[HN Gopher] Who Watches the Waymos? I do [video]
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Who Watches the Waymos? I do [video]
https://x.com/fulligin/status/2003925653113184498
https://xcancel.com/fulligin/status/2003925653113184498
Author : notgloating
Score : 260 points
Date : 2025-12-25 00:10 UTC (22 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
| Mawr wrote:
| [flagged]
| akanet wrote:
| Most of it is not drone, but you have to think a bit about the
| angle and duration to realize this. Merry Christmas
| pkkim wrote:
| I took the time to figure out where you took the shots from.
| You were not kidding about risk, especially for 201 Toland,
| Jesus Christ.
| deanmoriarty wrote:
| Just wanted to thank you for the Sutro Tower work
| (https://vincentwoo.com/3d/sutro_tower/), it was truly
| beautiful and I've been looking at it so many times, very
| nostalgic for me. This one is great too!
| properbrew wrote:
| I actually quite liked it, was somehow soothing, especially the
| car park that was used as a temporary location during the
| night.
| Animats wrote:
| If you like that sort of thing, see "AGV Garden".[1]
|
| (This is the port of Rotterdam, ten years ago. Sped up about
| 3x. Most big ports look like that now. Automated driving
| works really well when all those pesky humans are out of the
| way.)
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm_rlLyelQo&
| akanet wrote:
| Very nice, quite enjoyed that.
| dang wrote:
| Could you please review and follow the site guidelines? "Oh,
| who cares." is not an ok way to respond to someone's work on
| HN, and is particularly bad when a thread is just getting
| underway.
|
| " _Please don 't post shallow dismissals, especially of other
| people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something._"
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
|
| (of course I understand that it's disappointing when you're
| hoping for certain content and end up with something else, but
| still - please don't express that in a hostile way)
| ceroxylon wrote:
| You changed my life with considerate moderation like this, so
| thank you for all that you do, thank you for keeping the ship
| on course.
| nullc wrote:
| It isn't what you were expecting-- but it's really good. Give
| it another look with no expectations.
| throw-12-16 wrote:
| I think the risk to safety was just existing in SF at night.
| HolySE wrote:
| That art fixture's placement at the Mission Waymo Depot is kinda
| cool. It's evocative of a future in which humanity lives a life
| of indolence propped up by automation.
| ramraj07 wrote:
| I had to look up indolence. At least for the time being im not
| indolent enough not to look up such things I suppose.
| polyomino wrote:
| Looks like it's GAIA by Marco Cochrane, I remember seeing it
| out in the desert. It looks like it might not be related to
| Waymo and just on the adjacent property
| schoen wrote:
| Thanks, I was assuming it was the same artist as the one at
| the Embarcadero, and that seems to be right.
| flomo wrote:
| As an old time burner, sometimes this kind of stuff seems
| like a flex, like 'you had to be there, sorry pleb' from the
| tech exec class. Anyway I'm glad they have something there
| than not.
| throwaway2037 wrote:
| Spot on! I confirm it here:
| https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1CxhN-J2T_/?hl=en
| CobrastanJorji wrote:
| I don't think the goal is indolence. The goal is freedom. We
| want a post-need society propped up by automation. That doesn't
| mean that we should spend our reclaimed time idling, though,
| but certainly we could.
| atonse wrote:
| This is how I describe financial freedom. It's not a
| particular number, it's the freedom from thinking about
| money.
|
| And which number gets you there depends on your lifestyle.
|
| And taking a job without any consideration of pay.
| rossjudson wrote:
| It makes me think that we need more representations of humans
| on and in our cities, to remind us about who they are for. We
| can shift a small amount of architectural scale towards the
| human.
| 0x38B wrote:
| Reminds me of the half-buried in the sands of time sculptures
| in Blade Runner 2049; the surrounding self-driving auto depot
| only adds to the resemblance to some far off future.
| clemo_ra wrote:
| This is cool and soothing. Merry xmas
| lateforwork wrote:
| Seeing all these Waymos together like this... is depressing. You
| get a sense of the scale at which machines are replacing humans.
