Would you ride in a robotaxi?
 

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I'm envisioning a city taxi cab driver flailing through city traffic, or the pandemonium of a parking /loading zone at an airport.

He may not speak the same language, or even be sane, but it's the taxi driver's craft. He's does it 24/7 and has the experience.

I see too many variables. Think driving in India.

So no. I'll take the ghost of Christmas past.

Nope.

Last time I was in a taxi, the steering rack was about to fall out. The ball joints must have been held on with zip ties, but I'd still feel safer than AI.


I'm having a hard time even envisioning riding in a shuttlebus at Dollywood with this setup. All I can think of is the movie robocop where the robot malfunctions and shoots the board members with the machine gun hands.

Park guest would be run down. There would be nothing the passengers could do but watch in horror. Oh- the humanity!

Nope. I’ll take the dude with BO who doesn’t speak English, thanks.:)

I don't know - has anyone figured the odds of something bad happening? Or making it to the destination safely?

Not yet.

Hopefully by the time I am too old to drive, they will be safe and inexpensive, and I will not need to own a car.

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no

I would try it once, albeit somewhat reluctantly, just to experience it. I don’t think the tech is sufficiently advanced yet.

Nope.

Wait until you're 90 years old and blind. It will be a Godsend.

Still can't see me needing one ... several reasons why :D

I have only ridden in one Uber. It was a nice guy that drove safely. I have heard of some people having scary rides from bad drivers, and smelly drivers.

I own two cars. One if for hauling stuff, and one for hauling ass. ;)

No need for a robo taxi, or uber.

I might try a Waymo. With cameras and radar and lidar. I have seen them driving around LA.
Tesla no. Camera only tech is not up to the task. As has been proved in endless YouTube videos.

If Tesla stops the hatred of radar and lidar and "geofenced areas", that might change.

Hard nope. I have a difficult time watching hands off parallel parking commercials.

I use Uber a lot when I travel. Never had an issue and have met some super interesting people.

Reason I ask- I was hanging out with some younger people (in their 30's), who were talking about cars and were looking for the latest self driving technologies and such, as if the human driver was now a liability.

That seemed to be the gist of the conversation.

I'm in my 50's. I don't know if this view was a generational thing, or tech is really getting there and I'm just ignorant and yelling at clouds.

I'm with Astrochex, I can't even watch the parking.
I only ride in cabs/ubers when travelling, and that is rare.

This is a technology I want to keep 20 years around the corner. I was thinking this backing out my driveway this morning. I used magical technology called rear view mirror.

I would not hesitate to ride in a Waymo, just haven't gotten around to it yet. There are hundreds of them roaming the streets of Los Angeles as we speak and they are surprisingly good drivers...better than 90% of humans at least. The only thing that seems to hang them up is getting stuck behind a delivery van or other large box they cannot see around that is stopped, other than that they can navigate around the zillions of double parked vehicles everywhere here. They are operating in an actual crowded urban environment here and doing really well.

As a part-time Uber driver, it doesn't help me that they are so popular but I have to give credit where credit is due...they can drive. :cool:

Took this Waymo to a restaurant from my daughter’s house. Drove very safely and no glitches till we got to the restaurant (even turned right on red). Door would not open right away at the restaurant but a lady came on a speaker and said they were working on it. A minute later the door opened, we got out and off it drove. It was cool…I have a video of riding in it but don’t know how to post a video.

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Why not? It's the wave of the future when car ownership will mostly be a thing of the past.

Not being able to get out changes my answer thusly...

HELL NOPE :(!

What do you think it's going to do? Kidnap you and take you to mars?

Worse ... LA :D

I'd ride in one there ... before I'd drive ;)

Recent from Key West:

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I doubt I'd get in a robotaxi. I don't even like it when my friend turns on self driving in his Tesla.

I take Waymos in S.F., no issues at all. Apparently some women prefer Waymos due to creepy taxi/Uber drivers.

