That would probably be enough to make me turn the system off.

I've thought about turning off the system. It is annoying and you never really get used to it. I have left it on because I keep thinking one day it might save my ass.

Every rental car I've driven for the past few years does this. It's annoying. But then I figured I should be signaling anyway, so I just gave in.

That is just automatic for me, even on these back roads with no other traffic.

I used to say, up in New England/Boston that nobody uses turn signals because they would giving away their intentions. They are just crazy aggressive drivers.

People turning on their turn signal one second before they turn is annoying as hell.

Too many lazy drivers.

For sure. And then you have some old folks that signal a mile ahead of the intended turn.

I have been thinking about those Boston drivers off and on today since my post as it used to be a real issue to deal with about one or two weeks a year .

Up there, it is competitive driving so to speak. If you can advance one spot in traffic by not letting the rest know what you are doing, it is a win! Surprise attack!

Maybe this driver assist was designed with them in mind?

I go the other way in normal LA commuter traffic (idiot weekend traffic is a whole different story). I signal when there's a gap and basically force them to be a dick to not let me in. 19 times out of 20 they slow down to let you get in.

Yeah I've been surprised by dick drivers enough I started religiously using my blinkers years ago.

Blinkers are a declaration of intent, not a request for permission.

I've been in 4 accidents in my life (one of them almost took me out) and none of them were remotely my fault and every one of them involved a woman driver. If these things can prevent women from driving I'm all in.


Women are horrible drivers. Nothing anyone will say will convince me otherwise. I'd take a drunk driving man over a sober woman.

How odd, I've been in none.
Maybe you should have learned defensive driving in L.A. too.

We can even swing an Impala across 7 lanes while holding a blunt and a glock.

Which one does your dominant hand hold?

I have a cute little scar on my hand when i was bitten for shooting left handed.

Now I hold both in my mouth.
Way more intimidating.

Hey, I'm not saying all women drivers I'm just saying if shit is going to go wrong behind the wheel there's very good odds it's going to be a woman. Don't judge me until you've had to replace a vehicle or spend time in the hospital with one common denominator as the factor.


Woman! :D

I'm really sorry you got hurt, Otter, you know that.

But if you men did your job we wouldn't have to drive and we could just work on pies and blowjobs.

I like homemade pizza better than pie and well, the blowjobs, they go without saying.


Keep being a safe driver gumdrop.

There are millions of male drivers out there and millions of female drivers out there. I am positive there are some female drivers who have been involved in more accidents than you....and each time it was a male driver who was at fault. Those women would be justified in believing that men are bad drivers.

In statistics this is called dimensionality. Now this isn't saying you are lying about your experience....there is no reason the believe that......even if women drivers were as good as male drivers...happenstance would require there be some male drivers who experienced multiple women at fault accidents.

If you actually experienced what you claim, you have good reason to be suspect of women drivers....you should expect your experiences to by typical. However your testimony isn't necessarily a good reason for everyone else to be suspect of women drivers because we should expect a certain number of males drivers to have really bad luck with women drivers. We expect that out of millions of male drivers, some will have have atypical experiences.

You need to be in a position of leadership.

I don't know why I just now realized this but better late than never...

Bought a new Model Y so comes with 3 months of free Full Self Driving. Doubt Ill keep it but it will be fascinating.

Apple lays off over 600 employees in California after abandoning electric car project


Apple is laying off 614 employees in California after abandoning its electric car project. According to the WARN notice posted by the California Employment Development Department, Apple notified the affected employees on March 28 and the changes will go into effect on May 27. Affected employees worked at eight locations in Santa Clara, roughly 45 miles south of San Francisco.

Although the notice doesn’t specify which projects the employees were working on, Bloomberg reports that most of the affected employees were working at buildings related to its canceled car project, while others were working at a facility for its next-generation screen development.

Apple wound down both of these projects toward the end of February. The company started working on its car project, known internally as “Project Titan,” in 2014, and told employees that it was canceling it on February 27. Bloomberg reported at the time that some remaining employees who were working on the car project would be shifted to Apple’s generative AI projects.

Around the same time, Apple reportedly ended efforts to design and develop its own next-generation displays. The displays were supposed to be added to the company’s Apple Watch before potentially going into the company’s other devices.

The layoffs mark Apple’s first major round of job cuts post-pandemic.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/05/ap...ric-car-plans/

Update yer' will and life insurance...

