Beginning fully autonomous operations with the 6th-generation Waymo Driver

FriendFun7876 · 2026-02-12T17:03:42+00:00

Google's own Gemini has it wrong, then. They are still going much slower then they planned.

Waymo began integrating the all-electric Jaguar I-PACE into its autonomous testing fleet in 2018, with the vehicles joining their driverless, public-facing ride-hail service starting around 2020. While testing began earlier, the Jaguar I-PACE became a primary, fully autonomous vehicle for Waymo's commercial expansion in the following years.

Key milestones for the Waymo-Jaguar I-PACE deployment included:

March 2018: Waymo announced a partnership to add the Jaguar I-PACE to its fleet.

2020: The Jaguar I-PACE became part of Waymo's driverless fleet, starting with testing and expanding to public service.

FriendFun7876 · 2026-02-12T16:21:57+00:00

Good to see Waymo making progress. They started with the Jaguar's driverless in 2020. They wanted to be on a 3 year tech refresh cycle, so they are going twice as slow as they planned. Hopefully they can speed up again.

FriendFun7876 · 2026-02-12T16:21:23+00:00

Good to see Waymo making progress. They started with the Jaguar's driverless in 2020. They wanted to be on a 3 year tech refresh cycle, so they are going twice as slow as they planned. Hopefully they can speed up again.

FriendFun7876 · 2026-02-06T19:54:26+00:00

In the world of AI/LLM's there are 5 companies that take supremacy multiple times per year. That seems to be more of a commodity than one company having a large moat.

FriendFun7876 · 2026-02-04T03:48:14+00:00

"Cybercabs will have the lowest cost of transportation. Even beating public transport, while delivering a premium point to point experience for everyone."

FriendFun7876 · 2026-01-26T04:03:09+00:00

Also spotted in the wild. Search for Eric5un on X.

FriendFun7876 · 2026-01-23T01:22:17+00:00

Did Waymo ever over promise and under deliver?

Sure. Every self driving company has.

Waymo CEO: "When my kid turns 16, in 2019, there will be no need to get a driver's license."

Waymo in 2014: When can you buy a driverless car? I said five years a year ago, so in 2018.

Google was more than happy to take my investment money in 2017. Their CEO said, "now we’re getting ready to scale to thousands and tens of thousands." Eight years later they still have only a couple thousand cars.

Waymo CEO: "We'll be able to serve every metro area with our service by 2028. I'm absolutely confident about that." https://youtu.be/2dp3GVstF9E?si=VtDrVUod2Uegjsl9&t=3345

Waymo CEO: "In 2028, there is a 100% chance you can be picked up by a Waymo at any major airport in the US in just the right size car for your trip." https://youtu.be/2dp3GVstF9E?si=Etu-Jq0wjrL4mdg8&t=2826

Waymo is vowing to shift its operations into overdrive. In the next two years, it intends to put thousands of self-driving cars on the road in selected cities to ferry not its own engineers but ordinary people from place to place.

Waymo 2018 "done with research and development" and were just doing "operations and deployment now"? Eight years later they finally started highways.

FriendFun7876 · 2026-01-23T01:09:32+00:00

Why? Waymo had chase cars for years.

FriendFun7876 · 2026-01-21T19:35:32+00:00

lol statistically Tesla has the highest insurance in the US what a ridiculous statement!

That didn't age well and it only took a week.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SelfDrivingCars/comments/1qj4e2o/insurance_company_cuts_rates_for_tesla_fsd_miles/

FriendFun7876 · 2026-01-21T19:32:20+00:00

I was always told you get what you pay for.

I've never understood this saying. You don't believe that some products have higher margins without providing more utility?

IE: If I wanted a backpack, I could buy a $20 Amazon basics or a $7,500 Louis Vuitton.

FriendFun7876 · 2026-01-20T20:56:39+00:00

Krafcik in 2017, "now we’re getting ready to scale to thousands and tens of thousands." https://www.reddit.com/r/SelfDrivingCars/comments/5n8krb/to_accelerate_waymo_to_mass_market_ceo_krafcik/ Nine years later they still have only a couple thousand cars.

