[whyaduck]

Lyft has been dispatching Waymo self-driving vans (with safety drivers) in Chandler AZ for a while now. I've opted out of Waymo for my occasional rides with Lyft, so I can't say how frequently they show up. But I can say there are lots of the vans running in the service area.

[xxxtentachyon]

Why did you opt out?

[oarsinsync]

Not the GP, but presumably because opting in to being a beta tester isn't something they're interested in, especially since the risks involved are less 'my app doesnt work' and more 'my life may stop working' if something goes wrong.

Note that while that risk remains true of every transportation journey you take, there is a lot of press generated when an autonomous vehicle takes a life or causes injury, which plays a part in a lot of peoples decision making.

Also note recent articles about automatic stop detection failing >50% of the time. This may or may not be relevant to AVs, but I personally would definitely not want to be in an AV that hit a child. That (theoretical) child's life is worth more than pushing driverless cars into the world before they're potentially ready.

[whyaduck]

All I can say is NDAs are a hell of a thing.

[Judgmentality]

Wait, the Waymo Lyft drives - the ones that are supposedly public - are under NDA?! Well I guess that explains why I've never heard of it happening.

[whyaduck]

Not that I know of.

Waymo is still Waymo whether they're running rides on their own behalf, or under the Lyft name. Someone who's ridden Waymo in an early adopter program may make their decision on whether to ride Waymo under Lyft based on that experience.

Get it?