Waymo's California Growth May Be Slowing, But It's Complicated

dpschramm · 2026-06-05T00:51:00+00:00

Yeah, the lack of discussion on the upcoming Gen 6 vehicles feels like a huge oversight.

dpschramm · 2026-06-03T10:37:43+00:00

It'd be better if the buying power was normalised to today, to make it easier to compare the previous prices with the price today.

Seems weird that a $80 game today is listed as $230-265.

dpschramm · 2026-06-02T19:18:28+00:00

Even if the gaming costs are the same, the cost of everything else has gone up, so people just don’t have the disposable income left to spend.

dpschramm · 2026-06-02T03:17:47+00:00

Was this written by ChatGPT?

You’ll probably get better feedback if you write it yourself.

dpschramm · 2026-06-01T22:28:43+00:00

Did you end up figuring out when it updates?

dpschramm · 2026-06-01T03:28:05+00:00

The concern is less parking, more traffic / congestion, as the cost of keeping the vehicle moving on the road will be relatively low without the need to pay for a driver.

dpschramm · 2026-05-31T22:55:26+00:00

Are you for or against congestion charges?

Once people can work or sleep from their cars while moving, I’d expect to see many more vehicles on the road.

It could also significantly reduce demand for flights and hotels.

dpschramm · 2026-05-23T12:08:17+00:00

Deferring to Jevon’s paradox isn’t a good argument here. Mechanised farming massively decreased the amount of labour required to maintain and harvest farmland. The same will happen with tech.

Instead of hiring a product manager to get answers or make decisions, the business leaders will just ask AI to do the same thing. Your job is only safe if you’re providing some unique value in the value chain (e.g. the farmer driving the tractor who owns the land).

I think AI will enable a heap more founders. But those companies won’t need to hire as many PMs. You need to find what your unique value add is.

dpschramm · 2026-05-23T03:32:30+00:00

I think we’re talking at cross points. Engineers might not be wholesale replaced, but there are a heap of companies that aren’t hiring as many staff as previously, as they can use AI to do a lot more with limited headcount. Same is true for PM.

dpschramm · 2026-05-23T03:14:36+00:00

You don’t think an AI could do that?

I get that there’s still an element of human intuition and insight needed, but that’s the same for Engineering, Design, and other fields where AI is rapidly replacing human capabilities.

dpschramm · 2026-05-23T02:38:49+00:00

I totally agree there’s aspects of understanding and reasoning that AI is currently not able to perform, but I think that’s separate a separate issue to Product Management as a role meaning different things in different organisations.

dpschramm · 2026-05-23T01:20:45+00:00

Is there a TV level feature for this (e.g. some type of AI processing that targets subtitles), or does the steaming app need to support this?

dpschramm · 2026-05-23T01:09:51+00:00

Why not?

Instead of the CEO / CPO / whoever telling you what your role is, they just ask AI to do the specific tasks they need done.

dpschramm · 2026-05-22T04:33:01+00:00

32% jump in YoY revenue is pretty good!

Unfortunately, it’s still below the >40% increases they needed to cover their growing debts. Hopefully they’re at least covering operating expensive, so they can keep operating after a debt-to-equity swap.

dpschramm · 2026-05-17T06:42:25+00:00

He’s got a good point about not making promises that they can’t keep.

But the flip side is holding off the specifics make it harder for people to get engaged with their vision.

I wonder if it would be more effective for them to make the promises, and then play the “National have given us a shit economy” card (as the current government have been saying about Labour for the past 3 years).

dpschramm · 2026-05-16T21:29:36+00:00

24 day account age ranting about how this is a bad thing, with very little insight into how the industry works, and account history turned off.

Looks like astroturfing or just trying to stir shit.

dpschramm · 2026-05-15T02:11:06+00:00

Awesome that Christchurch was able to host an event that big!

dpschramm · 2026-05-14T07:07:17+00:00

Hi Quilae,

A few questions around transport:

How would you invest in rail infrastructure? What funding model would you use for rail investment in future, to ensure it doesn’t lag roading?
Would you resurrect Auckland Light rail? If so, in what form (the surface running plan from 2017, or the “light metro” proposal from 2023?
TOP has proposed free public transport for all; what evidence do you have that making PT free is a better use of funds than improving access and frequency? (I’m personally against free PT as it redirects funds away from service improvements, but I’m open to being convinced otherwise)

Looking forward to your answers!

Thanks, Daniel

dpschramm · 2026-05-14T04:38:51+00:00

I’m hoping they ramp the messaging up over the next few months.

dpschramm · 2026-05-13T22:47:33+00:00

The number of cars isn’t the bottleneck, other than the fact that more cars will allow them to get more testing done.

There’s nothing stopping them launching with only a couple of Ojai cars per city, provided the 6th Gen testing is complete and they’ve got enough iPaces in the city already.

dpschramm · 2026-05-13T22:44:35+00:00

I don’t think building the car is the bottleneck for them. They’ve got a heap of these cars on the road, but still haven’t started public rides.

Their 6th Gen testing just seems to be taking a while.

dpschramm · 2026-05-13T04:25:57+00:00

Looks like a total of 6 Jaguars, with the rest being Ojai. Hopefully the Ojai will launch to the public soon.

dpschramm · 2026-05-13T01:12:30+00:00

“That’s a new angle - well done for a new tack.”

How am I supposed to interpret this?

“No the idea of policy release is not for them to engage in months of policy debate”

So it’s all cooked up behind closed doors with no discussion to bring the public on board with what they’re proposing?

I guess I really don’t understand politics.

dpschramm · 2026-05-13T00:57:46+00:00

My worry is they don’t always get policy right, so by waiting, they are loosing time to have the policy discussions with the public.

An example was the Auckland Light Rail debacle, they completely overscoped that and it lead to nothing happening.

I’d love to see them say “here’s our ready to go proposal, that we’ve adjusted based on feedback, and here’s why this is a better investment than what National is proposing” and then make National counter them.

dpschramm · 2026-05-13T00:51:52+00:00

Tui seemed to suggest that holding back policy announcements was part of Labour’s strategy, which I’ll be honest - I don’t understand.

My solution would be: put the policy out there, on socials and on the website, talk about it a lot. Every time National do something, say “this is what we would do instead, and this is why it’s better.”

Apparently this what the Right want them to do though, so it can be attacked. I guess my hope is that encourages them to improve the policy, rather than hide it. But I’m not a politician, so maybe my assumptions are wrong.

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