I'm curious why Waymo is considered to be not living up to expectations? They operate in limited number of places, but seem to be just fine driving there (of course some people will not like them regardless). Tesla - yes, not comparable..
"Even if Waymo's schedule slips a few months and it introduces a self-driving car service in the middle of 2018 instead of late 2017, that will still give the company a multiple-year head start over most of its rivals. And it would confound skeptics who insist that full self-driving technology is still years away."
Ok, maybe the as-of-2024 product is living up to the 2018-horizon expectations from 2017 (as long as your expectations were not at the high end of the range at the time).
The people who didn't get a driving license in 2017 because what was the point if cars would drive themselves in a couple of years may care. Even more so if they finally have to wait to 2050.
Anyway, the question was about expectations - and those came with a timeline.
> Anyway, the question was about expectations - and those came with a timeline.
The mention was of a "collapse" in the space, too-- which can't be true if we're still getting there.
I expect the timeframe of 2030 is when we get most of the way there. Even exponential growth takes time to reach a big world. Most of what Waymo has left to do is rollout.
Waymo does not sell cars. They are in a different business.
I don’t really know the numbers but Waymo adds something like 50k worth of hardware into the cars. That is not a viable approach for consumer cars (Mercedes, Tesla, etc).
Maybe. Not everything ever manages to make it to low cost, high volume- either because there is no reasonable path to making it that cheap, or because there are not sufficiently large markets in the in-between prices.
Of all 3, I'd say Alexa is the most practical for using at home, google one is kinda the smartest one but also is the most frustrating one - what worked yesterday will not work today or will work occasionally (exact same prompt's wording). Siri will not always respond but overall works fine within its somewhat limited scope, as compared to others (like number of integrations supported), but then again - ecosystem..
My biggest issue with Siri is intercom: at home we mostly speak other language than english, and when using intercom Siri often tries to parse what's being recorded, instead of just recording audio sample and send it verbatim.
Something like:
Me - Hey Siri, Intercom
Siri - intercom chime (not 'Aha?' of responding to just Hey Siri)
Me - *bjlkabdgkjhqwruo;fghnasd.mkfnlkjashfjkasdngjkasbdg* (doesn't matter, different language)
Siri (thinking she recognized some word) - Here are the results for what you asked..
Perhaps I don't fully understand the situation in America (in my country a vehicle will generally have a license plate when it rolls off the dealer's lot, which stays on the vehicle throughout its entire life) but what would anyone need an e-ink plate for?
It is bizarre. Here in California you didn't used you buy a car with plates at all. Then they started to require paper temporary ones.
Why they don't just have plates fitted on the lot I don't know. I can't see how it saves any time, the dealer would just have to have the plate ready for each car like in most of the world. It seems that the simplest solution was too hard to implement.
in CA, new cars are issued permanent plates when they are registered. once they're registered, they're considered used cars, so dealers don't register them while they sit on the lot (they also don't own them before they're sold, usually a bank or the OEM does). the temp plate system that was just introduced worked fine in states with lower car sales but probably took a while to roll out here.
it's a combination of outdated laws, outdated technology, and massive amount of car sales. it's finally catching up.
In many states you get a temporary plate from the dealer that is good for 30 days or so, and receive your permanent (or annual) plate from the state in the mail.
If you buy a used car from a private seller you have to go to the motor vehicle bureau and transfer the title and register the car yourself. If you buy from a dealer they handle that for you (and charge you a few hundred dollars as a "document processing fee").
In some cases you can transfer the plate from your old car to your new car, but that's not always possible. There doesn't seem to be a lot of rhyme or reason to it.
It's actually different per state - different laws and levels of enforcement. Some states you can't drive off the lot without a plate, others give temporary ones. That makes selling cars faster, in a state with a terrible Dept. of Motor Vehicles, like CA - where the town in question is located.
What's so terrible about the California DMV? In recent years, they've done a huge digital modernization effort.
When I had to renew my license in person within the last year, I completed almost all of the application online. I could also upload and submit documents for pre-review for a REAL ID. The website let me book an appointment at a nearby DMV office. I can't remember exactly how long it took overall, but compared to many other governmental or big business processes, it was a perfectly fine process.
Now, the California DMV's approval of AVs without safety drivers... that I do have many more concerns about...
One reason is that you don’t have to put a new registration sticker on the plate each year. The e-ink plate automatically shows the updated registration.
it's 60 days to elect whether you'll be using COBRA. If employment is terminated early in the month usually coverage is still there through the end of the month, but if termination is at the very end of the month it can be exactly just 2 months, not few.
