Well if thats the tip of the spear of FSD tech we're fucked, no way I will take robotaxi to work before I retire. Extremely limited environment well under control, almost always sunny, doing the same area for what - 10 or 15 years?
Can it drive in rain & snow on narrow non-marked roads, then join traffic jams (or not) on highway at 120kmh, then enter city and navigate obscure construction works around it, crazy aggressive cyclists and scooters and get me where I need, 100% reliably? Or lets say >99.995%, thats roughly human frequent driver level.
This is what I am willing to pay for, either as shared taxi or our own car, nothing less. Anything less is me doing all the driving requiring full attention, have that already in dumb cars.
Waymo can indeed drive through rain and snow on narrow unmarked streets, as well as traffic jams and navigate obscure construction works with cyclists.
Other than snow, it does all of those things in SF. They do snow testing in Tahoe and Michigan, not to mention the former testing in NYC.
I always see this argument but it seems like they did fine through the recent SF storms https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/waymo-robotaxis-storm... Most of the US has non-freezing weather for most of the year, so aside from avoiding heavy rain, snow, and ice I’m not sure what more you want.
> straight roads
SF might have mostly straight roads, but it has complicated intersections, bed drivers, cyclists, double parked cars, etc.
Waymo would do fine in any major city most of the year under most conditions.
> Waymo would do fine in any major city most of the year under most condition
There is no proof of this. I have yet to see these ever ferry passengers in snow, which in case you are unaware, is a common driving condition for many living in North America.
I mean, I literally excluded snow from “most conditions” and snow is not common most of the year in major North American cities (and is often plowed quickly).
Can it drive in rain & snow on narrow non-marked roads, then join traffic jams (or not) on highway at 120kmh, then enter city and navigate obscure construction works around it, crazy aggressive cyclists and scooters and get me where I need, 100% reliably? Or lets say >99.995%, thats roughly human frequent driver level.
This is what I am willing to pay for, either as shared taxi or our own car, nothing less. Anything less is me doing all the driving requiring full attention, have that already in dumb cars.