Comment by lvl155
20 hours ago
No chance Waymo can operate in many parts of NYC. Good luck getting through double parked cars in Astoria and elsewhere.
20 hours ago
No chance Waymo can operate in many parts of NYC. Good luck getting through double parked cars in Astoria and elsewhere.
There's a great YC saying which approximately says "you should get the easiest customers first". They even made a video about it, saying tech startups sometimes try to go for the hardest customers to "prove themselves" and it just hurts their business.
I sort of wonder if that's happening here. SF, Austin, LA, etc, are all great cities to build autonomous vehicle startups in. There are many more major cities which don't get snow, have minimal rain, and are well thought out in terms of driving layout. NYC seems like the most difficult city to operate in, and while I believe it's a lucrative market it seems like a mistake.
That's why Waymo started in Phoenix. They're well past that phase.
Maybe not immediately but gathering the data on those areas will eventually lead to their ability to drive there.
That type of tolerance in moving vehicles will take at least a decade.