Behind the Scenes at Waymo Driverless Taxi Depot

[@JJs_playground]

As a huge "car guy", I never thought I'd be so interested in watching a 15min video about a parking depot. Lol

[@bubble_tea2955]

The "time out" spot is where cars that need to be deep cleaned are sent, for example if someone spills something or damages the interior.

[@NassimSYD]

How do they know that a passenger has spilled something or damaged something inside the vehicle? Camera detects it and alerts Waymo team or what?

[@zacharygrossman8316]

@@NassimSYD i believe they are inspected via camera feed after each ride by a real human... or it could be ai

[@rosspatterson44]

No solar panels on that giant roof ??? Wasted opportunity

[@zionismisterrorism8716]

@@rosspatterson44 Or wind turbines.

[@andybrice2711]

Incorrect. That's where cars go if they've been naughty. To think about what they did.

[@JJRicks]

15 minutes flew by, amazing coverage and insights!!

[@Mr_Battlefield]

( Fly-by ) or say "15 minutes of drone footage"

[@realthree]

typically youtube recommends me tiny channels that have boring or low quality videos, but this is clearly an exception. nice work!!

[@aaabbb-py5xd]

What KZbin have you been on?

[@Bro-hx9yf]

@@aaabbb-py5xdhe’s not wrong, KZbin does recommend shitty videos .

[@rxtf]

Eating breakfast on a Sunday morning, watching a video about depots... Doesn't get better than this.

[@jackhammer078jack4]

Painfully accurate 😂

[@ibrahimhanif8503]

I'm doing the exact same thing 4 months later. We all live the same lives.

[@totallypluggedin]

I'm willing to bet that the reason the cars use hazard lights and drive agonizingly slow is due to insurance guidelines. I notice similar activity at our local amazon depot.

[@KevinChen5]

Thanks, really good point about insurance

[@martincday007]

It's only when you see the Waymo depot in operation that it really highlights how far ahead Waymo are in providing a RoboTaxi service than Tesla with their FSD. Even if Tesla's FSD was capable there is so much more to providing a taxi service other than the automated driving. Waymo have made so many advances such as improving their interaction with emergency responders, allowing the emergency services to geofence an area from Waymo vehicles and having Waymo remote operators take over or give advice, and to train the emergency responders on how to interact or take control of a Waymo vehicle. There is a big difference going from an always supervised vehicle to one that has no driver. If a Tesla FSD disengages, the driver takes over, for a Tesla RoboTaxi after a disengagement there would be no one to take control, and that part of the service needs to be addressed before they can be let loose on the road. Waymo and Tesla FSD are often compared to one another when really there is no comparison. There is very little that Tesla FSD can do that Waymo can't, while there would seem to be a stack of things that Waymo can do, that Tesla FSD can't.

[@Worldofourown2024]

Tesla's robotaxi is to be unveiled in August. It's going to be the first car without operator controls such as a steering wheel. In the meantime, we're still waiting for robots to drive, clean, and work like slaves while speaking perfect English.

[@Cjdergrosse]

@@Worldofourown2024 Sorry but no vehicle mfg has level 4 autonomy. NO ONE. Even these Waymo's, which are hugely geo-fenced to San Francisco, and mapped thoroughly for local trips, still have steering wheels. And they are light years ahead of Tesla. Tesla's don't even have radar or lidar, but yet every other automaker that is putting money into autonomy is going the opposite route. We will not see a steering wheel-less vehicle for at least a decade. I had a Tesla but man, they are so full of BS.

[@MirceaGoia]

@@Worldofourown2024 How's going with that August reveal :))))?

[@Worldofourown2024]

@@MirceaGoia Elon Musk postponed it.

[@MirceaGoia]

@@Worldofourown2024 I know, that's why I asked :)

[@stephenrogers9664]

Honestly what a fantastic video. I’m in Australia, & the thing of a driverless taxi is crazy. For a small channel I think you’ll expand good. Your quality is very good.

[@Claus-y5y]

I assume the slow driving in the lot is a safety measure for the people working there.

