Interesting thing about that 100 million miles number: If Waymos were merely human-level, they'd be overdue for a fatality at this point. That statement probably needs a lot of caveats, like adjusting for the fact they still don't take customers on freeways, and that the fancy cars they use are safer than average.
In any case, it may help to keep the scale in perspective when seeing posts on social media about Waymos and Teslas making driving mistakes.
The remote support person instructs the safety monitor to take the driver's seat and drive the car. But he fails to get the car to drive manually, so remote support sets the car to drive autonomously again.
Not sure what to make of a single incident either. However, it appears that the vehicles, when set to "autonomous mode", have their controls locked out. Which would mean that the safety monitors probably have just the discussed "kill switch" and are only there to avoid a big screw up / PR nightmare. So the car is driving itself, and the Austin process is the final test of having a real service to actual customers. Still, I don't think you can call it Level 4 until there is no safety monitor in the car.
Interesting thing about that 100 million miles number: If Waymos were merely human-level, they'd be overdue for a fatality at this point. That statement probably needs a lot of caveats, like adjusting for the fact they still don't take customers on freeways, and that the fancy cars they use are safer than average.
In any case, it may help to keep the scale in perspective when seeing posts on social media about Waymos and Teslas making driving mistakes.
By the way, here's a fun robotaxi video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2OpaD3Rwz8&t=564s
The remote support person instructs the safety monitor to take the driver's seat and drive the car. But he fails to get the car to drive manually, so remote support sets the car to drive autonomously again.
Huh, I can't tell what to make of that. Are you thinking it's evidence that Tesla really is at level 4?
Not sure what to make of a single incident either. However, it appears that the vehicles, when set to "autonomous mode", have their controls locked out. Which would mean that the safety monitors probably have just the discussed "kill switch" and are only there to avoid a big screw up / PR nightmare. So the car is driving itself, and the Austin process is the final test of having a real service to actual customers. Still, I don't think you can call it Level 4 until there is no safety monitor in the car.
Dan O’Dowd backstory: his company sells ADAS-related software to Tesla competitors
https://www.ghs.com/news/20220105_CES_BMW_iX_all_electric_vehicle.html
His videos should be cited with extreme caution
Conflict of interest noted. But why extreme caution rather than normal caution?
He is not a simple hater. His entire fortune is threatened by being a competitor to Tesla.