Waymo's ridehail service averages a charging session per <57 VMT <9 trips in California, according to Waymo's most recent CPUC report (July-September). Maybe cleaning and/or disk swap. 10 trips per disk would stack up way fast. Lotta human labor for an autonomous agent. bsky.app/profile/firr...

Jeff Dean knows Waymo's new service area only covers ~half of the "whole Peninsula" and avoids explaining why, which I'm pretty sure is partly bc cell service in most of the rest is much less reliable, dramatically increasing the odds of stuck robots despite Google's ~16 yrs of driving those roads.

A Waymo robot apparently disobeyed SFPD, forcing PD to block the failed robot while everyone went around: California at Van Ness, San Franciso Waymo does not have to report these incidents to any regulator. California St Cable Car terminus is shown briefly in this video. OP: reddit.Caliclancy

This has been a consistent finding of studies going back pre-pandemic, IIRC. Ridehail slightly increased car ownership & VMT in metros. Same for the growth of delivery services by Uber et al. As Glenn Mercer points, out deriving this from US gov stats isn't easy as Uber is ~noise (~1%) aggregate.

Waymo's California DMV uncrewed/driverless permits (Test & Deployment) do not allow Waymo to drive all the way across the Bay Bridge uncrewed/driverless, which is how they get stuck. DMV has never denied Waymo a geographic extension of their permits.

Waymo and Caltrain provide about the same number of paid rides in California, eg in June (last month of CPUC data for Waymo): 1,037,472 Caltrain 1,016,546 Waymo Though many Waymo rides are in LA. FWIW, Waymo's ave occupancy per ride is ~1.5 PAX, but their ave occupancy per VMT <1 bc deadheading.

"Waymo's competition is Uber and Lyft" is mind-bogglingly false for anyone paying attention. Uber is a business partner of Waymo and the only way to book a Waymo robot in their newest geos, Austin & Atlanta. Human drivers are Waymo's competition and always have been, per Larry Page & Sergey Brin.

Waymo announced they are finally including fwys in their uncrewed ridehail service for passengers who opt-in. AFAIK, Waymo's robots have never executed a proper/safe pull over out of traffic (MRC) on a fwy. Waymo is also expanding and unifying their SF/SV geo.

What bsky doesn't know is hurting their service. It is having a minor problem/outage/degradation, eg search seems broken, but not reflected in the bsky status page, AFAICT. Prob needs more/better instrumentation.

A Waymo self-immobilizing robot made a poor decision to back out instead of a 3 pt turn, then mistakenly veered too close to an illegally parked truck: Decatur St, San Francisco Decatur's dead end has adequate space to turn around. "Eventually the truck moved to let it out." OP: reddit.jojomcbobo

Waymo robot stuck in an alley in Venice, California for no good/apparent reason, illegally blocking egress. A little too large for a garbage truck to haul away. Waymo has never explained why their unobstructed robots sometimes won't/can't proceed even with telops assistance. OP: tiktok.veronasmom

Waymo Hyundai IONIQ 5 test robot w 6th gen hw: 700 block of Terry Francois Blvd, San Francisco Near Chase Center w Crane Cove Park in background. Ironically, appears to have a cell phone mount for the safety driver. The tech holding them back can't be seen: the software. OP: reddit.walky22talky

Beware, a fake Waymo video was posted on x to compare it unfavorably w Tesla FSD. The video shows the LinkedIn HQ at 2nd & Howard under construction on the right, circa 2014, w a Waymo I-Pace in foreground, which weren't in SF or anywhere until years later. Waymo has done worse on that block, fwiw.

Today, Waymo posted a 'beware of novel unproven robots San Francisco' msg on threads and linkedin. Notice their IONIQ sensor placement is much more like their existing 5th gen Jaguar I-Pace than their 6th gen Zeekr, leaving them physically very vulnerable in crashes, ie lotta towing ahead.

Waymo took 2-3 months to restore fully their California ridehail service after their June shutdown in response to their 5 robots burned in LA. Cost Waymo ~million paid trips & more critically ~2 months of schedule, ie > $0.5 Billion. Overall growth trend remains ~linear. All data Waymo via CPUC.

A coyote walks past a Waymo robot stopped at a stop sign: Levant at Roosevelt Way, San Francisco There are plenty of examples of Waymo robots detecting small animals in daylight and a growing number of Waymo crash reports indicating them failing to detect similar animals at night in time.

