Waymo Self Driving Car v.s. Parking Lot Insanity + a Hard Lane Merge | JJRicks Rides With Waymo #15 

The software used to expect accommodations. During testing a while back, it pulled in front of a bus which unsurprisingly didn’t accommodate.... I think they may have over compensated...

By not being more aggressive the Waymo vehicle is going to cause accidents by impeding the flow of traffic as well as by makung peoole frustrated. All driving relies on accomodation of other drivers, as you put it. You assume the other driver will respect the red light, for example. Self-driving cars are not ready for full roll-out until they can judge those situations well. they need to accurately judge what is a reasonable expectation of what the other driver will do. another possible mistake i noticed in the first video posted on this channel is that the waymo car apparently braked when a truck heading towards the side of the car didn't stop immediately at the intersection. it was hard to see, but it looked like the proper thing to do was to accelerate, not stop, to avoid potential danger.

I wish all drivers would drive like that.

Also, in the end the car got it. It is just human drivers that get impatient to quickly.

@@RichardSpindler put that car in a busy city and it would go nowhere. in fact, there must be places in Phoenix where it can't turn out of a place for 15 minutes. it would never get on the southern state parkway in ny. it would just sit there and cause a traffic jam.

It should be a little more aggressive than that

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Does the car learn overtime

Yes

@@KTMCDO Waymo trains the computer with simulations.

Does the car get paid overtime while learning? That would explain a lot. ; )

@@afusdoifudo3563 Not at all! They’re the perfect employee. No pay and never complain.

i dont think so. tesla and google have spent the last decade to get this far,level 2 automation and still there are many situations the car cannot handle,construction work,fog,snow,heavy rain,red signs that look like traffic lights etc...and what if the radar or cameras pack up? the car will just sit there,in the middle of a highway.

@@Heath-GallagherYes but the pace of AI advancement has accelerated in the last two years and shows no sign of slowing down. Most experts agree that the level of AI we’ll have in 10 years is literally unfathomable to us now. The problem with full self driving cars is entirely an AI problem right now, the hardware is there, it’s just waiting for the right “brain” to make it all work. That artificial general intelligence brain is a lot closer to becoming a reality than it seems right now.

Ah, see that crosswalk was the whole point. I wanted to see how it would react :D Yea and I think that's what these new screens going into the cars are, the digital equivalent of a hand wave

As a customer, for sure. As a developer, and knowing this this still under development, this is the *ideal* place to ask it for a pick up, to test it and see how it’d react (assuming it’s far enough along, which it is, best to stall than to run someone over). This reminds me of an old QA engineer joke: “A software QA engineer walks into a bar. He orders a beer. Orders 0 beers. Orders 99999999999 beers. Orders a lizard. Orders -1 beers. Orders a ueicbksjdhd. First real customer walks in and asks where the bathroom is. The bar bursts into flames, killing everyone.”

As long as there's no sign saying otherwise, u-turns are allowed, yup! I think it does, but only in weird cases

How about pedestrians that don't try to own the road when they don't have the right of way at all times

This car at least cares about pedestrian.

Waymo: But, but, but, I’ve never had an accident ! Evaluators: Okay, but how many have you caused??

@@sking2173 This 100%

​@jshowa o If you think that someone who's hesitant and therefore less confident and predictable behind the wheel of a 2-ton death machine is a safe driver, I don't know what you're talking about, and I'm quite sure you don't know what you're talking about either.

@@TheDavidMetcalfe If you're depending on other drivers and objects being predictable, you're not driving safely. The wildlife around here isn't.

@@bearcubdaycare Yes, depending entirely on everyone and everything else to be totally predictable isn't safe or reasonable, but that wasn't what I was saying either. There's a baseline expectation of rule-following (stay in your lane, signal when changing lanes, stop at stop signs and red lights, etc.) and defensive driving can bridge the gap to a degree, but no driver on Earth, no matter how talented, could safely and reliably make their destination if all driver behavior was 100% random. Someone who's driving hesitantly is more erratic and unpredictable than a confident driver, and is therefore more dangerous. So Waymo's driver needed to be less hesitant to increase safety. Hopefully in the year that has passed, they've done that.

