[usui]

Well... It's not like it can get any slower, can it? Waymo is the industry lead and yet it offers rides to only a small closed group of beta testers. They only deploy it in geofenced areas. It seems that they deploy the driverless variant, but every Waymo I ever see has a driver behind the wheel, driving it manually, night time or daytime. This rollout is glacial.

It's been 16 years since the DARPA Urban Challenge. I'm happy to be wrong, but I really don't think robotaxis will penetrate the market to mass adoption like many predict, and if it does, it will be in 50 years or more. In 20 years robotaxis will still be a problem of legislation and struggling with adoption, not a technological problem. American car culture is too ingrained.

At most, driverless robotaxis will be symbols of tech companies along the coastlines. They won't transform transportation for the working class because in 20 years, 95% of drivers will still want to drive themselves.

[Fatnino]

You say "along the coastlines" like that's supposed to represent a tiny sliver of the population. In fact, depending on how exactly you define coastline (does the gulf of Mexico count?), probably the majority of the population lives "along the coastline".

As for the definitely landlocked populations, they have already been enjoying the benefits of self driving vehicles for many years in the form of autosteer on their tractors.

[guiomie]

"yet it offers rides to only a small closed group of beta testers."

Not true, anyone in PHX can use the Waymo App and hail a robotaxi.

[dragonwriter]

> At most, driverless robotaxis will be symbols of tech companies along the coastlines.

40% of the US population lives in coastal counties, so... Okay.