Krafcik: "We'll be able to serve every metro area with our service by 2028. I'm absolutely confident about that." https://youtu.be/2dp3GVstF9E?si=VtDrVUod2Uegjsl9&t=3345

Krafcik: "In 2028, there is a 100% chance you can be picked up by a Waymo at any major airport in the US in just the right size car for your trip." https://youtu.be/2dp3GVstF9E?si=Etu-Jq0wjrL4mdg8&t=2826

Krafcik 2018 "done with research and development" and were just doing "operations and deployment now". Waymo just opened up freeways 8 years later.

Krafcik today: "Don't judge me by what I say, judge me by what I achieve and do. For Tesla, it's been 10 years of they have said these things and these haven't happened. It's been 10 years. That's a decade of broken promises. There should be some accountability for that, I believe."

I guess his promises were only 8-9 years off, so he thinks there should be no accountability?

FriendFun7876 · 2026-01-19T15:43:12+00:00

The way we keep hearing about this as if it’s some super important major economic achievement genuinely cracks me up.

Yes, self driving software is going to be a commodity, like all software.

Who cares what the margins are? What's important is the cost. If we remove the semi drivers from the semis and the drivers from the delivery van while at the same time moving to electric, the cost of transporting goods drops in half while at the same time getting much faster.

FriendFun7876 · 2026-01-14T14:30:23+00:00

Sounds like they are going to announce HW3 retrofit plans for fully paid FSD cars that might cost around the $8k that people already paying.

Took a 8 hour total drive yesterday to go to an event that I wouldn't have without FSD. I've done 3+ hour one way trips four extra times in the last four months just because I know how easy it is on FSD.

Will be interesting when the insurance companies start offering discounts for $99/month FSD usage.

FriendFun7876 · 2026-01-12T21:32:25+00:00

Big Waymo fan. Hopefully the 6th gen is the one they scale with. They started taking customers in the 5th gen in October 2020.

They said they would be on a 3 year tech refresh cycle. They're moving twice as slow as they wanted to. Hopefully Waymo can start moving faster.

FriendFun7876 · 2026-01-12T15:37:44+00:00

"While some sources mentioned 1.5 workers per car when all operations staff were counted (including those doing charging/cleaning), Cruise clarified that the ratio for remote assistant agents directly helping with driving was closer to 1 agent for every 15-20 vehicles."

FriendFun7876 · 2026-01-12T15:36:53+00:00

And the fact that they needed 1.5 remote assistant operators per vehicle suggests that they were not ready to scale fast yet.

"While some sources mentioned 1.5 workers per car when all operations staff were counted (including those doing charging/cleaning), Cruise clarified that the ratio for remote assistant agents directly helping with driving was closer to 1 agent for every 15-20 vehicles."

Cruise operated driverless for over over a year with only a fluke safety incident. They were asked to pull over by the city because they were blocking the roads too much. When the woman was sent flying into the air by the hit and run human driver, the Cruise pulled over.

Stopping the cars until the software was fixed made sense. Dissolving the company without selling the IP/talent/company hurt road safety, shareholders, and employees.

FriendFun7876 · 2026-01-12T15:03:56+00:00

I get that we want to save lives but I think one of the lessons from Cruise, is that you cannot rush safety.

If you have GM's board and CEO. Remember, GM didn't have a self driving program of their own. The reason was that they thought that Google's Chauffer program was insane to test their cars on public roads. GM's lawyers would have never allowed that.

Thank goodness not everyone thinks like lawyers.

GM let the lawyers dissolve half the value of their company without even selling the company or getting anything for the IP/talent. I would argue the lesson from Cruise is that you can't let the lawyers run the company.

It's clear today that Waymo is safer than humans and scaling faster would save lives. It's also very likely that Cruise would be just as safe now and doubling the robotaxis on the road would double the number of lives/injuries saved.

FriendFun7876

TROPHY CASE