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="et" dir="ltr">Tesla Robotaxi unveil on 8/8</p>— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1776351450542768368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 5, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Here's a good video about Tesla's self-driving feature. Apparently they've made great strides recently to improve the software.

Sorry, can't embed.

https://youtu.be/IupDr44R4fc?si=0o78XqjAgaBE9YXS

I have a Y and I got the update a couple of days ago. Tried it on the freeway and I MUCH prefer autopilot to FSD. FSD attempted a couple of lane changes that I was uncomfortable making. Both times when there was a car coming up doing a higher speed than me. It would be the type of lane change that would have pissed of the person. It also decided to get out of the carpool lane miles ahead of an interchange where I would be going from one freeway to another.

I changed back to autopilot after one drive. I may give it a try on city streets or use the summon feature just to see what it's like, but I wouldn't spend a dime on it and am very glad I didn't buy it when I got my Y new. It was $7,500 at the time and I would consider that throwing $7,500 away.

I've always been in the camp that driverless cars will change everything, but it will take longer than the boosters imagine.

If every car on the road, driverless or not, had some sort of short range transponder, announcing it speed and position, etc. That would make driverless cars safer and more viable.

I'm a bigger privacy type than most, and I think this is a good idea.

After almost getting killed walking at night after leaving a bar...

I would like an app on my phone that would announce my location to cars.

I agree. FSD seems to struggle knowing driving etiquette too sometimes. The biggest issue I had so far is one that isn't surprising but in a construction area on the highway we had zippered into one lane and there were cones but not many. They had us all in the far right lane and the 3 left lanes were open. FSD kept wanting to change lanes to go around the cars into the vacant lanes lol

But one of the goals of the trial FSD is to gather data. The more it is used, the better it gets and more information is sent to Tesla for them to use to make it better and for AI to improve it as well.

I'm definitely not planning to buy it for 12k when the trial ends, but I'll definitely keep using Autopilot. I just wish AP did automatic lane changes when I tell it to.

I was using AP on a drive Saturday and it definitely helped to avoid an accident. Traffic was flowing and I noticed a car stranded on the left shoulder two lanes over. I was distracted for maybe one second when some moron moves into my lane and slows to about 10 mph. AP hit the brakes hard before I could and then I took over. Might have been an insurance scam or just an idiot.

Yeah one thing I trust autopilot to do better than me is to not hit the car in front of me that is in my lane and not going outside of the lane at least when the road is straight. It is REALLLY helpful in those instances.

One time I was using it on a 45 mph road and I was looking left at a car that was thinking about darting out. Well there was a dumbass to my right trying to cross FIVE LANES of traffic from one side of the road to the other during a busy day and I absolutely did not see them because I was looking left and Autopilot did avoid an accident there. But there are times where I let my guard down so to speak and I'll hit debris in the road...but these aren't deadly occurences at least.

They have driverless taxis called Waymo testing in SF and in Vegas. Got a glimpse of this a couple weeks ago when I was there. To your point I think it will work once all the cars are interconnected and talking to each other — it’s the rogue human driver that is the problem.

Of course once we let the computers control our travel and AI infiltrates them we are doomed.

You might want to check out post 162 in this thread. Not sure if anything has changed.

Well it's the rogue human driver, you can take my license away and let AI control everything over my dead body.

And AI driverless cars are fine once they are 100 times safer than those rogue human drivers...

But otherwise, driverless cars are here in 2018, I mean just around the corner.

they're not cars, they're mobile computer pods.

FYP

Do not comply

Your new robotaxi is only human after all.

On Tuesday, Cruise announced it would resume service in select markets, starting in Phoenix, after a five-month hiatus following an accident last year in which one of its vehicles ran over a pedestrian. The catch? Cruise’s robotaxis will now be in “manual mode” — meaning an actual human will be behind the wheel, driving the car as its computers gather more information on the local roads. We’ll be taking yellow cabs again at this point.


Posted from 1440 digest

Waymo ditches the waitlist and opens up its robotaxis to everyone in San Francisco


Waymo is opening up its robotaxi service to anyone who wants to ride in San Francisco. Previously, customers interested in taking a ride in one of the company’s driverless cars needed to sign up for a waitlist, which could take weeks or months to open up.