~18 Serve robots parked on and obstructing a sidewalk in West Hollywood, reportedly. Tragedy of the robocommons. Their critical enabling tech is visible on the roof: cell communications. Without it those robots would be little more than sidewalk planters without plants. OP: tiktok.jennaguerrero

Yet another (68+) Wrong Way Waymo: Mission St approaching Fremont, San Francisco Artificial Impatience as a robotic service. "Early in the morning, Waymo took me across the double yellow line going the wrong way, honking at the homeless guy—AI is still too wild." OP: x.o12er_banana

Alphabet/Google is openly lying to the public re Waymo's abilities. Their robots can't even handle traffic light outages reliably nor many other common road and/or traffic conditions. In this video, Waymo's engineer states the opposite of "Waymo’s AI is ready for any rare, complex events."

ICYMI, Waymo PR has long featured stories & testimonials from blind ppl & orgs. Waymo robots often strand passengers in traffic. PR, unreliable tech, & growth ensured this would happen. A "safety first" mfg of a dangerous & unreliable tech would have a safety driver. Waymo's an expansion first co.

"A line of cars were behind me, and the Waymo somewhere in the line broke free and went around the car. Did see there was someone in the drivers seat, but still super concerning." OP: reddit.Jazzlike_Damage_7073 Harrigan Ct at Broadway, Alamo Heights, TX Waymo robots often pass inappropriately.

One more sensor should do it. OP: tiktok.3.02.28

Video begins as a police car has just driven through an intersection w a Waymo robot stopped askew in the intersection & signaling left, which may be to change lanes (no left turn allowed there). The robot should clear the intersection, but waits for the light to turn green. OP: tiktok.allahislit

A Waymo passenger became intermediary between telops and a road construction crew when her robot failed. Video ends before resolution, but it took at least 4 ppl to make up for Waymo's incomplete & incompetent replacement for a driver. A safety driver fixes this in seconds. OP: tiktok._groceries

A Waymo robot got stuck blocking traffic, again. Almost certainly assisted by telops to turn and then continue. Regardless, regulators are permitting an unlimited number of drivers who frequently, mostly randomly/unexpectedly, and for no good reason are incapacitated. OP: tiktok.jonbershad

A Waymo robot made a right turn from the wrong/left lane and very late in the light cycle, though it didn't run a red light: Polk onto Pine, San Francisco The robot is in the intersection (across stop line), light turns yellow, cyclists/mopeds arrive, robot edges out & turns. OP: x.SherryYanJiang

A legally blind Waymo passenger was stranded in a multilane road when her robot failed to handle a traffic light outage and also failed to pull to the curb, in Atlanta. Police crossed "6 lanes of traffic" to rescue her, then drove her to work. "No more Waymo for me" OP: tiktok.reportingblind

Another Waymo robot got stuck in an intersection forcing other road users to cope w its failure to make what looks like a protected left turn: onto Davis Ln, Austin, TX Waymo is not required to report these failures/incidents to regulators, so their frequency is unknown. OP: tiktok.kenniscolleen

In the move autonomously break things race, China is the USA's greatest competitor. A sample of the delivery robot future already here, unevenly distributed. All of these videos are from OP: tiktok.3.02.28 who almost certainly got them from others.

"stock-based compensation...$2.5bn in the first half of 2025" If correct, that'd be an ave sbc rate of >$ million per employee per year. OpenAI sure looks like a pump and dump disguised as generating whatever it takes to pump up the valuation. OpenAI started as a non-profit "to benefit humanity."

Another Waymo robot had this weird (new?) bug where it arrives for pickup but won't let the customer unlock the door: Ponce City Market, Atlanta Reportedly looped a few times, until it worked, prob bc of telops, but who knows. "Shoutout to Uber support for getting us in" OP: tiktok.makaylamaggert

A Waymo distinguished eng kinda explains why they still don't trust their robots on fwys and kinda misrepresents how they handle failures on surface streets while completely avoiding talking about the many telops and field ppl as well as 1st responders & road construction crews who handle the mess.

Two humans bond over the magic of digital cellular communications and the non-magic of inadequate robotics amid LA parade traffic. Serve robots are remotely driven when in or crossing a street. All that's missing is a red flag. OP: tiktok.realmexicanandy

Lyft says Waymo will deploy "in Nashville, a couple 100 AVs...over the next year, and that'll grow over time" Lyft also said they are building a $10-15 Nashville depot for Waymo. All typical. Waymo spent $20 million on a Dallas depot for their Via trucking dept, which they shutdown months later.

