urbanSTL

As a carless individual living in our fair City I hope that they are successful. Would much rather have Waymo than Tesla running trails.

needs a lot of work
Waymo Robotaxi Casually Cruises Through Felony Stop In Progress
[url=http:// https://www.jalopnik.com/2042619/waymo- ... lony-stop/] https://www.jalopnik.com/2042619/waymo- ... lony-stop/[/url]

chris fuller wrote: ↑

Dec 04, 2025

needs a lot of work
Waymo Robotaxi Casually Cruises Through Felony Stop In Progress
[url=http:// https://www.jalopnik.com/2042619/waymo- ... lony-stop/] https://www.jalopnik.com/2042619/waymo- ... lony-stop/[/url]

I would say Waymo is getting a lot farther along then people realize after seeing them in my old neck of the woods, San Fran, and soon to be in my new home, Dallas..   Have to feel for the Uber/Lyft driver when they literally start taking over cities.
Plus the data is what probably won't surprise many is that the technology will be superior driver to the distracted human driver who definitely likes to speed, run red lights and has no patience for their fellow driver.  I'm for one is still a bad diver even on the days I try to be more focus and defensive on the road..  
https://cleantechnica.com/2025/10/24/wa ... e_vignette

https://sf.streetsblog.org/2025/11/24/o ... peed-limit

I still feel like this is little more than a money grab by the coastal tech bros. The only way I could support such a thing is if Bi-State owned and operated them, keeping all the money but the purchase price and parts in the area. How are these being licensed? I'm all in favor of replacing bad and distracted drivers . . . with good transit. Waymo can go the heck home.

^ Definitely understand your point.  I see transit future in Autonomous buses as they are already in the works.   Can see where transit agencies embrace them for corridor specific routes where you would have a significant ridership gain on frequency such Grand Ave where you literally have VA, Arts, Schools and hopefully more density and residential/commercial such Steelecote II on the other side of Grand.   Autonomous buses if done right will finally allow transit agencies to add frequencies with same marginal increase in fleet size without the significant labor cost and its associated long term liabilities (pensions),   

https://www.volvobuses.com/us-en/why-vo ... buses.html

Transit as you would hope for, like a full on national passenger rail system, will require +60% buy in from voters across all political beliefs to almost all the states to even come close to getting the necessary public funds which would probably included publically subsidized Waymo in rural areas.    That is reality.   So I see it as win when we can get specific corridor development & investment, whether VA rail spending 3 billion to get needed infrastructure for crucial 10 miles out of DC and i believe in the near term that smaller transit autonomous fleet investments will bring value in desperately needed frequency. 

Va. Rail Projects to Boost Passenger, Freight Capacity | Engineering News-Record

symphonicpoet wrote: ↑

Dec 04, 2025

I still feel like this is little more than a money grab by the coastal tech bros. The only way I could support such a thing is if Bi-State owned and operated them, keeping all the money but the purchase price and parts in the area. How are these being licensed? I'm all in favor of replacing bad and distracted drivers . . . with good transit. Waymo can go the heck home.

Of course they're trying to make money.  I have no confidence that Bi-State could run a better driverless car operation than Waymo.

We should welcome less pedestrians and bikers and other drivers being hurt & killed. Uber & Lyft is technology from tech bros. Are we concerned they lose out? I don't care if Uber goes away and is replaced by Waymo. 

I don't see the issue with the money part as it is a business after all.   Went from two cars to one car when we moved last year.  To make it work, i take an Uber to/from airport on my constant biz trips and maybe it will be Waymo later next year & my wife commuting via bike because we stayed close to her work.  

But to my point, I'm hopefully spending less overall and we have reduced our auto impact by eliminating the convenience of two cars by giving our money to a tech bro/gig driver instead of giving our money to car dealerships/mechanics/insurance which are all businesses doing the same thing, to make a buck.

Would rather have had our streetcar

Also feels inevitable that rail goes automated in the next 20 years, makes much more sense

keepstlbrick wrote: ↑

Dec 04, 2025

Also feels inevitable that rail goes automated in the next 20 years, makes much more sense

Agree, maybe not Amtrak but closed systems like metrolink/light rail seems likely in the future w a centralized dispatch/human watching over multiple trainsets at once and electrification making automation easier.   Heck, not surprised that some systems like BART in the Bay Area not pushing harder considering their entire system is grade separated from other forms of transportation, mainly roads, if not mistaken.   A more robust form of Positive Train Control now incorporated into most of the freight rail network.  Something airports figured out years ago but also have much smaller and less complex systems to start with.

needs work
Feds ask Waymo about robotaxis repeatedly passing school buses
https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/04/feds-ask-waymo-about-robotaxis-repeatedly-passing-school-buses-in-austin/

dredger wrote: ↑

Dec 04, 2025

But to my point, I'm hopefully spending less overall and we have reduced our auto impact by eliminating the convenience of two cars by giving our money to a tech bro/gig driver instead of giving our money to car dealerships/mechanics/insurance which are all businesses doing the same thing, to make a buck.

