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> Do people actually buy into the absurdity of humanoid robots and robotaxis? Have you ever taken a Waymo? You see them on every street in SF now.

by reustle 11mo ago

dghlsakjg 11mo ago
I've never even seen a Waymo and I haven't left North America for half a decade. Popular in SF does not mean inevitable everyhwere. It remains to be seen whether robotaxis can 1. scale outside of certain cities 2. make a profit given the apparent teams of actual human remote drivers that robotaxi companies employ to get their robots out of trouble. I would love to see it, but the lack of speed and momentum points to it having some serious growing pains.
- seanmcdirmid 11mo ago
  I rode a few in SF and can’t wait for them to come to Seattle. They don’t use actual human remote drivers, and the support person I spoke to when I had an issue had a Filipino accent, so I’m not sure they were even in the usa (although that totally could have been California also). I don’t think they wound need that many people anyways to do live support. Waymo is definitely being cautious, but the cities they move into seem to all be success stories.
  - dghlsakjg 11mo ago
    They say they don't have drivers, but they do admit to having actual people that solve live issues that the car cannot understand, which seems like a semantic difference to me. If its one support person per 1k cars, its probably a non issue, if its one per 5 cars then its a totally different problem. In any case, the "can it make money" question is still unanswered (at least according to Waymo as of March). https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/20/waymo-ceo-tekedra-mawakana-10-million.html https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/20/waymo-ceo-tekedra-mawakana-1...
    - seanmcdirmid 11mo ago
      If those faults are limited to 1 5 minute session every 20 or so rides, then it isn’t a big deal to cover them.
lm28469 11mo ago
> Have you ever taken a Waymo? You see them on every street in SF now Man I can tell you 99.9999% of people in real life outside of silicon valley tech hubs do not give a single shit about these things. City dwellers are already so disconnected from reality, but silicon valley takes it to a whole other level. Only terminally online tech solutionists get a hard on for these things
- tim333 11mo ago
  I live a long way from silicon valley and think robotaxis are kind of interesting.

> Do people actually buy into the absurdity of humanoid robots and robotaxis? Have you ever taken a Waymo? You see them on every street in SF now.

by reustle 11mo ago

> Do people actually buy into the absurdity of humanoid robots and robotaxis? Have you ever taken a Waymo? You see them on every street in SF now.

dghlsakjg 11mo ago

I've never even seen a Waymo and I haven't left North America for half a decade. Popular in SF does not mean inevitable everyhwere. It remains to be seen whether robotaxis can 1. scale outside of certain cities 2. make a profit given the apparent teams of actual human remote drivers that robotaxi companies employ to get their robots out of trouble. I would love to see it, but the lack of speed and momentum points to it having some serious growing pains.

seanmcdirmid 11mo ago
I rode a few in SF and can’t wait for them to come to Seattle. They don’t use actual human remote drivers, and the support person I spoke to when I had an issue had a Filipino accent, so I’m not sure they were even in the usa (although that totally could have been California also). I don’t think they wound need that many people anyways to do live support. Waymo is definitely being cautious, but the cities they move into seem to all be success stories.
- dghlsakjg 11mo ago
  They say they don't have drivers, but they do admit to having actual people that solve live issues that the car cannot understand, which seems like a semantic difference to me. If its one support person per 1k cars, its probably a non issue, if its one per 5 cars then its a totally different problem. In any case, the "can it make money" question is still unanswered (at least according to Waymo as of March). https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/20/waymo-ceo-tekedra-mawakana-10-million.html https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/20/waymo-ceo-tekedra-mawakana-1...
  - seanmcdirmid 11mo ago
    If those faults are limited to 1 5 minute session every 20 or so rides, then it isn’t a big deal to cover them.

lm28469 11mo ago

> Have you ever taken a Waymo? You see them on every street in SF now Man I can tell you 99.9999% of people in real life outside of silicon valley tech hubs do not give a single shit about these things. City dwellers are already so disconnected from reality, but silicon valley takes it to a whole other level. Only terminally online tech solutionists get a hard on for these things

tim333 11mo ago
I live a long way from silicon valley and think robotaxis are kind of interesting.