<story><title>After 48 hours we haven&apos;t seen any sign people are using Waymo&apos;s service</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/12/waymos-lame-public-driverless-launch-not-driverless-and-barely-public/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rootusrootus</author><text>Everywhere and everyone is different, obviously, but I would &lt;i&gt;love&lt;/i&gt; to see autonomous electric vehicles become our future.  I really don&amp;#x27;t care for public transportation, I find it uncomfortable in many ways, and I don&amp;#x27;t see any way that it will ever &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; be about half the speed of a private point-to-point transport.&lt;p&gt;So a highway filled with self driving cars zipping along bumper to bumper may not technically be able to carry as much as a fully loaded subway train, but it&amp;#x27;s so much more &lt;i&gt;useful&lt;/i&gt;.  Take away the casualties and pollution, and it&amp;#x27;s as close to perfect as we are likely to get.</text></item><item><author>djsumdog</author><text>Autonomous cars are a very difficult problem, more than I think most people anticipate. There&amp;#x27;s been a lot of tax breaks&amp;#x2F;money that goes into these programs too, and that&amp;#x27;s the tragic thing, since that funding should be going to known solutions: public transportation (trains, trams and express buses).&lt;p&gt;Even if you had a full-autonomous only Interstate where each car could be fully loaded and ride bumper-bumper at over 100kph, it wouldn&amp;#x27;t even begin reach the carrying capacity of currently existing fully autonomous subways systems like those in Singapore.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;penguindreams.org&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;self-driving-cars-will-not-solve-the-transportation-problem&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;penguindreams.org&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;self-driving-cars-will-not-so...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;These driverless cars would be great in Europe where they can solve the last leg problems in countries that already have strong public transport infrastructure. In places like America, the existing infrastructure has a long way to go before autonomous cars won&amp;#x27;t lead to the same gridlock as normal cars .. and an even longer way to go before they&amp;#x27;re ready for mass consumption.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>com2kid</author><text>&amp;gt; and I don&amp;#x27;t see any way that it will ever not be about half the speed of a private point-to-point transport.&lt;p&gt;Subways &amp;#x2F; trains in Tokyo are faster than driving, same in London.&lt;p&gt;No stop lights, no intersections, no delays on the road.&lt;p&gt;Buses aren&amp;#x27;t faster, but once you go underground, the speed improves dramatically. Even if there is a 2 minute stop once every mile, that is still less time waiting than comparable stop lights in a car.</text></comment>
<story><title>After 48 hours we haven&apos;t seen any sign people are using Waymo&apos;s service</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/12/waymos-lame-public-driverless-launch-not-driverless-and-barely-public/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rootusrootus</author><text>Everywhere and everyone is different, obviously, but I would &lt;i&gt;love&lt;/i&gt; to see autonomous electric vehicles become our future.  I really don&amp;#x27;t care for public transportation, I find it uncomfortable in many ways, and I don&amp;#x27;t see any way that it will ever &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; be about half the speed of a private point-to-point transport.&lt;p&gt;So a highway filled with self driving cars zipping along bumper to bumper may not technically be able to carry as much as a fully loaded subway train, but it&amp;#x27;s so much more &lt;i&gt;useful&lt;/i&gt;.  Take away the casualties and pollution, and it&amp;#x27;s as close to perfect as we are likely to get.</text></item><item><author>djsumdog</author><text>Autonomous cars are a very difficult problem, more than I think most people anticipate. There&amp;#x27;s been a lot of tax breaks&amp;#x2F;money that goes into these programs too, and that&amp;#x27;s the tragic thing, since that funding should be going to known solutions: public transportation (trains, trams and express buses).&lt;p&gt;Even if you had a full-autonomous only Interstate where each car could be fully loaded and ride bumper-bumper at over 100kph, it wouldn&amp;#x27;t even begin reach the carrying capacity of currently existing fully autonomous subways systems like those in Singapore.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;penguindreams.org&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;self-driving-cars-will-not-solve-the-transportation-problem&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;penguindreams.org&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;self-driving-cars-will-not-so...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;These driverless cars would be great in Europe where they can solve the last leg problems in countries that already have strong public transport infrastructure. In places like America, the existing infrastructure has a long way to go before autonomous cars won&amp;#x27;t lead to the same gridlock as normal cars .. and an even longer way to go before they&amp;#x27;re ready for mass consumption.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>codyb</author><text>Can you explain to me how it&amp;#x27;s more useful than a train that carries more people with less energy?&lt;p&gt;Because, to me, it sounds like you just don&amp;#x27;t want to be uncomfortable, and that&amp;#x27;s fine, nobody does, but it doesn&amp;#x27;t make something more useful.</text></comment>