Miami probably has some of the worst, most lawless drivers in the country — it's like a free-for-all out there. Makes me wonder if Waymo picked Miami as a kind of stress test for their self-driving tech. If they can handle the chaos there, they can probably handle just about anything.
Miami seems to share enough similarity in warm weather to SF to be a similar enough use case to expand while providing slightly different driving conditions to be able to dip ones toes in to the driving habits of a different city.
Absolutely agreed. Not even just because of the weather imo, but because of the actual driving experience here itself.
I’ve lived and been driving for nearly 15 years in various large cities (SF, ATL, Seattle, Portland, LA, etc.), both cars and motorcycles, and NYC (where i currently live) is the only place in the US I absolutely refuse to ever drive (or ride) in.
Not just because it isn’t as necessary here due to public transit usefulness (which is also true), but also because driving here feels like entering a warzone. Narrow roads and parking, drivers being extremely on the edge and leaving a few cm distance max between each car in traffic, constant honking, having to make very dangerous maneuvers on the daily just to get somewhere, and just the cutthroatness of the whole thing here.
I genuinely believe that NYC will end up being the final frontier for Waymo, after all the other places in the US (aside from those with extreme snow conditions).
Miami sucks because half the people on the roads here don't actually know how to drive.
They are immigrants that come from countries whose roads are effectively lawless, or come from countries that have a severely underdeveloped automobile infrastructure, or come from countries where all that's needed to get a driver's license is to pay someone.
NYC is unique in that you have no choice but to do extremely dangerous things to actually operate in traffic at all in most scenarios.
Streets, alleys, etc. are blocked or are narrowed by vehicles and a myriad of other possible obstructions, all of which could be concealing pedestrians.
Yeah, bad drivers are easy for self-driving to deal with. You just drive defensively and avoid the objects. It’s the snow and other sensor obstructions that make things difficult.
Big +1. Here using the turn signal is iffy because some drivers see that as a sign to speed up to try to overtake. I’ve had a few close calls where I check my mirrors, everything is safe for a lane change, turn on the blinker, and the guy in the left lane floors it from 5 car lengths back to cut me off. Sigh.
The Waymo driver is very passive and defensive so I imagine it will be quite slow compared to an Uber who is willing to fight to make turns etc.
The game is that you start to pull out for a right turn, and then brake unexpectedly and get the person behind you to tap your bumper, while they are looking for oncoming traffic to the left. Then you take your car to a "friendly" repair shop that overcharges for a new bumper (or claims to replace it) and split the payout.
There's nothing illegal about braking suddenly, the collision is always the fault of the person behind you legally, so there's no personal risk.
When I've been in Waymo, they've never drove so fast that they don't have time to brake if the car in front of them does. And they can multitask - while looking for oncoming traffic to the left they can still watch the car in front of them