| This could be a scary movie made in 1970s about the robotic
| future... and that future has now arrived. What will the world
| look like 10, 20 years from now? What would a scary movie made
| today contain?
| bgwalter wrote:
| I would make a movie about UBI recipients wearing shock collars
| that are supervised by Optimus robots and pluck almonds or
| apples.
|
| Perhaps we need a euphemism for UBI: Let's call it "level-1
| rich".
| nutjob2 wrote:
| Robots and technology have been replacing humans for many
| decades. It's a positive thing and change is a natural part of
| life. It's hardly depressing, it's progress.
|
| It's not like humans are somehow put on this earth only to do
| certain jobs or the same job forever. Contrary to 100+ plus
| years of predictions, humans will never become obsolete.
| svara wrote:
| It reminds me a bit of a very small scale version of a robotic
| harbor, which very much exists in many places across the world
| already.
|
| I once toured the one in Hamburg, which is highly recommended
| if you ever get the chance.
|
| Nothing else has quite given me that feeling of being tiny next
| to this giant city-scale robot since.
| bgwalter wrote:
| There are also neighborhood self-help groups who try to "stack"
| the Waymos into alleys so that they can sleep:
|
| https://edition.cnn.com/2025/06/25/us/santa-monica-waymo-bat...
| soulofmischief wrote:
| https://archive.is/KvK7D
| The_President wrote:
| The juxtaposition of the Google Captcha in front of this self
| driving car article to train it on motorcycles and crosswalks
| for a full minute.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| That would drive me insane, they have my sympathy.
| Sophira wrote:
| If anybody is wondering, the music in this video appears to be
| "Alonia" by Valante. Very soothing.
| fabiensanglard wrote:
| Thank you, I was about to start searching for it :) !
| tomduncalf wrote:
| It has a similar feel to Vletrmx21 by Autechre if you dig the
| spooky ambient feel
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-fhfYhqBr4
| ekjhgkejhgk wrote:
| Couldn't hear it over the sound of Jethro Tull playing in my
| ears.
| netsharc wrote:
| Makes me think of Miniatur Wunderland's "self-charging" system:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC8aOLWR134
|
| It's the world most complex model railway with cars (not just
| trains) that go around in predetermined routes, and also go to
| the charging station when their battery is low. And I guess
| Waymos are a version of that but with human-scale! (Oh they still
| need humans to plug the charging cables into them).
|
| I wonder if they park themselves or if the maintenance people
| park them...
|
| Also, the footage feels like Satellite Reign
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFZVXG0g40Q (or the original
| game, Syndicate Wars)
| transitorykris wrote:
| Watch the Zoox test vehicles please. They do absolutely
| terrifying things, _in every encounter_.
| IntenseChaos wrote:
| Example?
| Fricken wrote:
| Getting Bladerunner vibes from several things but mostly that
| giant translucent synthwave Marco Cochrane statue.
| RaftPeople wrote:
| I got the same vibe.
| MarioMan wrote:
| Very interesting to see the workers in yellow presumably cleaning
| and manually plugging in the cars to charge.
| dllu wrote:
| Very neat. I recently went to the Waymo depot in Bayshore (Toland
| St) and snapped a couple of pictures of the new Zeekrs for
| Wikipedia.
|
| [1]
| https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Waymo_Zeekr_Vehicle_...
|
| [2]
| https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Waymo_Zeekr_Vehicle_...
| dvrp wrote:
| How did you get in?
| dllu wrote:
| These were parked on Hudson Ave, which is a public street,
| and not inside the fenced area of the depot. So I just walked
| up to them.
| vasco wrote:
| Your Transamerica pyramid picture is incredible among
| really cool pictures you have there. Quite cool to
| photograph for wikipedia like this, the world needs more
| people like you!
| sam-cop-vimes wrote:
| Indeed. May I ask the GP, how did you produce those
| scrollable images of the Shinkansen?
