I’m curious on the HN community opinion on whether Cruise is ahead of Waymo in SF, or if Waymo is just more careful and has spent less time training models specific to SF, but will expand to a fully public program sooner
2. Waymo's service area in SF is more than twice that of Cruise's. Unsurprisingly, both of them avoid downtown areas.
3. Waymo has hundreds of vehicles in San Francisco. Cruise only has a fraction of that — last I heard, only <10 of them were providing driverless rides.
4. According to CA DMV 2021 disengagement data, Waymo is driving almost 3x more miles than Cruise.
Waymo seems to love a slow and steady approach, but when they announce a service it's fully featured as we've seen in Chandler, AZ.
It sounds like Waymo, sure, but not like Google. There's a reason they're separate companies.
That said, I’ve seen Waymo still being too cautious relative to Cruise. Like I was waiting on the crosswalk with my bike at a 45-degree angle, and Waymo seemed terrified that I was going to bike diagonally through on-coming traffic. It was kind of hilarious.
That said when I’ve tried to test the safety parameters on Cruise while on my bike or skateboard and the system has called my bluff. I don’t know if this means Cruise is less safe. Or they’ve found a way to give the AI a sense of confidence and assertiveness against people using micromobility to aggressively bypass urban traffic congestion.
I'm looking forward to mass robotics.
I'm not looking forward to corporate dark patterns in mass robotics.
Waymo’s “Waymo One” app makes you fill out a pretty extensive questionnaire to sign up and suggests they will do some kind of checks about the other members of your household. Filled out rather invasive info out yet still no access.
Cruise makes you fill out a simpler form but puts you in a cue to get the actual app. Know several people who have filled it out but none have gotten the app.
So far no actual robotaxis in SF.
I feel like Cruises are a bit more cautious, to the point of making me skeptical. But again, I’m struggling to think of any example in particular.
This might be silly but I also think the Cruise cars are much more ugly.
Cruise is limited (by their own choice) to operating between 11 PM and 5 AM. Waymo is operating at all hours of the day. That alone indicates a much greater level of confidence in their capabilities. The complexity of driving in a busy street in SF at daytime is dramatically higher than at night, especially in SF, which tends to be pretty sleepy after hours. Note that both companies avoid driving in SOMA, FIDI, and other challenging parts of the city.
This new announcement doesn't specify their driverless hours. I suspect that they would have highlighted it if they were the first to be driving around SF in the daytime, just as they highlighted the first of being driverlessly deployed in multiple cities.
My guess (also in the industry) would be that Waymo combines Google's incredible technical skill with Google's incredible incompetence at focused execution. This is why they haven't had a milestone in a couple years since their deployment in Phoenix. I also think that this combination of strengths and weaknesses is a good fit for the AV industry.