I wouldn't take a "Robotaxi" referring specifically to the allegedly-autonomous Teslas.

Sure. I get a suicidal urge from time to time.

I travel a lot for work and rent a lot of cars, I’ve never been experienced any of the self driving tech that’s worth a damn. Including in late model Audi and Genesis models recently. Mostly it just feels drunk and I end up disabling it.:p

I hope that you’re kidding but that would be a very inefficient way to do it. You would probably be riding around until you died of boredom. :)

I've heard nothing but good about the experience except the one instance a while back where a guy got to a Rental car parking lot and the car started driving in circles and wouldn't stop or let him out.

I feel like this is like a very successful beta test. It seems to be going very well, but I still don't want to beta test. I would expect (once it's fully baked) a computer to drive better and more safely 99.999% of the time than a regular person. I feel like most folks get where they are going mostly by luck/chance. LOL.

I have ridden in several Ubers and never had a horrible experience. I did have one driver, a woman, that actually had some BO. That is the only issue that I can think of.
Nice! Wow, programmed to turn right on red. That's impressive. I wonder if they also will do a left on red onto one way roads. I frequently run into folks that don't know that those two circumstances are legal (or are too afraid or timid to do it).

Also, pretty sure that Google street view car in the swamp had a human driver. Also, there is a significant difference between the crappy autonomous features in Teslas and a Waymo, which is a complete robot car.

In case anyone thinks that I’m all hopped-up about self-driving cars and trucks, I’m not but there is a fair amount of misinformation about their current safety in this thread. I would not trust the Tesla system as far as I could throw it but we are talking to about a completely different deal that is functioning safely as we type.

I would estimate that fewer than 5% of drivers know about left turn on red, (from one-way to one-way), based on my daily drive home in DTLA. And it’s not timidity, everyone is rush hour impatient…they just don’t have a clue. It’s also not something that is encountered outside of downtown much here…not a lot of one-way streets.

The Waymos are shockingly good drivers and it seems like they keep getting better as they either tweak the software or maybe they are even self learning(?)

I have fairly limited experience with taxis, and a bit more experience with Ubers. Based on my experience, Uber's are generally much nicer to ride in than a taxi. I have ridden in a taxi in NYC and other cities, same goes for Uber.

I don't usually wear a seat belt in a taxi, but would in a robotaxi.

Agreed. That's my guess as well, but I try to imagine alternate possibilities to "under-educated".

I also think that only 90-95% are aware of right on red. I am frequently stuck behind folks that wait for a green to turn right on red.

I would expect them to be far better than the average person. They should be more conversant with and willing to follow the laws on average than the average person, and they shouldn't be swayed by human emotions (impatience, frustration, anger, anxiety, etc...).

On his recent trip to CA and L.A., James May and his assistant took a driverless taxi to a Target so May could buy some jeans before he met up with Jay Leno. Due to circumstances, whether scripted or not, the taxi took off w/o May taking the assistant to the next programed stop.

I won't embed so start at about 23:00 to see what the deal was.


https://youtu.be/R0-KNkotnv4?si=pwEntTBhVwOe2FK4

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yes i would, but i have not.

Its 2025

No.

Don't do self checkout either

Most here either can't read or just choose to reply to a question that wasn't asked.

I have had single-digit experiences with fully autonomous (robot-taxi) vehicles ... Specifically Waymo in Scottsdale, AZ.

It was a complete non-issue. The Tech works well in a perfect environment where there are no weather issues.

Expansion to the midwest will be challenging, but there are smart people working on that ... you are not working on that.

Give me self checkout EVERY time! The less that I have to deal with people, the better.

The question is "would you ride in a robotaxi"? I feel like almost everyone has answered that question. It's potentially a little vague or not entirely clear to everyone. "Robotaxi" is not a term that I've ever heard used before, but since I'm aware of Waymo, I assumed that's what was being asked. It is possible that not everyone knows what was intended by the term "robotaxi".

But thanks for being rude and condescending.