| dllu wrote:
| It was done with a line scan camera. More on the
| technique here:
| https://daniel.lawrence.lu/blog/2025-09-21-line-scan-
| camera-...
| blackoil wrote:
| How are Google allowed to get Zeekr? Are they pre tariff or
| they have some loophole being corporate?
| fragmede wrote:
| > some loophole being corporate
|
| Presumably they use the loophole called "paying the tariff".
| dangus wrote:
| Which isn't even really that prohibitive because Chinese
| vehicles beat Western pricing by five figures.
|
| Plus, all the sensor equipment is made in China anyway.
| There's almost certainly no way to have it manufactured in
| the US.
|
| On top of that, fleet sales don't have to deal with the
| antiquated dealer network laws in the US.
|
| And of course American market car manufacturers refuse to
| produce vehicles that are like this one: space efficient
| and reasonably sized, instead opting for gigantic bean
| shaped SUVs with sloping rear roofs that rob you of cargo
| space while taking up maximum curb real estate.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| I would pay lots of money for an electric minivan (or van
| I guess) with removable seats that can fit a 4 ft x 8ft
| board.
| toast0 wrote:
| Ford E-Transit is an electric van for a lot of money. But
| it looks like Ford wants to stop making them, and 2 seat
| models look much easier to find. But you'd be able to fit
| your board no problem.
| dangus wrote:
| I think the VW ID buzz is probably the closest thing
| you'll find in the US.
|
| Ignore the crazy high MSRP, they are selling poorly and
| you should be able to get one brand new or lightly used
| one in the 40s.
|
| I think in a short couple of years they could be a steal
| on the used market.
| cycomanic wrote:
| Not sure if it's sold in the US (assuming you are from
| there), but the Kia PV5 is probably your best bet. On top
| of that it's very reasonably priced (in contrast to the
| ID buzz)
| toast0 wrote:
| Tariffs are easy, just pay them. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety
| Standards are harder... But maybe there's a loophole for
| commercial transport? or maybe they paid to have the testing
| done?
| bri3d wrote:
| They do have a loophole; they import them as kits and "build"
| them at a Magna facility in Arizona (similar to how early
| Sprinter vans were re-assembled in the US and sold as
| Freightliners). But, they are FMVSS compliant (besides
| steering wheel) and have had several NHTSA organized recalls
| like any other compliant car might.
| rwmj wrote:
| The line scan photo of the Shinkansen train is amazing!
|
| https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Line_scan_photo_of_S...
| (If you're confused by that page, then so was I. It contains
| the full photo but it's so long that it gets compressed into a
| line a few pixels high.)
| balaji1 wrote:
| Great clips and editing. New perspective on the scale of self
| driving cars deployed currently.
| chiefgeek wrote:
| Gave me a new appreciation for the scale of the investment /bet
| that is being made on transportation of the future.
| rossjudson wrote:
| This is actually rather beautiful to look at, covering a full
| day/night cycle. Well done.
| blueblisters wrote:
| Surreal. Almost like an optimistic science fiction film.
|
| After all, self driving cars have some of the highest positive to
| negative externality ratio of any modern technology
| digital-cygnet wrote:
| Can you explain more why you think this? As I see it, cars in
| general remain very highly negative-externality, and self-
| driving doesn't change it much.
|
| Regular ICE cars: - air pollution from tire wear and brake dust
| - air pollution from exhaust - embodied carbon - noise -
| endangering other road users - traffic congestion - land use
| (sprawl) - long term health impacts (encouraging sedentary
| lifestyle)
|
| Switch to all-electric and you lose a bit of noise and all the
| tailpipe emissions, but gain whatever emissions generated the
| power (sometimes solar, great, but sometimes lignite, boo),
| whatever environmental damage resulted from the battery
| materials, and probably marginal worsening of safety as the
| same ranger requires a heavier vehicle
|
| Switch to self-driving and you may increase safety (feels like
| Waymo basically yes, Tesla probably no based on their track
| record with stat manipulation), but also vastly increase use,
| worsening congestion and land-use. The others stay the same.
