
California lets self-driving startup Zoox offer autonomous rides - T-A
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-zoox-selfdriving/california-lets-self-driving-startup-zoox-offer-autonomous-rides-idUSKCN1OK2AK
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fergie
"the robot cars will not be unleashed without human oversight. Regulators are
requiring that a backup test driver remain in the driver’s seat to take over
if necessary. Zoox is also not allowed to charge passengers, keeping the
prospect of a profitable business model elusive."

~~~
Fricken
There is another permit for fully driverless operations, which California
introduced in April this year. Waymo got their fully driverless operators
permit in late October, and to my knowledge they're the only company to even
apply for it.

~~~
speedplane
Waymo is the only driverless car company that I even remotely trust.

I went to a conference where Uber was presenting, two months before the
incident where they killed a pedestrian. Their entire presentation focused on
providing a public service to improve safety. It was so over the top on feel-
good-make-the-world-a-better-safe-place, you couldn't believe a word of it. If
they really cared about safety, they would be adding safety features to cars
already operated by humans (e.g., automatic breaking, warnings when you veer
out of your lane, cameras, etc). They wouldn't try to take the giant step of
removing the human.

Their presentation was such BS, that it was clear they couldn't be trusted.
Then two months later, it was confirmed.

~~~
mecklenberg
Zoox presentation in the NeurIPS Intelligent Transportation Systems workshop
was similarly cringeworthy. First half was them going over the numbers of auto
fatalities worldwide and how they should be eliminated, followed by very
little information on how they would even come close to human level
performance on the task.

~~~
Fricken
That describes everybody's safety talks and voluntary safety reports,
including Waymo's. They all spout the same platitudes.

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CPLX
My favorite way to figure out if I’m looking at a driverless car is to look
and see if there’s a driver in it.

~~~
Shivetya
but hasn't it been shown that other drivers are more comfortable if they see a
driver? I keep remembering back to Total Recall's Johnny Cab. Surely it will
be legislated that other than not having an obvious driver autonomous cars
should have some visible identification that they are indeed autonomous.

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HillaryBriss
article points out that 62 companies are licensed to test self-driving cars in
California currently. (testing is not the same as offering autonomous rides.)

so, if i judge by analogy to what's happened in the human-driven space (e.g.
Uber, Lyft, and ? i don't even know who else), i'll go out on a limb and say
that roughly 60 of these 62 will eventually just go away.

~~~
Fricken
The list includes most of the world's major automakers, a bunch of tier 1s,
several major chipmakers, and Apple. Things would have to get pretty bad for
all but 2 to go away.

[https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/vr/autonomous/permi...](https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/vr/autonomous/permit)

~~~
LoSboccacc
They will all license from the winner of the autonomous race. Regulation will
come at them fast as failure modes get discovered. Wouldn't surprise me if
they'd get faa level of certification required within the following two
decade. That will strangle newcomers and stragglers, cementing the working
solution in the market

~~~
ghaff
>faa level of certification required within the following two decade

If that's the case (and I'm not saying it isn't), you then probably need
maintenance and update processes on par with commercial aviation. And that
probably implies certified organizations renting/leasing vehicles only. And,
at that point, you're probably cheaper just to have a minimum wage human
driver.

Mainstream self-driving implies that people can buy cars at a similar price
point that they can today and maintain them in the same loosey goosey way that
many people also do today.

~~~
LoSboccacc
Well yes, it is certainly going to be a retirement, a even just a dirty sensor
is going to be a showstopper issue or a security risk, so I imagine those
vehicles are going to need significant maintenance

