Waymo (self driving cars) announces 7 million miles of testing, putting it far ahead of rivals

[USALiberal]

A Waymo executive announced on Tuesday that the company's self-driving car fleet would reach 7 million miles of testing this week.

"We've amassed close to 7 million miles—we'll hit 7 million miles this week," said Shaun Stewart, Waymo's director of operations, at the Innovfest Unbound conference in Singapore.

What makes this truly remarkable is that Waymo announced its last milestone—6 million miles—less than a month ago. Waymo CTO Dmitri Dolgov made that announcement at the Google I/O conference on May 8.

Dolgov didn't specify exactly when Waymo reached the 6 million-mile mark. So the last million miles might have actually taken a bit more than a month to rack up. Still, Waymo's pace of testing is clearly accelerating as the company gears up to launch its driverless taxi service later this year.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/06/waymo-announces-7-million-miles-of-testing-putting-it-far-ahead-of-rivals/

This is a HUGE deal. At some point this will save 10,000 lives a year. And blind people and people with special needs will at some point have vehicles they can own and get where they want to go.

Will there be growing pains? Of course, but long term driver-less cars will be as normal as cell phones.

[lapfog_1]

1. and 3.4 to 3.8 million unemployed

truck drivers, taxi / uber / lyft drivers, delivery drivers, etc.

[Voltaire2]

3. Stage coach jobs are very scarce.

[lapfog_1]

5. so more retraining... again the empty promise of retraining.

worked so well in the past.

[USALiberal]

7. So all jobs from what time period would you lock down? 1900? 1920? nt

[lapfog_1]

10. And what would you want for all of the assembly line workers, truck drivers, AND farmers

when the coming robotic revolution takes almost all of the industrial jobs away?

retail? moved online.

high tech? Don't make me laugh.

Customer service? Going to be Alexa or Siri very soon now.

[USALiberal]

12. You miss the no antibioics days too I assume. nt

[lapfog_1]

16. I'm not against progress... you continue to try to paint me as a luddite.

I simply asked a question... what do we do with the displaced workers?

and to date, you simply refuse to answer the question. I have to assume you have no answer.

I know I've thought about this problem since the first days we started "outsourcing" all of our dirty industries to China and India... and the unintended consequence that we also found that we could outsource quite a few of those "high tech" jobs to China and India as well.

[Voltaire2]

15. we already outsourced a lot of assembly line work

That had little to do with automation and a lot to do with global wage differentials.

Yes there is a transformation in progress for the global economy and yes we as a society are not really structured to deal with the changes that are happening.

We need to consider what a "post work" society might be. Some sort of basic income seems inevitable.

[lapfog_1]

17. While I agree with the concept...

I really think people would be happier in their lives if they contributed something that was valued rather than having a "basic income".

[Voltaire2]

19. Nothing would stop people from contributing something of value.

In fact a basic income freeing people from the shackles of wage slavery might create an explosion of non-wage related value creation. Or not. I suppose the conservative vision of idle masses vegetating on the dole while the virtuous few labored to produce traditional wealth is also possible.

[True Dough]

27. Yes, barring some sort of regulation

to show you've done "volunteer" work or something of value that contributes to society while you're collecting universal income, then it will very much be up to the individual to show initiative and find ways to remain productive/assist others.

There are quite a few wrinkles to iron out on how that system will exist in North America, but there's little doubt it's coming.

[USALiberal]

4. Really?? Buggy drivers, Lamp Lighters, Milkman, Elevator Operator, Etc! Wow! nt

[lapfog_1]

8. We need to have a better answer than

"Don't stand in the way of progress" and "well, that is the cost of progress"

it is the main reason all those formerly Democratic voters use the excuse to become Trump voters... because the progressive coasts left the industrial base behind... and only promised "retraining" for "high tech jobs".

[USALiberal]

9. Please post what law you would pass to stop development of new technology. nt

[lapfog_1]

11. Why do you suppose I want to pass a law...

I want an answer... do you have one?

[USALiberal]

13. My answer is do what we have always done. Let technology make life easier. nt

[lapfog_1]

14. for who? large corporations?

not everyone is going to have a "creative job" in 10 years. Not everyone is cut out to have a creative jobs... some people just want to go to work and earn a living wage. Do you think that in the coming robotic age there will be such jobs for those people?

[USALiberal]

18. Like I said, how would you or anyone stop it from happening? nt

[lapfog_1]

20. again and again... I never suggested that it wouldn't happen

I ask what do we do about the consequences?

From now on... every proposed step in the "march of progress" should have a look see about the consequences.

If we HAD done that in the past, perhaps we wouldn't have climate change now. Maybe we would have made better choices.

[Ferrets are Cool]

2. Didn't they mispell their company name?

WHAMO!!

[USALiberal]

6. It will save 1000s of lives. Bet on it. nt

[4now]

21. I know several sight impaired people who are looking forward to getting their freedom back

Things change.

[USALiberal]

22. That is so great. It will change the whole transportation market. nt

[rickford66]

23. I would hope the testing isn't the same route over and over.

But, probably not.

[USALiberal]

24. :-)

[ck4829]

25. K&R

[janterry]

26. Can't wait! I'll be first in line

I love to drive, but I'm getting a little older and my night driving is not perfect anymore.

I will be so happy when these are on the market. Sign me up!

[Dave Starsky]

28. Wow. That's waymo than their competition.

Thank you. Thank you. I'll be here all week. Tell your friends, and be sure to tip your hostess.