keep folks like you in your place. you aren't entitled to make the rules of the road.

Nobody is required to be polite and considerate while using a shared resource, and if your opinion prevails, we will, indeed, have a cold, heartless society.

It is mildly interesting to me that you interpret being polite and considerate as "rules". I made no such claim.

I do find it rather belittling to claim I feel "entitled" - perhaps you could refrain from this level of discourse or go to one of the places more appreciative of adolescent behavior.

That doesn’t do anything except let the taxi go out of service until someone cleans it - assuming that it would identify vomit without waiting for customers to complain after they sit in it.

It's worth asking because we are expecting Uber and even some car manufacturers to be full wrapper companies with zero ability to standup and support their own technology with regards to this.

The people I know who can’t legally drive also need help getting into the car, so a robotaxi would be a kick in the teeth.

Why wouldn't they just take a taxi driven by a human? Or a bus (also driven by a human)?

I agree it's stupid. Relevant video on this:

https://youtu.be/-DAfmFdLIjo?si=wg8inSg84VvXFFLx

> and get a lot of hotel shuttles and taxis off the street.

No it wouldn't. Those hotel shuttles and taxies are ideal for anyone with luggage as you don't have to carry your own heavy bags with you. The train doesn't want those people slowing things down for everyone as they get all their bags on/off the train.

Airport lines are a good idea because many thousands of people work at airports and thus don't have luggage. They are also useful for travelers taking a short trip and thus don't have much packaged. However Vegas as a vacation destination is expected to have a lot of people with luggage and less people who are light travelers.

Once tourists drop their bags in their room they should be using transit for every trip until it is finally time to return to the airport.

"The strip" isn't one place. It's several miles long. It's not walkable for people with luggage. To do what you propose, you'd have to not just build it to the strip, but along the strip, which is a whole different problem. There's not a lot of space to build a rail line there. It would have to be a block or two away at best. And then, well, the stuff on the other side of the strip is now three blocks away. For people with luggage. In 105 degree heat in August, or in sandstorms, or sometimes in snow.

It's a cute comment for dunking, but it won't contribute to quality discourse on this website.