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0 pointsmjr002y ago0 comments

And with all these restrictions on something as simple as intra-city transport, keep in mind the massive investment in autonomous vehicles 5-10 years ago was toward the ultimate goal of replacing humans in long-haul trucking and related logistics. Even if Waymo could place fully autonomous taxis into every city in America, that consolation prize wouldn't nearly make up for the shortfall of not taking over the logistics industry as was hoped.

City-bound autonomous vehicles are still far away for the reasons you point out, but autonomous long-haul trucking is back to being a sci-fi pipe dream at this point.

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smcin2y ago

I haven't been following autonomous long-haul trucking, why is it "back to being a sci-fi pipe dream at this point"? Again, is that primarily a technology vs safety story, or is it a political issue due to organized pushback from sections that oppose it?

(also does anyone have current data on the viable market size of driverless rideshare vs driverless delivery vs drone delivery vs helicopter taxis vs autonomous long-haul trucking)?

> "Even if Waymo could place fully autonomous taxis into every city in America, that consolation prize wouldn't nearly make up for the shortfall of not taking over the logistics industry as was hoped."

I want to decouple discussion to what's actually technically and politically achievable (within say 5 yrs), versus whatever story Waymo was telling its shareholders 5-10 yrs ago.

flutas2y ago

> I haven't been following autonomous long-haul trucking, why is it "back to being a sci-fi pipe dream at this point"? Again, is that primarily a technology vs safety story, or is it a political issue due to organized pushback from sections that oppose it?

I think it's a mix.

Waymo cancelled their self driving truck division recently to focus on ride share[0].

They're most likely feeling push back from someone over self driving trucks, but I wonder if the bigger thing is liability and dangers around the weight it would be hauling. They already have had one of their trucks be ran off the road by another semi already and haven't released ANY statements about it.[1]

[0]: https://waymo.com/blog/2023/07/doubling-down-on-waymo-one.ht...

[1]: https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/01/behind-the-scenes-of-waymo...

riku_iki2y ago

> goal of replacing humans in long-haul trucking and related logistics

I am wondering if it is reasonable goal, what share driver's payroll takes from total logistics expenses(vehicle + maintenance cost, gasoline, last mile logistics: loading/unloading truck and storage, delivering package to final recipient).

PopePompus2y ago

Why is long-haul a pipe dream now. It seems to me that long-haul is a simpler problem than city driving. Did some insurmountable problem pop up that I haven't heard about?

EricDeb2y ago

I have the same question

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