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Okay maybe Waymo isn’t as advanced as we thought.

socktucker said:
www.the-independent.com

Dozens of empty Waymos invade neighborhood in Atlanta leaving neighbors baffled

The company says it has addressed a routing behavior that explained the odd patterns
www.the-independent.com www.the-independent.com

🤣
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You probably heard about the December 2025 episode when San Francisco experienced a widespread power outage. The traffic lights were out in many areas in San Francisco. As a result, many Waymos were stranded. A Waymo was programmed to message a human operator to override when the vehicles encounter a malfunctioning traffic light. Thus, when there was a widespread outage, all the Waymos stopped in front of the traffic lights waiting for a manual override to proceed. It was unreal!
 
BS8899 said:
You probably heard about the December 2025 episode when San Francisco experienced a widespread power outage. The traffic lights were out in many areas in San Francisco. As a result, many Waymos were stranded. A Waymo was programmed to message a human operator to override when the vehicles encounter a malfunctioning traffic light. Thus, when there was a widespread outage, all the Waymos stopped in front of the traffic lights waiting for a manual override to proceed. It was unreal!
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It is one thing to rely self-drive on a well-mapped route. It is a very different proposition for a "self-drive" car to encounter an "unexpected" event such as the scenarios above. For now, I's trust hands-off self-drive on well-mapped freeways. I am not there yet when it comes to congested urban areas, inclement weather, near children, etc..
 
Is Waymo not as advanced as we thought or has our expectations shifted?

Just a handful of years ago, robotaxi was science fiction. Today, we take Waymo self-driving in downtown San Francisco, a heavily congested urban area with crazy traffic patterns and pedestrians/cyclists popping out of nowhere, as normal. Waymo no longer makes news unless something goes wrong.

Waymo is L4, and while unfortunate, the mass traffic light outages and dangerous flooding scenarios do show why Waymo is L4. Now L4 is being taken for granted and the conversation is starting to shift from L4 (operate in limited conditions) to L5 (operate anywhere a human driver could). That is remarkable progress (and bodes well for Lucid’s L4 strategy)!
 
Saksak said:
Is Waymo not as advanced as we thought or has our expectations shifted?

Just a handful of years ago, robotaxi was science fiction. Today, we take Waymo self-driving in downtown San Francisco, a heavily congested urban area with crazy traffic patterns and pedestrians/cyclists popping out of nowhere, as normal. Waymo no longer makes news unless something goes wrong.

Waymo is L4, and while unfortunate, the mass traffic light outages and dangerous flooding scenarios do show why Waymo is L4. Now L4 is being taken for granted and the conversation is starting to shift from L4 (operate in limited conditions) to L5 (operate anywhere a human driver could). That is remarkable progress (and bodes well for Lucid’s L4 strategy)!
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maybe L4 was't what we expected? I expect it to be as smart as the dumbest person I know, which wouldn't have done this. or maybe they would!
 
socktucker said:
maybe L4 was't what we expected? I expect it to be as smart as the dumbest person I know, which wouldn't have done this. or maybe they would!
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Having seen Waymo (and other L4) testing in the Phoenix area for more than a decade and I love Waymo services in Phoenix and (more recently) in the Bay Area, I think L4 has come a long way. Yes, there are still situations (like the ones mentioned in this tread) that require driver intervention.

As far as Lucid's relevancy in this market segment (L4 self-drive taxis), Lucid needs to overcome a major technical barrier vis-a-vis, implement a reliable way to automatically unlock its doors! ;)

Before all the moderators gang up and ban me from this forum, it was a (sick) joke! Lighten up!:p
 
BS8899 said:
Having seen Waymo (and other L4) testing in the Phoenix area for more than a decade and I love Waymo services in Phoenix and (more recently) in the Bay Area, I think L4 has come a long way. Yes, there are still situations (like the ones mentioned in this tread) that require driver intervention.

As far as Lucid's relevancy in this market segment (L4 self-drive taxis), Lucid needs to overcome a major technical barrier vis-a-vis, implement a reliable way to automatically unlock its doors! ;)

Before all the moderators gang up and ban me from this forum, it was a (sick) joke! Lighten up!:p
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Oh I’m sure they’re getting lots of reports.
 
Saksak said:
Is Waymo not as advanced as we thought or has our expectations shifted?

Just a handful of years ago, robotaxi was science fiction. Today, we take Waymo self-driving in downtown San Francisco, a heavily congested urban area with crazy traffic patterns and pedestrians/cyclists popping out of nowhere, as normal. Waymo no longer makes news unless something goes wrong.

Waymo is L4, and while unfortunate, the mass traffic light outages and dangerous flooding scenarios do show why Waymo is L4. Now L4 is being taken for granted and the conversation is starting to shift from L4 (operate in limited conditions) to L5 (operate anywhere a human driver could). That is remarkable progress (and bodes well for Lucid’s L4 strategy)!
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Performs well 90% of the time and everyone tries to bring it down the 10% it messes up.