[@Michael_1Sw43]

Thank you so much for the detailed explanation. I used to drop off packages near the main location and I remember before when amazon had a warehouse and when waymo started buying that area. crazy how fast it changed and it’s a depot there now

[@aeromtb2468]

i guess waymo is keeping the ipace line alive.

[@nguyep4]

Probably mean paying a premium for that.

[@KevinChen5]

I heard a rumor they own a majority of all ipaces 😂

[@boostav]

@@KevinChen5 Do you know what the power output on those dc fast chargers is?

[@KevinChen5]

@@boostav the ones in Arizona are 60 kW (check out JJRicks interview with someone who works in Waymo depot). Don’t know about these.

[@boostav]

@@KevinChen5 Thank you

[@darkbasic86]

I love the idea of the naughty corner 😂

[@puregero]

They should have a Waymo always parked at the exit of the depot, so that it can get to customers faster rather than having to slowly navigate the entire parking lot. A standby car for the depot

[@popcorn8153]

Hear me out on this; we take the Waymo cars and replace their tires with metal wheels, then we create a track system that runs throughout an area, this can be a street level system very similar to a trolley. We remove the car engine and replace it with an electric powertrain that connects to an overhead wire that the waymo car can attach to via a telescopic boom. We create stops along the way similar to stations for a trolley. We also increase the capacity of the cars by extending them and adding more seating.

[@25566]

Since they're all on it should work like a taxi depot, cars are parked in line and when the first one leaves the other ones move 1 spot so there's always a car near the exit.

[@puregero]

@@25566 Oh yeah, that's smart, why are they parking the cars inefficiently like personal vehicles anyway

[@zachb1706]

@@popcorn8153trains are shit.

[@jonathanbott87]

They likely (hopefully) are using an anticipated demand model where it keeps a distribution of cars around the service area without crowding. Uber in Chicago dispatches drivers to O'Hare from the waiting lot before they're assigned a ride. It's based on demand and minimizes the delay due to getting from the lot to the terminal.

[@CryptoNewsTV]

You keep saying “slow” but I don’t understand if self driving should be like F1 racing or just normal safe driving. Idk but seemed just fine to me. Any faster without a person behind the wheel wouldn’t feel right to me.

[@rajavenkatesh5669]

wow kevin! loved the way you walk through the video and the audio , video , content quality is top notch !! loved the aerial view ... Hope to see you big !! cant believe 15 mins went by soo fast!

[@Str8ABH]

Really cool. Great narration as well.

[@findlisa5]

Great video Kevin. I agree with your guesses at about 13:00 on data swapping going on during the trunk visits by the Waymo staff. I'd say the main reason for the disk swapping vs. wireless data transmission is speed (and maybe cost). Historically wired data transfers occurred at least an order of magnitude faster by wire than wireless. That ratio may have gone down somewhat recently with new WI-Fi and cell standards, but we don't know what they are doing with this data. If they just retain it briefly, then they might not even transfer it off the swapped drives Instead, they might just schedule the drives to be reused once the data was retained long enough to be sure there wasn't a big problem, like an accident that was reported somewhat later. BTW, two possibilities for the wired connection are USB or Ethernet. I believe most (if not all) of the 40 sensors (28 cameras, 6 radars, and 6 lidars) are networked to the Waymo computer in the trunk via one or more Ethernet switches, also located in the trunk. I believe the data drives you are talking about are external to the rest of the Waymo computer and either are connected via Ethernet (like a NAS unit) or as an external drive using USB or eSATA. Maybe some former Waymo or Cruise employees can comment on this, since those working with this onboard storage (probably mostly to archive the sensor data) would know best which drive types (although I'd guess big SSDs) and which wired communications (Ethernet, USB, or SATA?) are getting used in the latest self-driving systems like Waymo's.