|
| So I don't understand why you're saying the externality ratio
| is good. From my perspective self-driving cars don't really
| move the needle.
| nomilk wrote:
| Love the moonrise! Beautiful shots.
|
| When most road transport is automated it will seem crazy that
| everyone had to drive for themselves, or sit in the car with a
| complete stranger, who may prioritise their comfort over the
| traveller's with regard to audio, navigation noise, air
| 'fresheners' / diffusers, temperature. Perhaps analogous to
| having a flatmate; it's mostly done out of necessity rather than
| choice.
| admissionsguy wrote:
| Can't they get out and kill the Ubers already instead of sitting
| in the lot? (half-serious, but I have been wondering what are the
| reasons they don't just push the price towards zero during low
| hours?)
| blackoil wrote:
| They know how to boil a frog.
| erwincoumans wrote:
| Nice shots, would fit well in the Baraka (or Samara) movie.
| KellyCriterion wrote:
| Very impressive video! What you can clearly see:
|
| If you scale this over the next years, "manual driving is over"
| :-D
|
| This is just the very very early beginning, like the first
| seconds after big bang, we haven really started this whole thing:
| If you put just more ressources here, we will have giant parking
| houses for just self-driving-cars, like "coming home over night
| and recharge"
|
| And this technology will come on a mass scale, Im pretty sure -
| there is nothing that can stop this?
|
| How will this affect transportation jobs?
|
| If you are today a big insurance like Munich Re, and you see
| already today that self-driving produces already much less
| accidents (90% or so I read days ago?), and the tech is really
| new & "not 100% reliable" and you believe that this tech will be
| rolled out - one day you will start lobbying politicans that
| manual driving needs to be forbidden, except some rare cases.
|
| Lets come back in 10 years! :-)
| Thorrez wrote:
| >If you are today a big insurance like Munich Re, and you see
| already today that self-driving produces already much less
| accidents (90% or so I read days ago?), and the tech is really
| new & "not 100% reliable" and you believe that this tech will
| be rolled out - one day you will start lobbying politicans that
| manual driving needs to be forbidden, except some rare cases.
|
| Why would insurance companies lobby for that? 90% reduction in
| accidents means 90% reduction in premiums, which means 90%
| reduction in profits.
|
| Do insurance companies have a history of lobbying for safety
| regulations?
| ezfe wrote:
| Reduction in premiums doesn't mean reduction in profit.
| surajrmal wrote:
| Aren't insurance profits capped to some percentage of
| revenue in most jurisdictions by law?
| ezfe wrote:
| Yes, this is true - but it's still beneficial enough to
| have fewer claims. Claims incur cost in many ways and
| running a business with fewer claims would be more
| predictable and likely worth the minimal trade off.
| sib wrote:
| It generally does. If accidents (and payouts) drop by 90%,
| revenue will ultimately drop and profits will follow.
| Profit _margins_ may increase, but total profit $$ will
| likely drop.
| KellyCriterion wrote:
| Oh sure, they have!
|
| e.g.:
| https://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/200-wrr/Safer-
| from...
|
| And sure, insurances are fine with making profits, but if
| they can get less catastrophes, they are fine with that as it
| reduces overall risk etc.
|
| Feel free to check the corp publishing section on
| https://www.munichre.com/en/insights.html
| Philip-J-Fry wrote:
| Insurance is cheaper on safer vehicles.
|
| A 90% reduction in accidents is a 90% reduction in _paying
| out_. That reduces operating costs.
| socalgal2 wrote:
| You have a point. At the same time insurance companies are
| getting out of insurance because they can't afford it.
| Apparently (I didn't verify this), the cost to repair cars
| has gone up so much that the economics don't work out. So
| they're leaving the market. Maybe less crashes would bring
| them back?
|
| Pick a source: https://www.google.com/search?q=car+insurance+
| companies+leav...
