"Often, the Waymo car is detecting potential hazards that a human driver would completely miss, Waymo officials said."

And often it's just sitting there because somebody is standing near the corner with their back to the street talking to someone else. Humans can anticipate that the person won't enter the crosswalk but Waymo can't.

How do pedestrians interact with these cars? When crossing a street I always try to make eye contact with the drivers to make sure they see me. While the Waymo cars have great sensors, how can I get confirmation they "sense" me?

Also, one rule I hope these cars learn to never break is no stopping in a bike lane.

This is such an exciting technological development. Mountain View appears to be the world HQ of self-driving car tech and startups. I can't wait to try it out myself as a passenger.

I agree. This tech is only going to get better and better as time passes. He’s, there may be limitations today, but in 10 years, these limitations may be minimal and drive advancements in many other areas. There are dozens of car teams here in MV and the surrounding cities. Super cool.

@SRB

I don't think you need to worry about not being seen as a pedestrian. One of the demonstrations showed the passenger's status display at an intersection while the Waymo vehicle was waiting to turn right, yielding to pedestrians. If anything, the self-driving vehicle was overly deferential to the pedestrians. And the team mentioned that the algorithms are especially cautious around more vulnerable road users like cyclists, pedestrians, and children.

> Humans can anticipate that the person won't enter the crosswalk but Waymo can't.

Humans frequently anticipate wrong.

@Darin

I have no doubt Waymo has all sorts of smarts to sense a pedestrian (although "errare computatrum est"). However, my concern is how to know that the Waymo car senses me when I am about to cross a street.

Also, self-driving cars will be mixed with human driven ones for the foreseeable future. Even if blindfully trusting the technology, a pedestrian would still need to sort out which car is self driving before crossing. To wit, how would you distinguish a self driving Telsa vs. a human driven one?

I think it'd be safer and more comforting for pedestrians if self driven cars winked or flashed a green go sign to visually confirm it has sensed the pedestrian about to cross.

The WAYMOs on my foot commute give me no worries. I walk about 3 miles and regularly come across WAYMOs, but I have never had an issue with them. Not once. They are far more predictable than driven cars from my pedestrian point of view, and their operation is infinitely more safe than cars where the people are controlling things for themselves.

The more the better as far as I'm concerned!

I think that Waymo and other autonomous cars will actually make pedestrians act a little more safely when walking and the same for bike riders, etc. At present pedestrians often act unpredictably knowing that if they are hit it will be the driver's fault, or that the driver should be able to anticipate (read the mind) of every pedestrian. With the knowledge that it isn't a human driver in control it may (should) make pedestrians pay attention to traffic in a way they don't do now.

It is always very interesting to me when I travel internationally and walk around foreign cities just how careful local pedestrians are compared to American pedestrians. The number of times I hear pedestrians being honked at by cars because they try to cross against a pedestrian light or cross a street before stopping first makes pedestrians a lot more cautious. I also see many more instances of adults holding kids' hands when walking around busy streets, and they teach their kids how to be good pedestrians too. This is something that Americans will start doing when there is no driver to make eye contact with.

Lamos (sic) need to be made more consistent at recognizing left turn green lights. I've seen it happen three times now and it can really screw up the traffic flow of cars in the turn lane behind them. They are not perfect, & not quite so "smart" as they're being hyped, not yet.

Yes, not quite perfection but still the safest cars on the road buy a long shot.

A MV man was killed by a driven car in Fremont this week, and at least 2 driven cars went into local buildings. WAYMOS may not be perfect, but they are keeping us more safe than driven cars. That's just here, just the past week.
There is no sane argument to show how driven cars are safer than WAYMOs, no matter how many cute names the haters make up for them.(Sounds like some elected DC officials I know).


RIP to the latest MV resident killed by a driven car this week.

You forgot there was also a pedestrian seriously injured when they were hit by a driver controlled car in MV last Thursday.
The driver fled the scene. This is ANOTHER issue that WAYMOs likely will solve.
Hurry up and get them out on the roads!