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Doctor M. Popular
Doctor M. Popular
@docpop@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 years ago

Have you ever noticed that most self-driving cars don't have any passengers?

"Deadheading" is an industry term for keeping driverless cars in constant motion, even when they have neither a passenger nor a destination. Waymo & Cruise rely on deadheading to avoid paying for parking.

Why pay the city for public parking when you can store your car on the road for free (as long as it's moving)?

Since I've started keeping track, I've noticed that over 90% of the self-driving cars I see are empty...

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Traffic at a busy intersection in San Francisco (Cesar Chavez and Guerrero). Most of the cars in the video are traditional cars with drivers, but three driverless Cruise cars pass by the camera. None of these driverless cars have passengers. At the stoplight, they all drive in different directions. It is not clear if they are driving to pick someone up, or just driving to avoid parking.
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Doctor M. Popular
Doctor M. Popular
@docpop@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 2 years ago

Tonight I spent one hour at the corner of Cesar Chavez & Guerrero St counting driverless cars.

Between 5-6pm, I counted 27 driverless cars, but only 1 appeared to have a passenger.

During rush hour in #SanFrancisco, 96% of the Waymos, Cruises, and Xoops on this busy street were empty!

edit: driverless cars can operate 24/7 in SF, but I've been informed that some are only taking passengers during certain hours (ie 9pm-5am). So the cars I saw today were probably not accepting any paid rides.

3 media
A screenshot from my notes app. I used Ns to represent each car I saw without a passenger, Ys to represent cars with passengers, and ? to represent cars that I wasn't sure on. 

Waymo had 11 cars with no passengers and 1 car with a passenger. Of those cars, 5 had human drivers sitting in the driver seat. I could not tell if they were actually driving.

Cruise had 12 cars with no humans in them at all. 

Xoop had 3 cars. Of which I can only say for sure that there were no passengers. The other two I could not tell. 

The time of the screenshot is 6pm.
A screenshot from my notes app. I used Ns to represent each car I saw without a passenger, Ys to represent cars with passengers, and ? to represent cars that I wasn't sure on. Waymo had 11 cars with no passengers and 1 car with a passenger. Of those cars, 5 had human drivers sitting in the driver seat. I could not tell if they were actually driving. Cruise had 12 cars with no humans in them at all. Xoop had 3 cars. Of which I can only say for sure that there were no passengers. The other two I could not tell. The time of the screenshot is 6pm.
A screenshot from my notes app. I used Ns to represent each car I saw without a passenger, Ys to represent cars with passengers, and ? to represent cars that I wasn't sure on. Waymo had 11 cars with no passengers and 1 car with a passenger. Of those cars, 5 had human drivers sitting in the driver seat. I could not tell if they were actually driving. Cruise had 12 cars with no humans in them at all. Xoop had 3 cars. Of which I can only say for sure that there were no passengers. The other two I could not tell. The time of the screenshot is 6pm.
An empty Cruise at the corner of Guerrero and Cesar Chavez.
An empty Cruise at the corner of Guerrero and Cesar Chavez.
An empty Cruise at the corner of Guerrero and Cesar Chavez.
An empty Waymo at the corner of Cesar Chavez and Guerrero.
An empty Waymo at the corner of Cesar Chavez and Guerrero.
An empty Waymo at the corner of Cesar Chavez and Guerrero.
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