So, what’s it gonna take for Waymo to start selling retrofit kits for existing cars?
If a $10,000 investment reduces the chances of a serious accident by 90%, the corresponding reduction in insurance rates might have a payoff within a few years. Especially if adoption starts to push rates up for customers who don’t automate. I can’t take a taxi everywhere, but I’d sure like it if my car drove me everywhere and did a better job than me at it too.
I had another post in this thread with the same information, but here again is the current Waymo sensor suite...
>With 13 cameras, 4 lidar, 6 radar, and an array of external audio receivers (EARs), our new sensor suite is optimized for greater performance...it provides the Waymo Driver with overlapping fields of view, all around the vehicle, up to 500 meters away, day and night, and in a range of weather conditions.
It honestly feels like they spend years validating each new platform, e.g. the Zeekr was announced years ago and only recently are they very rarely seen on the streets but only as Waymo Engineering mules. Likewise the transition from the Chrysler Pacifica to the I-Pace took a while. Hopefully they figure something out to scale up to more platforms soon. They announced a partnership with Hyundai a few years ago, also with nothing to show for it.
Of course, safety first, so they should take their time and not rush things...
The zeekr vehicles were heavily affected by changing regulations and tariffs around Chinese made automobiles. The Hyundai vehicles haven't started production yet. They're in an awkward situation because they made a bad prediction about the political direction without a backup plan and it went south right as they were entering production.
They need to work everywhere. How do they do in snow/ice (humans do really bad here - but where I live it happens often enough that we often cannot stay home or we would spend weeks in the house)
Don't get my wrong, I'm hoping it is soon. However they have a lot of work left.
Perhaps, in the same way you may not need an aircoditioner (due to your location), it would probably not be the best for waymo to market itself as 'suitable for all conditions, ymmv, lol'.
If a $10,000 investment reduces the chances of a serious accident by 90%, the corresponding reduction in insurance rates might have a payoff within a few years. Especially if adoption starts to push rates up for customers who don’t automate. I can’t take a taxi everywhere, but I’d sure like it if my car drove me everywhere and did a better job than me at it too.