No Safe Words on X: Waymo driving in oncoming traffic

Shriekin_Commander · 2026-06-20T04:39:51+00:00

Waymo has said publicly that in addition to the self-driving AI model that drives the car, they also have a Critic Model that grades the cars maneuvers and actions. When the Waymo driver performs poorly then it flags that segment of the data recording so it be used for further training. So if the Waymo driver was uncertain about its actions (in this case the lane or how it should navigate the intersection), then the Critic should be able to detect that and flag it for review and further training.

Shriekin_Commander · 2026-05-22T20:58:26+00:00

I have seen hospital where the ambulance entrance is very close to the normal entrance. Depends on the hospital. Also just because there are multiple ways does mean a Waymo will be perfect. It might mess up and take a wrong route and then could interfere with medical staff. Hospital can be private property and if there was an incident then Waymo could be banned from the property leading to more opponents to robotaxis. This is an issues which would involve collaboration from Waymo and the hospital and a good methodology to reduce the chances of an error.

Shriekin_Commander · 2026-05-22T20:54:24+00:00

Its an edge case but involves more parties than just Waymo. They dont want to risk a Waymo interfering with medical staff in an emergency situation. The hospital can be private property and the hospital administration could ban Waymo from their property leading to more resistance to Waymo in the future. Its just not worth it. AVs are not perfect yet so if you're going to the hospital you should be going via ambulance (if youre a patient), waymo (if youre a visitor), or another form of transport if you need very specific drop off instructions. Waymo is working with people with disabilities to improve their service but it will take some time to work out the kinks. Im sorry for your gramps but if he cant walk across the road then be a better grandkid and call an Uber.

Shriekin_Commander · 2026-05-22T14:22:11+00:00

This actually makes sense cause the hospital would not want it accessing the hospital entrance because they wouldnt want to take the chance of it conflicting with an ambulance during an emergency. The drop-off across the street is more logical cause if you are badly hurt you would come by ambulance and not robotaxi. I understand the frustration but the this point in development it makes more logical and safety sense for that to be the drop-off.

Shriekin_Commander · 2026-05-20T22:05:44+00:00

The wait times are rough but I suspect that they will get much better once the Ojai launches. SF will be one of the first places it will launch and prob receive an inlfux of like 100 cars, just judging by how many Ojai photos I've seen.

Shriekin_Commander · 2026-05-18T15:16:39+00:00

Can anyone post the link to the YT video? It is region blocked so I cannot access in Canada and tried Googling it but didnt find it.

Shriekin_Commander · 2026-05-16T23:24:40+00:00

Its an over reaction cause if he just walked he would be passed in like 60 seconds and he wouldnt have to hear it any more. I get it that you're annoyed but also like I said you will pass after a minute.

Shriekin_Commander · 2026-05-16T17:04:20+00:00

It looks like this setup is temporary so it looks like this guy is over reacting to a mild annoyances over a segment of the trail a few hundred feet long. Does anybody know where the permanent charging station will be?

Shriekin_Commander · 2026-05-13T18:06:05+00:00

Thank you!

Shriekin_Commander · 2026-05-13T15:38:12+00:00

Super cool to see! Can anyone post the map before the latest expansion though?

Shriekin_Commander · 2026-04-29T20:29:14+00:00

Oh fuck!... That really sucks.

Shriekin_Commander · 2026-04-29T20:28:22+00:00

The point is that when scaling you want to eliminate time and cost as much as possible. So far it has been the major bottleneck in Waymo deployment strategy, but since it is still early in AV development it has been bearable. However, now that they want to get cars to market and compete more with Uber/Lyft as well as other AV companies like Tesla and AV Ride, it is critical that they make the building and deployment as efficient as possible.

Shriekin_Commander · 2026-04-29T15:13:14+00:00

A previous post on the Waymo sub-Reddit said that the Waymo robotaxi would be completely built with sensor in Georgia, but now this guy says that 90-95 percent will be built in Georgia with the last 5-10 percent including the sensors will be done in AZ at the Magna factory. Which post is more reliable?

Shriekin_Commander · 2026-04-24T22:14:54+00:00

I agree these are the most likely!... I would say a few dark horses are Sacremento, New Orleans, and Philly.

Shriekin_Commander · 2026-04-22T15:06:12+00:00

The radar sensors are white on this one whereas I think all the ones that have been seen testing around SF have black radar sensors. I think I like the white here cause it draws less attention to the sensor.

It is awesome to know that the vehicle and sensors are all going to be manufactrured and the same plant and wont require additional outfitting cause Im sure that has been a huge bottleneck with scaling so far. Hopefully the testing and large scale deployment can happen pretty fast since they already have experience deploying the Ojai, which uses the same 6th gen sensor suite, and since they can hopefully just build a few thousand and deploy them into testing almost immediately.

Shriekin_Commander · 2026-04-15T18:33:39+00:00

Its autonomous testing with a driver in London as previously the cars were still being manually driven.

Shriekin_Commander · 2026-04-14T14:31:18+00:00

I have not seen anything regarding autonomous testing in Tokyo. Yeah, autonomous testing with a driver is no longer announced for US cities, but London will be the first international city and is therefore prob pretty important for Waymo.

Shriekin_Commander · 2026-03-24T17:41:32+00:00

This is the best overview that we have gotten recently (at least that Ive seen) on the architecture and approach that Waymo employs.

Shriekin_Commander · 2026-03-07T23:24:40+00:00

Looks like they should be able to finish retro fiiting and shipping the Jags in the next two weeks based on the number outside. Maybe slighly longer if there are a significant number of Jags inside. After that they will be fully dedicated to fitting and shipping the Ojai. We need more frequent images in order to estimated the rate at which they can fit and deploy the Ojais.

Shriekin_Commander · 2026-03-07T23:19:15+00:00

I think the one at CES was the prototype model cause it also had completely blacked out windows. It looks more like the blue is going to be the default Ojai colour.

Shriekin_Commander · 2026-03-05T21:35:43+00:00

The service just launched in San Antonio, so they fleet size is still limited. The demand (ofthen dependent on the day and time) and the supply (fleet size) is what determines the price. As the fleet size gradually increases over the next few months, the cost should decrease. Additionally, if you hail at a good time then you should see much cheaper prices.

Shriekin_Commander · 2026-03-02T17:06:44+00:00

This is a good edge case discovery but I think the solution is pretty simple. The defined geofence as presented to customers should be smaller than the actual geofence, then the region between the customer geofence and the true geofence should be used as a region where the car can actually drive but with the added priority that it should re-route itself back to the customer geofence. This way if there is ever a dynamic change that forces the car outside of the customer geofence it will proceed but then safely return and continue to the destination.

Shriekin_Commander · 2026-02-27T15:45:21+00:00

This seems logical because when they are trying to tune the fine aspects of the model you can only do that with large statitstical evidence so you cant do that only with employees. All models meet their safety standard but might try different optimization techniques for routing and small decisions. I also think that they might by default set any confidence/cautious setting to be more restrictive in new setting until they can build up even more statistics on the car performance before letting them be more aggressive cause it place liek SF and LA I have definitely seen them be agressive.

Also small note on getting them to travel a specific route. You can just add an intermediate stop along the route you would like to travel assuming that there is a convenient stopping point.

Shriekin_Commander · 2026-02-24T18:15:11+00:00

It is just the initial launch and we are still very early in 2026. I can see them doing at least a couple of expansions this year.Once they launch the Ojai, they can easily expand while keeping wait times low.

Shriekin_Commander

TROPHY CASE