| esafak wrote:
| They can charge companies more, as they drive more miles, for
| profit.
| surajrmal wrote:
| Unless it comes down massively in price, it's not going to
| displace manual driving for anything other than Uber/taxi. It's
| far cheaper to drive your own car in most of the us. If parking
| lots disappear and the parking that remains becomes similar in
| price to that of major cities and insurance rates skyrocket,
| then maybe that will change, but only by increasing the overall
| cost of transportation.
| BurningFrog wrote:
| Self driving taxis should absolutely be cheaper to use than
| current regular cars.
|
| Because they don't need a steering wheel, backseat, and many
| other things. They can also run close to 24/7.
|
| How "massive" the price drop becomes I don't date to guess
| though.
| bgwalter wrote:
| I'm sure that an insurance company would reject larger premiums
| and make itself obsolete, assuming that claims you make are
| true.
|
| Hint: Normies outside the tech world are not hell bent on
| making themselves unemployed. That phenomenon only exists among
| software engineers.
| CPLX wrote:
| > If you are today a big insurance like Munich Re, and you see
| already today that self-driving produces already much less
| accidents
|
| Insurance companies don't really care that much if accidents
| are more or less likely, what they care about is that they can
| be underwritten effectively.
|
| The most interesting shift here as it pertains to insurance is
| the fact that losses might be _correlated_ in brand new ways.
| Today there 's no simple way for 100,000 cars to all crash a
| few minutes apart, worldwide, for the same reason. In the
| future that may in fact be plausible.
| spwa4 wrote:
| What amazes me about Waymo is how expensive the rides are.
| They're at least 20% more expensive than Uber (the much more
| expensive Uber of today, not the Uber of 2-4 years ago),
| sometimes 100-150% more expensive.
|
| If they can't be cheaper, then what's the point?
| Daneel_ wrote:
| No need to make small-talk with someone is a positive for many
| people. That might make it worth it?
| ufmace wrote:
| Having ridden a few of them in the area, I think they're worth
| it.
|
| Waymos are 100% reliable. If you book it and it says it's
| coming at X time, it will definitely actually show up at X
| time. No more of, driver cancelled at the last minute because
| they don't actually want to drive to destination Y but Uber etc
| gave it to them anyways and they get dinged if they just cancel
| instead of claiming not to be able to find the rider etc. Or
| driver got lost or stopped for food or gas or something so is
| late.
|
| It also gets to the destination exactly when it says it will.
| No weird routes because of the driver's whim or driving too
| fast or too slow. And no chance of bad music, loud conversation
| in some foreign language, annoying commentary, etc.
|
| And I want them to be profitable to run too, so they have
| plenty of incentive to expand the program.
| gniv wrote:
| The novelty premium?
| ThrowawayTestr wrote:
| There are people that will wait for a self-checkout kiosk to
| be available instead of going to a cashier. There are
| definitely people that will pay for a solo car ride.
| rangestransform wrote:
| the jaguar ipace base vehicle is uber black eligible in some
| markets, compared to the shitty check engine light hoopties you
| could risk with uberx
| chakintosh wrote:
| Waymo's been doing for the past 5 years what Elon's promised to
| deliver 10 years ago (and is still not delivering)
| forinti wrote:
| Probably because their CEOs are focusing on their job and not
| fooling around.
| HarHarVeryFunny wrote:
| Plus:
|
| Waymos are safer - they have Lidar and Radar in addition to
| vision
|
| Waymos have human fallback to remote operators
|
| Google takes responsibility for Waymos, vs Teslas being
| privately owned
|
| Google took a more regulator savvy incremental approach
| ekjhgkejhgk wrote:
| Tesla is so dead LOL
| Cadwhisker wrote:
| I had to replay that to appreciate how the transitions from night
| to day were done so very, very well. The dynamic range of the
| shots always seemed spot on.
|
| That isn't easy to get right.
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(page generated 2025-12-25 23:01 UTC)