They already have "caught on". What are police going to do, ticket software?

Nothing like a good game of where's Waldo😂😂 though I guess, where's Nathan is more like it🤔

so slow

@@SmartKeyboard2011 😂

I would say, excellently! photos.app.goo.gl/kwcEyFovMuTxmUNDA

Haha eventually ;)

Drive-throughs are honestly a fascinating use case, because you have to wait for an interaction partially inside the car to finish to move forward. I have no idea what if anything Waymo is planning but I wouldn't be surprised if, were they to eventually support using a drive-through, it had an "I'm done with this step, go to the next step" button you needed to push after every window (order, get food, pay). But I doubt that will come until after they add support for intermediate stops, because you presumably need to go somewhere *after* the drive-through.

Oh hey lol, check my recent videos

Haha, maybe

Am not sure, I think the sweeping is a design choice!

I guess there is still no substitute for intuition and experience in traffic. Also, in a lot of cases (if it is not dark) I am looking at the face of a driver that is coming from the right or a pedestrian, just to note if they see you. Many times you can predict a manoeuvre somebody is going to make before they actually make it. This is something that an autonomous system lacks.

Arizona

Heyy thanks for watching! Doing good work over there

Yeah, but there's a reason that's it's just in one part of Phoenix even after years. The roads in this video, and the conditions, don't look anything like those in my town. Or most other towns that I've been to. Apparently even a handful of orange cones for construction flummox it, to the point that it just stops in traffic for minutes. Then randomly starts and stops.

Yea, for me they're just less creepy and more annoying. If I need help, I'll push the button :P

I assume the reason is that most people have nothing to do when they get in except put on a seat belt, and he has to take a short time to set up the camera. They probably have it tuned to detect any delay in start ride as a potential issue.

@@runvnc208 I think this is it. Cut in video was probably some fluffing around, so they just check up. I imagine some people would easily forget to push the go button.

Yup, exactly! Wasn't all that long, but yea pretty much

I know Teslas don't know what a blinker is. They're just trained on if the car changes lanes or not. I assume Waymo does the same. That way the neural net can consider the blinker, driver behavior, and road layout all together to make a decision.

@@keco185 this makes sense, but I wonder if in the future self driving cars will recognize and react to blinkers. On a side note, I wonder if human drivers will take advantage of robotic drivers by cutting them off knowing that the computer WILL NOT HIT THEM. Computer driven cars will slam on the brakes and not hit the rude driver. I can imagine human drivers knowing this and taking advantage of the situation.

I think it actually does notice it. Look how the car gets a tiny yellowish frame around it as soon as the car goes past Waymo. But, the car never eases into the lane (enough space in front to do so), so Waymo did not have to do anything but instead was prepared and did as we human does, wait to see if it a false signaling or not. You can see in the behavior if someone want's to merge in.

@@Xanthopteryx Oh, I didn't notice that until you pointed it out to me.

@@Luke_Starkenburg Waymo is professional. And if you are professional you MUST 'see' when someone is indicating. That is like the whole point of an indicator, to help other drivers. Sadly, some people (often in expensive BMW, Audi or similar) have something wrong with their indicator. For BMW, i think it is just the blinker fluid that is bad or out but for Audi and similar, i guess it was an option when they bought the car, and they did not have the money to buy it so the car just lacks that add on.

Chandler, so yes

I know 100% that it sees the trash cans, since they show up on the LiDAR point cloud if they're off to the side of the road, but not on the road. It just doesn't display them, I promise it goes around the parked cars, and it goes around trash cans. 👍 I submitted that as feedback to Waymo, hope they add that to the visualization

Ah, that would almost work except I start the cameras at different times lol

Ceiling panel buttons

Uhhhhh.... I've taken so many rides since filming this I can't find the trip :P Thanks for watching!