There was never a need to give your money to a tech bro. Cab companies were always a thing. The tech bros didn't really invent anything new, they just made it shinier and used that to syphon money out of the system, often by avoiding taxes and fees. I'd be very very surprised indeed if Waymo makes the cost go down long term over Uber and Lyft. People said the same thing about Uber and Lyft relative to taxis: it will be cheaper and more convenient. Well, it was at first. And now  that they're established it isn't. They got a customer base and then raised their prices, and service decayed considerably as drivers left the market after that initial dumping phase when they paid rather better, so now it's about equivalent to a cab. Waymo will be the same. They'll pump and dump at least at first to get a market. And then when they've got one they'll raise prices and cut on maintenance and fleet size to save a buck. It'll end up the same, because that's what the market will pay. If you want it to be better it needs to be a regulated utility.

As to a national rail passenger system, sure I'd love that. But it absolutely isn't what I mean by transit. I use transit to mean local mass transportation. Transit agencies like Bi-State running systems like Metro. Amtrak is a rail system. A terrible one, but a rail system nonetheless. If Amtrak is transit, then so is American Airlines. Or Greyhound. And I don't think anyone would call them that. Cabs and trains are both transit adjacent, but they're both different. I think there's a good argument cabs should be run by transit agencies, since they are quite local and the agencies could regulate them, make them more equitable, control the prices, and keep the wages fair in a way that the silicon invaders never will. And that wouldn't require a 60% buy in at the national level, just a local law regulating local business. It couldn't make private ride share companies go away, but it could use incentives and subsidies to provide an alternative that makes them unattractive, which would be good enough for me. Essentially it would be expanding call-a-ride and making it open to everyone, using autonomous vehicles. And for what it's worth, Alphabet will have to license their tech out soonish, as the exclusivity period on the patents will run out, so it will be entirely possible to do that.

^ Would have to agree that I never have to give my dollar to a tech bro for my transportation needs  but my experience in life and more specifically in my business travel is that Uber/Lyft has been a whole lot more reliable, consistent and easier to get rides in wide variety of places.    I still use taxis but generally from airport to hotels when going to meetings, etc.. and even then some airports have a lot more availability than others.      Going back to airport depends a lot on where I'm staying.   But generally, I think taxi's were slow to and or didn't react to smart phone/technology and paid a price because of it..  Maybe they did but the damage has been done.   

^To tell you the truth the only places I take them regularly are here and Vietnam. Here they're fine. In Vietnam they're good, even. Most other places I either take transit, when I am able, or rent a car when that won't work.

Glad they weren't around for the tornado.

SF Gate - Waymo temporarily suspends service in SF amid power outage

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/ ... 254917.php

They aren’t ready yet. I lived through the Waymo intro in SF, the move to truly autonomous, and now expansion. every time I go back to SF I see something they do that is unsafe.


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tztag wrote: ↑

4:23 AM - Jan 07

They aren’t ready yet.  I lived through the Waymo intro in SF, the move to truly autonomous, and now expansion. every time I go back to SF I see something they do that is unsafe.  

So... like every time I drive with real people on St. Louis streets? 

Not defending Waymo at all, for the record - I've not been around them to see or experience their driving yet.  Do you think they're better, worse, or just different safety-wise than your typical human driver?

-RBB

One main difference when comparing to human drivers is that Waymos often seem to make hesitations or stop moving in situations where most humans would not i.e. in construction areas, whenever someone directing traffic is involved, making very hesitant turning motions, blocking intersections/lanes when incorrectly detecting obstacles, etc. 

By sheer coincidence, I saw my first Waymo last night at about 10:30 pm driving down Park Ave between Jefferson and Grand.

-RBB

tztag wrote: ↑

4:23 AM - Jan 07

They aren’t ready yet.  I lived through the Waymo intro in SF, the move to truly autonomous, and now expansion. every time I go back to SF I see something they do that is unsafe.  


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Would beg to differ.   Lived in Bay Area for 15 years before our latest move and would say that from my experience that people driving through a  city is downright scary.   As a pedestrian or bike rider I would take not so perfect waymo over a human driver any day of the week.   Heck, anyone on this blog should pick a Waymo driving through a city then having me behind the wheel in all honesty.       

At the Consumer Electronics Show that just ended in Las Vegas, conventioneers got to ride the Elon Musk Vegas Loop or Tesla Loop.  It is a tunnel that goes from one end of the sprawling convention center to the other for now.  Chauffeurs drive Teslas with up to 3 passenger in the car currently.  Later, they intend to make the cars autonomous.  Here is a 2.5 minute YouTube video a conventioneer recorded a few days ago.  Eventually, they plan to expand the tunnels including out to the airport.  Musk Boring Company.

gary kreie wrote: ↑

11:01 PM - Jan 12

At the Consumer Electronics Show that just ended in Las Vegas, conventioneers got to ride the Elon Musk Vegas Loop or Tesla Loop.  It is a tunnel that goes from one end of the sprawling convention center to the other for now.  Chauffeurs drive Teslas with up to 3 passenger in the car currently.  Later, they intend to make the cars autonomous.  Here is a 2.5 minute YouTube video a conventioneer recorded a few days ago.  Eventually, they plan to expand the tunnels including out to the airport.  Musk Boring Company.

I thought they already had some that went to different hotels.


They also are planning to build one from the Nashville airport to downtown

It's a complete joke. As with many Elmo things mostly hype that never materializes.