My first for @bayareacurrent.bsky.social -- A self-driving car killed a beloved SF cat. It’s part of a long history of tech companies using the Bay as a testing ground at our expense. People have had enough. bayareacurrent.com/fuck-waymo-l...

ICYMI, Waymo appears to have hit small animals that should've been clearly visible, implying their sensors are either inadequate or not trained/focused on this. Measuring sensor efficacy wrt targets (radar term) under various conditions is standard practice, though Waymo doesn't publish this data.

In 11 crashes w an animal reported to NHTSA, Waymo's robots have only braked once before impact, very unlike their crashes into vehicles. Seems their robots do not detect small animals well, esp at night (pic1). And even when it is a dog laying in the road in the robot's lane (pic2 & pic3).

Waymo sent a robot down the busiest block of Castro Street during Halloween. Was an era when cars couldn't get near here on Halloween. Prob still a good idea not to, unless you've more robots than you know what to do with and want to stress test telops. OP: tiktok.foodwithale

May've found the solution to robot/ADS telops not having good enough situational awareness: put them in a pop-up roof pod. If GM Cruise had done this, employees coulda dumped more stock. Not saying it hasn't been thought of [email protected] SFMTA is gonna need higher catenary wires.

2 of the 4 most recent NHTSA recalls are for driving assistance (ADAS) software. Software recalls have been increasing as a share of recalls and of vehicles recalled, and are diverse/endemic. Also been increasing for automated driving (ADS) sw. All (small sample) ADS recalls have been for sw.

Van Ness Ave at Golden Gate Ave 1 block from CPUC HQ 2 blocs from City Hall Notice an Amazon Zoox suv w safety driver going the other way. It is a California (CVC) traffic violation to enter an intersection without being able to clear it before the light changes.

Some remote sensor pods are (necessarily) taller than others.

Uber's tech was supposed to fix the ills of cabs, but gave us even lower standards for cab/livery drivers. Waymo/robotaxi tech is supposed to save all the lives, prevent all the misbehavior, etc; but requires even lower competency standards for driving. SV: different this time bc more tech/magic.

Customer video of 2 Waymo robots that wouldn't unlock doors reportedly bc their status post-arrival remained "arriving" Stockton by North Point (Pier 39), SF User error is unlikely as Waymo's CSR/telops must've been called after 1st robot failed to send a 2nd robot to fail. OP: tiktok.sarahh.ongg

I'm charging my car. A driverless waymo parked next to me. It sat there for like 5 minutes before a dude drove up to plug it in and drove away again. I asked the guy and he said he lives in an apartment building a block away and they pay him $5 each trip to plug the car in. The future kinda sucks.

Alphabet is also being sued. "Physician and LGBTQ+ activist Nasser Mohamed says Waymo misidentified him as a terrorist and blocked him from its services" He further claims Waymo refused to review it manually. Ironic given Waymo's heavy reliance on human teloperators. Lawsuit link in news article.

Sample of the many recent videos of Waymo robots cutting in front of queued cars in all their geos, sometimes esp long queues. Robots don't care/embarrass. Atlanta "Missed his chance to get in the turn lane and held up ppl going straight...cutting a line of like 40 cars" OP: tiktok.woodyontheroad

Waymo's incomplete replacement for a human driver can't close a door & neither can telops, leaving it stuck at the drop off. Reportedly, Waymo fines riders $150 for sending someone to their robot just to close a door. IIRC, Waymo's next gen Zeekr robot has self-closing doors. OP: tiktok.iammyttoy

Waymo self-stuck robot, behind a car to be towed and its tow truck: Lincoln at Bali, Marina Del Ray, CA Waymo robots have repeatedly misunderstood tow trucks and/or tow operations, getting too close and sometimes having to back up in traffic. Situational awareness failure. OP: tiktok.petrolectric

An undrivable Zoox robot stymied/flashers by pedestrian: Howard at 6th St, San Francisco At the edge of Zoox geo for their free rides. Nearly all of these I've seen are empty. Zoox robots are supposed to go backwards as easily as forwards, but never seen it IRL. OP: reddit.ScientistBoth5788