@@JJRicks Tesla AP feels very human like in terms of merging between cars, downside it will make a mistake with the same solid feel.. Waymo seems to be taking a different approach here..

Everyone who rides along with me says that the braking, acceleration, and turning is incredibly human-like and smooth, I can say that much :P

@@teslascoop2177 the problem with this is that a bunch of people who only watch this video just see this super hard situation I threw at it, and not the other perfect videos. So the they immediately pass judgement

@@JJRicks Well this is how you judge what good is 1,000,00 miles of easy straight line driving right? BTW I'm referring to merging not accel/brake etc. Just noting the difference between systems..

Nothing :P it only goes when it thinks things are clear

....out?

Yes, I believe they talk to rider support. Ticket goes to the company

AZ

Ah oops I have a website for this now JJRicks.com/ride-data

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What would happen if another car backed up

It would stop (source: seen it happen)

@@JJRicks your both stopped at a red light but the guy in front of you backs up

Not much it could do except sit there

When AI learns how to use the heat humans generate we will all be doomed.

Yes, hybrid. But a safety driver says they never charge them, so engine all the time probably

Most hybrid vehicles don’t require charging.

Hybrid vehicles use regenerative breaking to help extend the range. The system works best in city driving where there’s lots of stop and go driving.

Aha that would make sense! Although whenever I look at the battery level on the dash it's always at 0% :P

www.jjricks.com/ride-data

It never overtakes, at least not that I've seen. Lane changes for routing only

@@JJRicks so if a car in front breaks down, or deliberately drives at 5mph? You're stuck?

Wellll not exactly. It will go around a stopped bus, but it won't go around someone doing 40 in a 45. I'm not sure exactly where the line is quite yet

@@pyriedog remote assistance operator will engage and reroute path to go around vehicle if needed. AV’s are continually monitored

Definitely before.

That indeed it is

$7.85, 4.96 miles

@@JJRicks how much would Uber / Lyft have cost?

Probably $12 in this area

@@JJRicks Do you feel tense or relaxed while riding in it?

Completely relaxed now after 77 rides, I'd fall asleep in the thing for sure

I can see bicycle messengers being the ultimate test.

It already drives way better than a lot of people I know.

Good news, I have several videos where that happens ;)

@@JJRicks hi JJ :).. how are you? I have been watching your videos since the beginning. I have some questions... If something unfamiliar comes in front of Waymo car which is not in the hd-map, what will happen? Does the car have ability to update the map on-the-fly ? Can it take a different route other than previously thought based on HD map? What do you think about these? Please reply ....

@@tanvirhoq6166 ah lurking eh? Nice ;) Well yes if you've been watching since the beginning you'd know, lots of unexpected things happen that it handles just fine. (Police cars, construction, weird detours etc) Hope that helps!

@@JJRicks hey JJ .. It's Tanvir :) . Thanks for your reply ... I am Not a native English speaker ( I am originally from Bangladesh, currently residing in Portugal).. I didn't quite understand what you meant by "lurking" :D.... Sorry for my lack of interpretation .. Yeah I saw almost all the videos you have posted... Like you, I am also very interested in the self-driving technology (let me tell you, I am a fan of LIDAR ... To me, Lidar is very cool... In the future vehicles, may be we will see solid state Lidars.... Safety has to be the "first priority", not the looks of the car .. And Waymo cars look cool) ... I am also watching progresses made by Zoox, GM, Mobileye, AutoX etc... In a video of Waymo (there was a Christmas tree area), when the car saw the Christmas tree block, it wasn't in the HD map, the car drove a tiny bit toward it and then stopped keeping a safe distance. That seems to mean that the car understood that's a real barrier. Why couldn't the car draw an alternative route on its own? Is it because the car doesn't have that capability? (A remote staff helped the car).... I also thought that is it possible that the car could "draw" the barrier immediately as an update on the map ? Like, if there is a gate saying 'street closed', the car would draw a red barrier inside the graphical HD map (the passenger would see that happening on the screen). Does Waymo have this capability? What's your thoughts? Please reply.... I would be glad to know what you think on these.... :) :)... This is the link of that video -- ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-D1sZnbORfAE.html

