Took a taxi ride today.

[Serk]

Took two of 'em actually...

Took the train into downtown Dallas just to ride these taxis. Didn't need to but really wanted to try something new and interesting.

The driver was very nice, didn't try to make awkward conversation, didn't mind me cranking down the AC temperature and let me choose what music to play.



I'd heard that Tesla was testing their driverless Robotaxi's in Dallas, and Blake, being my fellow geek, wanted to go see if we could go downtown (They're currently geofenced to just the downtown and uptown areas) and ride in one just to try it, so we did...

Initially I was very nervous about getting into a computer driven car. In downtown Dallas. In rush hour. But it was very competent.

Not sure why it decided to wash the window at this moment but...

Watching the screen while it was driving was amazing, it was tracking every car, parked or being driven, it recognized bicyclists, pedestrians, was even tracking the dog a lady was walking.

Got a few funny looks riding around with me in the back seat, Blake in the front passenger seat and no one in the driver's seat, but I suspect that will soon become blasé.




Far smoother than I was expecting. After a few minutes I'd gotten fully at ease and comfortable with it...

I don't fear driverless cars.... I DO however fear them being so good our benevolent betters try to ban human operated vehicles.

[Rams]

When will they come up with a self driving motorcycle?

Rams

[ridingron]

They have those around my area of Orlando. They're called Waymo and are Jaguar suv/van/whatever. All kind of gizzmos all over them. I was behind one in the left turn lane. We didn't make the green turn arrow but when the on-coming traffic cleared, the car made the left turn just I did. I was surprised.I think they are in test mode as I haven't seen one with passengers yet.

[Jersey mike]

I was watching the video screen as the car drove, is there a scanner on the roof or something?


When the car made the right hand turn and came up on a line of cars in the right hand lane then moved to the left lane I thought it was getting ready to make a left turn somewhere but didn't, thought that was a amazing decision for a computer to make.

 

[Serk]

When will they come up with a self driving motorcycle?

There are some prototypes out there but really why? At least for the western use of motorcycles; cars move the body, motorcycles move the soul. No interest in a self driving motorcycle...

They're called Waymo and are Jaguar suv/van/whatever. All kind of gizzmos all over them.

I was watching the video screen as the car drove, is there a scanner on the roof or something?


When the car made the right hand turn and came up on a line of cars in the right hand lane then moved to the left lane I thought it was getting ready to make a left turn somewhere but didn't, thought that was a amazing decision for a computer to make.

Evidently Texas is a hot spot for this stuff, we saw several Waymo's and AVRIDE's drive by while we were eating lunch near downtown...

There's a bit of a debate in techy circles of using LIDAR (The ones with gadgets all over them) vs optical sensors (I.E. Cameras). Tesla is sticking with optical, the car is a I believe bone stock Model Y as far as hardware goes (Other than the Robotaxi stickers)



That's part of their plan, eventually not only the Tesla owned taxi fleet but individual owners of a Tesla could, for instance, have their car drive them to work, then while they're at work go join the ride share fleet to make them a little money, come back at the end of your shift and take you home.

This will get really interesting when the Cybercabs start becoming more common (The first production models are driving themselves off the assembly line in Texas right now.) They don't have steering wheels at all.

[hubcapsc]

When will they come up with a self driving motorcycle?

Rams

Never, if "they" is Elon Musk (Tesla has the only self
driving technology unless you count waymos)... he thinks motorcycles
are dangerous...

-Mike

[3fan4life]

I don't like the idea of self driving cars.


But, if it makes my Tesla stock go up, I'm good with that. 

[ridingron]

The Waymo taxi has all the Lidar gadgets.

https://www.google.com/search?q=waymo+orlando&rlz=1C1BLWB_enUS593US637&oq=waymo&aqs=chrome.2.0i355i433i512j46i199i433i465i512j0i433i512l2j0i512l2j0i433i512j0i512l2j0i271.8702j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#sv=CAMSXhoyKhBlLVQ4Nk5HU2dudUlOVGNNMg5UODZOR1NnbnVJTlRjTToOMnQ3SUtCeDVLakVsdk0gBCokCg5UT2M1QWFnc3FPNTBKTRIQZS1UODZOR1NnbnVJTlRjTRgAMAEYByCE-d-dAUoIEAEYASABKAE

[Jersey mike]

I don't like the idea of self driving cars.


But, if it makes my Tesla stock go up, I'm good with that. 

It's a crazy concept isn't it? I keep wondering what happened to keep your hands at 10 & 2.

[Serk]

Airplanes are moving towards the concept of having just 1 pilot and a dog in the cockpit...
The pilot's job is to feed the dog.
...the dog's job is to bite the pilot if he tries to touch anything. 

The argument over lidar vs optical (Or even a combination of both) will be an interesting one to see play out.

Inevitably, there will be accidents, even deaths with self driving cars. Some will even legitimately be the fault of the vehicle. But overall, the safety will go up. It's already statistically far safer than a human operator.

I've probably stated it before, I don't fear autonomous vehicles.

I fear that as they get better it will be argued that the problem is human operators. And eventually we'll get autonomous vehicle only lanes.

This will then progress to limited human operator only lanes.

And eventually, they'll try to Red Barchetta us into autonomous vehicles only.