I think it will be interesting to see how this plays out for Waymo, as (unlike Uber in Zagreb) they will be competing with a world-class public transport system. A bold move! But perhaps that only goes to show how far ahead of the competition Waymo is, if they are this confident.
Uber is doing fine in Munchen as well, afaik. There are still people who want to pay a premium for them to be picked up where they are and dropped off where they need to be.
How? The traffic is the movement of vehicles. Can you save traffic by increasing the volume of trafficked things? How would AI vehicle coordination work with non-AI participants (i.e. meatbags)
I didn't want to discuss it further, and I also don't think this is a priority for Google, but I don't think that humans need as many cars as there are to go places. Key to reducing traffic would be to stop blocking huge parts of dense cities with parked vehicles, and ultimately, drastically reduce the number of personally owned vehicles.
People don't pay for the external costs of their vehicles, so it should be required to use vehicles efficiently.
This is not a technological question, but a political, and Google ain't going to solve it without an incentive.
But autonomous vehicles could in theory transform car traffic by huge amounts in dense areas, without sacrificing mobility. Munich is a metropolitan area.
The biggest hindrance to mobility in large cities are usually cars and car infrastructure themselves, because the incentives from countries and for companies are to waste space and energy, and subsidize that.
Ride sharing with autonomous vehicles could reduce need for private cars enormously. Not that I think it's gonna happen in Munich because of Google now.
The technology could just help with it.
Alas, Sorry, I wrote quite a bit already, but I don't want to expand on this repetitive discussion for my own sanity.
And yeah, when people want to have many cars and money can be made by building many cars, even subsidized by the state, the we will continue to block more space with them and build more.
"Meatbags" want it, since the successful lobbying of automotive industry to subordinate all public space and resources in the first half of the 20th century.
In the current phase it just displaces the need for taxi labor. In the long term, you could technically remove all signage and have V2V communication to define vehicle movement without ever stopping. Example you could make an intersection where cars zigzag through each other instead of stopping.
All this being said, it’s no replacement for competent mass transit.
so waymo/Munich is in fact the second in the EU; also they are playing it safe
> In the coming weeks, you’ll start to see Waymo vehicles on the streets of Munich where we’ll begin driving manually across the city. We are taking a rigorous, phased approach that starts with high-definition mapping of local street networks and testing with trained autonomous specialists behind the wheel. This validation period will ensure the Waymo Driver adapts seamlessly to Munich’s distinct driving conditions before we aim to open commercial ride-hailing to the public towards the end of 2027.
I've learned to be wary of these cars in the bay area, they seem to cut it close often, and they get stuck because they're not L5. I hope municipalities know what they're getting.
In the not-so-distant future, you’ll be able to book a trip from your front door to any other front door in the world in 1 ticket/payment.
Imagine not even having to switch vessels with the vehicle morphing from freeway driving to personal flight even to in-town or scenic driving (or flight) with different routes, handling and displays.
I’d like to float around in a bubble, like Glinda the good witch
AI vehicle coordination (and autonomous driving) could save so much traffic.
But before I get into a rant here: Munich seems like the perfect city for this beta, and I wish them loads of success.
Munich has wide streets, affluent population, and a freshly elected progressive government.
People don't pay for the external costs of their vehicles, so it should be required to use vehicles efficiently.
This is not a technological question, but a political, and Google ain't going to solve it without an incentive.
But autonomous vehicles could in theory transform car traffic by huge amounts in dense areas, without sacrificing mobility. Munich is a metropolitan area.
The biggest hindrance to mobility in large cities are usually cars and car infrastructure themselves, because the incentives from countries and for companies are to waste space and energy, and subsidize that.
Ride sharing with autonomous vehicles could reduce need for private cars enormously. Not that I think it's gonna happen in Munich because of Google now.
The technology could just help with it.
Alas, Sorry, I wrote quite a bit already, but I don't want to expand on this repetitive discussion for my own sanity.
And yeah, when people want to have many cars and money can be made by building many cars, even subsidized by the state, the we will continue to block more space with them and build more.
"Meatbags" want it, since the successful lobbying of automotive industry to subordinate all public space and resources in the first half of the 20th century.
All this being said, it’s no replacement for competent mass transit.
also, uber (in partnership with pony.ai and verne, a Croatian startup) launched robotaxis in Zagreb a week ago https://www.reuters.com/technology/uber-launches-autonomous-...
so waymo/Munich is in fact the second in the EU; also they are playing it safe
> In the coming weeks, you’ll start to see Waymo vehicles on the streets of Munich where we’ll begin driving manually across the city. We are taking a rigorous, phased approach that starts with high-definition mapping of local street networks and testing with trained autonomous specialists behind the wheel. This validation period will ensure the Waymo Driver adapts seamlessly to Munich’s distinct driving conditions before we aim to open commercial ride-hailing to the public towards the end of 2027.
Imagine not even having to switch vessels with the vehicle morphing from freeway driving to personal flight even to in-town or scenic driving (or flight) with different routes, handling and displays.
I’d like to float around in a bubble, like Glinda the good witch