[ma2rten]

* this is an amazing technical & business accomplishment*

No, it's not. Waymo has been doing amazing work, but the problem is that they PR department is a little bit too good at it's job.

Waymo has these kinds of announcements very couple of months (sometimes more often) and if you don't pay close attention all of them sound like Waymo finally had a breakthrough. But if you look closer each of them is only small incremental progress from their last announcement. In this case, Waymo was already doing driverless rides and they also didn't open them up to everyone. So even though I think that Waymo is making great progress towards a self-driving future, I understand that people get Waymo announcement fatigue.

[Ajedi32]

Yes it is. True, this isn't some sudden breakthrough; just the culmination of many years of slow and steady progress. That doesn't make it any less of an achievement though. This is the first time ever that fully driverless cars are going to be available to members of the general public who aren't under an NDA.

Waymo is taking a slow but steady approach to the development and roll-out of self-driving cars, and I agree with you that that can sometimes make the individual milestones they choose to announce along the way seem pretty minor. Milestones are arbitrary by nature after all, and Waymo has a long road ahead before driverless cars become ubiquitous. Over time though, this sort of slow, incremental progress is going to add up.

I made this same point a couple years ago, when Waymo first announced Waymo One[1]. The point where "self driving cars are here" is going to be a blurry line.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18609982