Waymo began its commercial test service in the city in August 2021 with a rollout to “trusted testers” — preapproved riders, some of whom were asked to sign nondisclosure agreements. In March 2022, Waymo began offering driverless rides for its staff. Since then its been giving rides to regular people who sign up for its waitlist, which the company says approximately 300,000 people have done since it first launched.

Now, Waymo’s driverless ridehail service will be available to anyone who downloads the app and requests a ride. This is similar to how Waymo operates its robotaxi service in Phoenix, which has been open to the public without a waitlist since 2020. And it comes at a time when Waymo is trying to cement its lead in the robotaxi industry, as some of its competitors are hamstrung by mishaps or a need to keep testing.

Waymo is trying to cement its lead in the robotaxi industry

Waymo has been operating in the Bay Area for years, slowly expanding its service area and introducing more driverless vehicles to its fleet. The fact that it’s now opening up its service to all residents of San Francisco — population 808,437 — is a sign of growing confidence from the Google spinoff.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/25/2...cisco-app-ride

...

https://www.thewrap.com/wp-content/u...5.59.05-PM.png

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Cheers to millions and millions of trips! We’re thrilled to celebrate a huge milestone: over 2 million paid rider-only trips completed. Thanks to your support, Waymo One is reaching new heights as we rewrite the future of transportation. <a href="https://t.co/uNmzXmQMcv">pic.twitter.com/uNmzXmQMcv</a></p>— Waymo (@Waymo) <a href="https://twitter.com/Waymo/status/1816866067232202972?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 26, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Those things are everywhere in Arizona. Have yet to ride in one.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/To20sz06wbU?si=AelmkscqXbjj82I6" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Damn software bug...

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-ne...ash-rcna157030

Robotaxi company Waymo has voluntarily recalled software in all its 672 self-driving vehicles, according to a safety recall report released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The report said that on May 21, a Waymo vehicle driving in Phoenix hit a utility pole while attempting a low-speed pullover maneuver. There were no passengers in the car or injuries related to the crash, according to the report, only damage to the car.

The passenger the Waymo car was supposed to pick up told NBC affiliate KPNX of Phoenix last month that she was visiting Phoenix and wanted to try out the service. She said she heard the sound of the crash as she waited for her ride, which never arrived.

The report noted that the defective software could potentially pose issues in situations where a “pole-like object” was present but there was no hard road edge between the pole and the drivable surface.

Waymo estimated that 100% of its cars had the defect that caused the crash, according to the NHTSA report, which contributed to the decision to recall the software in all its cars. Waymo controls all its cars and said that it has issued updates to address the issue in its entire fleet, according to the report.

...If you drive a car made by General Motors and it has an internet connection, your car’s movements and exact location are being collected and shared anonymously with a data broker.

This practice, disclosed in a letter sent by Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon and Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts to the Federal Trade Commission on Friday, is yet another way in which automakers are tracking drivers, often without their knowledge
...

One of the surprising findings of an investigation by Mr. Wyden’s office was just how little the automakers made from selling driving data. According to the letter, Verisk paid Honda $25,920 over four years for information about 97,000 cars, or 26 cents per car. Hyundai was paid just over $1 million, or 61 cents per car, over six years...

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/26/t...r-pennies.html

Imagine if we got a news story every time a human hit something with their car

Read an article the last couple of days about Waymo or whatever you call it, making a good profit. It's coming.

Want to have a driverless car as get this, my phobia is fear of the freeways! As crazy as it sounds.

Political/legal/social hurdles are a big problem, although not the only problem.

Driverless cars with 1/10 the accident and fatality rate might not be acceptable in this country.

Although a crowdstrike update turning off millions and millions of computers within hours doesn't reassure me about turning over millions of tons of metal moving at 70 mph to automated systems...

Coming?

Dude it's been here for two years.

I see 20 a day. One of their parking pods is across the street in a business park. White Jaguars.

I've taken a few rides. They observe the speed limit so everyone passes you.

Not on the highways yet.

Being off the grid I only read about this stuff. I do remember you saying you have used them.

Waymo’s robotaxis are now available to everyone in Los Angeles


Waymo is ditching its waitlist in Los Angeles, much like it did before in Phoenix and San Francisco, making its fully autonomous vehicles available to anyone who downloads the company’s Waymo One app.

There are still some geographic limitations with which to contend: Waymo only operates within 80 square miles of Los Angeles County, which includes neighborhoods such as Hollywood, Chinatown, Westwood, Marina del Rey, Mar Vista, and Playa Vista.