Wonder if those same people are demanding drivers lose their licenses or be taken off the road when they cause an accident.

The fact that these cars operate so well with human drivers on the roads, breaking rules, cutting them off etc. is remarkable in itself.
 
Love Waymo in SF. I have used it many times. I've had the car get a little confused twice. Resolved quickly by a push on the assistance button. Generally no more than 60 seconds to resolution. I get the same car, same driving style and no need to tip. Its great!
 
HC_79 said:
Performs well 90% of the time and everyone tries to bring it down the 10% it messes up.

Wonder if those same people are demanding drivers lose their licenses or be taken off the road when they cause an accident.

The fact that these cars operate so well with human drivers on the roads, breaking rules, cutting them off etc. is remarkable in itself.
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If L4 means having no driver, or no one in the cabin that has any driving skills/knowledge, I can see that being feasible in certain confined, well-mapped, and well monitored urban areas. Extending beyond that to "everywhere in the US" is a quantum jump from today's technologies, not just the in-car technology, but the roads, weather, emergency services, accident interventions, etc..

Waymo is not perfect. But it has come a long way. I am certainly comfortable riding a Waymo from my home to the Phoenix airport. It is efficient. It is cheaper than Uber. In some respect, it is safer than Uber. There are still glitches in Waymo. The last Waymo I took in San Francisco going from one place on Van Ness to another address on Van Ness, the Waymo got lost, circling the destination 3X and final just open the door and let me off to walk to my destination (about 1-1/2 blocks away).

I don't think Waymo provides services to the Bay Area that requires bridge crossing yet. I think there are some goofy stuffs on the bridges that could confuse the Waymo; e.g., The GG Bridge "re-optimize" their lane allocations (NB vs SB) per the time of day and traffic flow. I can see that today's Waymo/L4 might get confused.
 
BS8899 said:
If L4 means having no driver, or no one in the cabin that has any driving skills/knowledge, I can see that being feasible in certain confined, well-mapped, and well monitored urban areas. Extending beyond that to "everywhere in the US" is a quantum jump from today's technologies, not just the in-car technology, but the roads, weather, emergency services, accident interventions, etc..

Waymo is not perfect. But it has come a long way. I am certainly comfortable riding a Waymo from my home to the Phoenix airport. It is efficient. It is cheaper than Uber. In some respect, it is safer than Uber. There are still glitches in Waymo. The last Waymo I took in San Francisco going from one place on Van Ness to another address on Van Ness, the Waymo got lost, circling the destination 3X and final just open the door and let me off to walk to my destination (about 1-1/2 blocks away).

I don't think Waymo provides services to the Bay Area that requires bridge crossing yet. I think there are some goofy stuffs on the bridges that could confuse the Waymo; e.g., The GG Bridge "re-optimize" their lane allocations (NB vs SB) per the time of day and traffic flow. I can see that today's Waymo/L4 might get confused.
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In the SF Bay area, I believe Waymo is still in the validation stage for highway driving, which would include the bridges. I do see them operating on the highway without a driver, but I don't think they're allowing non-employees to books those trips yet. I assume they'll validate on the Golden Gate and be able to handle the lanes changing. But that is certainly an unusual road condition, and so they may delay making that part of their service area. The only thing I've seen similar is up in Lake Tahoe where Palisades uses cones in Olympic Valley to have three lanes, with the direction having two lanes changing from morning to afternoon.
 
socktucker said:
maybe L4 was't what we expected? I expect it to be as smart as the dumbest person I know, which wouldn't have done this. or maybe they would!
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The Waymos in the Bay Area seem to be operating with a very high level of reliability. But when they do fail, they fail in a very different way than human drivers fail. When I see a vehicle messing up traffic in SF, it's almost always a human operated vehicle doing it. But as a society we're way more tolerant of humans failing than of robots failing.
 
TahoeMichael said:
In the SF Bay area, I believe Waymo is still in the validation stage for highway driving, which would include the bridges. I do see them operating on the highway without a driver, but I don't think they're allowing non-employees to books those trips yet. I assume they'll validate on the Golden Gate and be able to handle the lanes changing. But that is certainly an unusual road condition, and so they may delay making that part of their service area. The only thing I've seen similar is up in Lake Tahoe where Palisades uses cones in Olympic Valley to have three lanes, with the direction having two lanes changing from morning to afternoon.
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Waymo can be taken up and down the South Bay and SF along the 280. I’ve done it.
 
socktucker said:
maybe L4 was't what we expected? I expect it to be as smart as the dumbest person I know, which wouldn't have done this. or maybe they would!
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How many pictures of cars stuck in flooded streets and in underpasses would you like to see.
Me thinks you just have smarter dumb people where you live.
 
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