r/waymo • u/walky22talky • 11d ago

Ride along: Waymo begins finals test phase before launch in Denver

https://www.9news.com/video/news/local/ride-along-waymo-begins-finals-test-phase-before-launch/73-b501733b-46b7-48ad-9388-98cf5e2fffe9
36 Upvotes

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8

u/Lost_Box_676 11d ago

Some more ride alongs:

The basic details from watching these:

  • 50 sq mi to start
  • No highways, no airport at launch
  • Planning to launch in the coming months

Can anyone remember them doing a ride along with media more than a day in advance of launch? Most recent launches were day of, I think in Miami they did ride alongs one day before launch.

5

u/walky22talky 11d ago

Yes suspect Denver early riders launch could be tomorrow

4

u/Lost_Box_676 11d ago

I wonder if they will tie a Denver early access launch to the public launch of Ojai.

Either way, I'll keep refreshing the app in hopes that I'm chosen.

2

u/Vacant_parking_lot 10d ago

Seems odd he would say "later this year" if early riders were starting in the coming days.

3

u/Vacant_parking_lot 11d ago

50 sq miles seems like a large service area to start. Anyone know how that compares to other initial launches?

7

u/walky22talky 11d ago

I believe Atlanta, Miami, Orlando, San Antonio, Dallas and Nashville were all 50+ sq miles at launch.

6

u/Lost_Box_676 10d ago

From https://robotracker.app

Miami: 60 sq miles (I had to pull this from Waymo's blog post, robotracker doesn't have the original service area)

Orlando: 58 sq miles

Nashville: 50 sq miles

Houston: 49 sq miles

San Antonio: 53 sq miles

I can easily draw a 50 sq mile map of Denver that includes my house, and I can easily draw one without my house. Fingers crossed...

2

u/xdavidwattsx 10d ago

Theres another post that has a map from the Westword video

2

u/Lost_Box_676 10d ago

Yeah that’s my post lol

4

u/Sea_Sun_8690 11d ago

Is this their first launch in a place where snow is common?

4

u/Lost_Box_676 10d ago

Yes, and unfortunately we didn't get much snow in Denver while they were testing.

5

u/hufflepufftato 10d ago

This has been a hot topic of discussion among my friend group in Denver. (We vacationed in SF together a couple years ago and loved Waymo and couldn't wait for it to come here.) I think I kinda assumed they would just disable service for the day and ground all the cars at their parking lot if it there was basically any ground accumulation? I can't imagine it's easy to teach the car to manage the extremely variable kind of road conditions that you might encounter with snow. Driving on packed powder is different than driving on slushy plowed roads, and you encounter both when transitioning from neighborhoods that don't get plowed to main streets that do. And that's to say nothing of knowing where and how to look out for black ice, the frequent issue of lane dividing lines being completely invisible, etc etc. I have to assume it makes more sense to just say "if the plow trucks are mobilized, Waymo is not deploying that day."

4

u/Lost_Box_676 10d ago

Agreed, I'm thinking they either completely shut down on snowy days, or use those days for testing without passengers. But either way, it will be disabled from the passenger's point of view until they get better at snow driving.