Hi Tanver, thanks for commenting! Sorry, I'm not really experienced enough to know for sure, but my guess is that Waymo can recognize and rereoute around construction zones, but the Christmas tree display was something new so it had no idea what to do.

They drive in many cities, but are only open to passenger service in Chandler. Rider support can't joystick the car, they can only give it pointers like "turn here" or "ignore that thing"

Nobody knows for sure, unfortunately

Probably

I wonder if they would ever consider remote controlling the car or if they strictly rely on the self driving software.

@@Luke_Starkenburg as far as I know they just give it instructions as opposed to taking direct control. It asks a question or tells the controllers what's confusing it and they answer

Yea this ^^^^ I talked to a former safety driver and they confirmed

so there's a support person always looking at ride remotely ?

I did in the app before it was ever on the way

@@JJRicks can you make another video which shows the operation of the APP?? Also WHERE IS THIS???

@@bmaiceman Already made an app video, all you have to do is scroll through my videos a bit. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-L8HLrxJp2n8.html also JJRicks.com/faq for more questions

1. Be in Chandler, Arizona 2. Download the app Then you're all good

@@JJRicks is that "Metro Phoenix"? that what the app is telling me

Yea pretty much, mostly Chandler but also a bit of Gilbert, Mesa, and Tempe sprinkled in there

I'm from illinois but I really want to experience this 😂

@@JJRicks So you would need to activate the app in order to open the door and enter into a Waymo car?

Hahahahahaha yea, I'm mostly not annoyed, really the fact that it made it out at all is a huge testament to progress. Though people walking in front is definitely annoying

People are impatient. In a grand scheme of things, minute or two of delay, is not big deal. The car handled everything well. I am not sure why it had emergency lights on , maybe it was related to the call.

I think the hazards come on during a reverse or a remote assist

Yeah but as soon as one accident happens, everyone is going make a huge deal out of it..

@@snebold You can't run a Tesla without a driver at all and with their current sensor suite you never will.

Nope, it's not. That would be incredibly dangerous

Nah, too much latency to pull that off

I'm an enthusiast trying to spread the word, not affiliated with Waymo. They have no editorial control, I receive no financial compensation (I'm actually paying them out the nose for these rides), and they see my videos for the first time right alongside you :)

@@JJRicks Thank you for doing these rides for us, we appreciate your efforts to show us how Waymo will work when it comes to our cities and towns.

Yep! Have demonstrated in previous videos. If you want to search through and see look for "emergency vehicles" JJRicks.com/videos

@@JJRicks Thanks, I'll search!

Well, not the officer thing, but close ish!

Yea I'm in the public program, and I guess everyone else in the public program doesn't care ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@@JJRicks cool. I’m still waiting to see how the system react in different weather conditions 🙂

Me too

I have seen Waymo in comment sections of other people asking for permission to use self-recorded video clips a couple times already.

Haha they asked me too, but over twitter

@@andrasbiro3007 Yes, but which one is going to go to market with a ride hailing service first do you bet? TSLA or Waymo?

Well, everyone else is just wasting their time then. Tesla is taking over the whole world. Tell that to the 20+ companies working on FSD.

I can't wait to see the TSLA ride hailing service. Looking forward to it! Next week though, I'll be in San Francisco and will try the Waymo service.

JJRicks.com/ride-data

Or the technology isn’t up to par yet who’s gonna let someone going 10 mph merge in front of them nobody likes to waste their time

If only every car was autonomous and interconnected, this wouldn't happen.