Still, it was a sign of the company’s growing confidence in its technology, especially after securing a record $5.6 billion investment round, led by its parent company, Alphabet, to help fund its next phase of growth. Waymo recently said it was conducting 150,000 paid trips and driving over 1 million fully autonomous miles every week.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/12/...ent=newsletter

Cruise to slash workforce by nearly 50% after GM cuts funding to robotaxi operations
 

Autonomous vehicle company Cruise is laying off “nearly” 50% of its workforce — cuts that extend to the CEO and several other top executives — as it prepares to shut down operations. What remains of Cruise will move under parent company General Motors as the automaker directs its resources toward improving its hands-free driver assistance system Super Cruise — and eventually rolls out personal autonomous vehicles.

The layoffs were announced by Craig Glidden, Cruise’s president and chief administrative officer, according to a companywide email that TechCrunch has viewed and verified with sources. Individuals who were affected received a separate email from Cruise Chief Human Resources Officer Nilka Thomas.

CEO Marc Whitten will depart from Cruise this week, along with Thomas, Chief Safety Officer Steve Kenner, and Global Head of Public Policy Rob Grant.

Mo Elshenawy, Cruise’s chief technologist, will stay on through the end of April to help with the transition.

“As a result of the change in strategy we announced in December, today we will part with nearly 50% of our Cruise employee base, through a reduction in force,” the email from Glidden reads. “Anyone who has been through a reduction knows that days like this are extremely difficult, and today is no different. With our move away from the ride-hail business and toward providing autonomous vehicles to customers alongside GM, our staffing and resource needs have dramatically changed. Today’s actions align our teams to our new needs, and focus our efforts on continuing to build world-class AV technology.”

As of January 2024, Cruise employed about 2,100 people, according to sources who based the estimates on the number of members on a Slack channel for company announcements. That means more than 1,000 employees might have been impacted by the layoffs.

“Cruise shared the difficult decision to part ways with approximately 50% of its workforce,” the company wrote in an emailed statement. “We are grateful for their passion and contributions to help us reach this stage, and our focus is on supporting them into their next chapter with severance packages and career support. While not an easy decision, we are focused on combining efforts with General Motors to accelerate autonomy at scale on personal autonomous vehicles.”

https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/04/cr...78644b3aaad4a0

Waymo moving into Houston
 

This should be a good test for the driverless cars as I hear Houston has horrible traffic.

Waymo One begins autonomous rides in Austin, Texas, exclusively through Uber

Starting today, the fully autonomous Waymo One ride service is available exclusively to customers in Austin, Texas through the Uber app. Today’s news builds upon Waymo’s existing partnership with Uber and is a milestone in the robotaxi startup’s expansion to new cities around the US.

As promised, robotaxi developer Waymo is expanding its Waymo One service to new US cities. While much of the world is still not completely sold on the plausibility of full-fledged robotaxi operations across major metropolitan areas, Waymo is trekking forward in its operations and has the data to prove it is, in fact, safer in many ways.
https://electrek.co/2025/03/04/waymo...78644b3aaad4a0

I admit that I am fascinated by this technology. And I believe this can be a good thing. Still, it is always in the back of my mind how this could be turned into a very bad thing by someone hacking their cars.

Waymo has been available In Austin, tx for awhile but just announced yesterday they are now available through the UBER app. Pretty much limited to the downtown area though

From my understanding it's a fairly small area they will be operating in... I'd give one a try just to see what it is like.

waymo's all over phoenix



Good luck in the snow.

Yes, it is my understanding they have stuck to snow free environments and places that they have mapped in very high detail.
A great start and an impressive accomplishment. Still a ways to go before a truly driverless society.
The hacking or just software failure is, or at least should be, a concern.

The other thing that killed me is-that is a lot of technology on and in a car. I am sure they are electric, but makes it heavier.

Would love to know the cost to run one.

You're looking for 5 nines of reliability. 99.999% reliable.

It's such a vehicle existed and it was big enough I just live in it.

Early this morning I drove from Tempe to the Scottsdale Airpark to pick up my mail. Without exaggeration I passed and saw at least 12 or more Waymo Jaguars out making the rounds.

Nice......

Body by Plymouth....
Soul by Satan....

Is that the car from Christine?