[@PangDaDriver]

I understand that Waymo vehicles have a mobile storage device similar to that of Synology

[@findlisa5]

@@PangDaDriver Yeah, that sounds right. I'd just guess they are using SSDs inside that NAS unit for the speed and reliability (especially regarding vibration) over spinning disks as used in the old Synology NAS units and even over the hybrid drives. Yeah, I guess that means all the Waymo computer peripherals (beside the car's system like steering, throttle, brakes, and the Waymo displays which must be wired by DisplayPort or HDMI) are connected by Ethernet, maybe all on one switch in the trunk.

[@AZaqZaqProduction]

They almost certainly keep all the data somewhere, offloading it to a data center at least. Whether that's by having a courier take the hard drives and just ship them right to the data center or by transmitting the data remotely is anyone's guess.

[@miracles-design]

never had issue with waymo in arizona. like it

[@DerekDavis213]

Too bad that 99.99% of America does not have Waymo service.

[@petecoventry6858]

@@DerekDavis213 agreed but when it does it's going to be awesome.

[@DerekDavis213]

@@petecoventry6858 Awesome? Why? Today, you can call for an Uber or Lyft and they will pick you up in minutes. Robo-taxis are not needed, and nobody is asking for them.

[@xploration1437]

@@petecoventry6858lol, Waymo will go bankrupt before that.

[@Ample17]

The approach of Waymo is not Scalable. Tesla robo taxi will be cover the US within the next 12-24 Months though. ​@@petecoventry6858

[@nihongobenkyoshimasu3190]

3:15 There is a huge statue of a woman lying on her side on top of the building just on the left side. I noticed it from the freeway, and it seems that the amusing statue is on the top of a building inside the Waymo parking lot. I would be curious to know more about this strange statue story.

[@seanhacking9749]

Burning Man art installation, I guess they found a good place for the public to enjoy it. It's amazing metal work, especially up close and illuminated at night.

[@lfsalt]

I see them throughout the day and night in SF zooming around with no one driving-LOL---now I know where they go to get serviced. Cool.

[@Bobrogers99]

My first thought was that they should have induction charging so that a human didn't have to plug them in. But since a human needs to check the car to make sure it's clean and ready, he might as well plug it in as well. It takes a second human visit to unplug it to put it back in service.

[@boyangsong3091]

For smaller charging station with no human, inductive charging will still be needed. Then we can increase the number of robotaxi charging stations and spread them out.

[@seancopley499]

@@boyangsong3091 theres no way induction charging will come even close to price competition with gas, allready hybrids in California are winning the price war. Induction losses would mean you would be better off driving a 16mpg dump truck

[@spiderbite7849]

They could have internal cameras to detect spills, dirt and lost items. Surely they aim to be completely autonomous at some point.

[@theotheleo6830]

Induction charging isn't as efficient as wired charging. If they want to reduce the human aspect, they could build robot charging stations. About a month ago, I saw a video of a robot gas station.

[@szymex22]

They could also use some kind of pantograph charging system like those electric busses have. Induction is very inefficient.

[@natehill8069]

Reminds me of the first time I saw a robotic order-fulfillment grocery warehouse (about 44 years ago).

[@skylershank9309]

Of course the autonomous driving industry should get better. It's erratic at best and a danger to other vehicles. There is no substitute for competent and attentive drivers.

[@imjody]

This was definitely super neat! The slow speed is probably to also ensure the safety of the many staff roaming that same parking lot. Really appreciate you putting this together!

[@JoeBissell]

I live down the street from this depot, it's really cool to watch sometimes.

[@CasperChicago]

That is interesting and informative! I have many questions about Waymo and this is a good start to understanding the technology 👍🏾

[@technotion_]

Great stuff! So silly that the autonomus vehicle service hasnt figured out how to automate the security gates lol

[@VMYeahVN]

I don't think it's a matter of not having figured it out. Automated security gates have existed for a long time already. I think having them be manned is more so a security/safety measure.

[@JustBens]

Literally didn’t go behind the scenes.

[@ourv9603]

You do understand that GOOGLE doesnt give a fig about people needing rides or the taxi business right? The purpose of all these WAYMO cars is that they are all test mules. Each is testing the software & the sensors and each is involved with perfecting the self driving tech. Teslas FSD they are so proud of is rated by the NTSB as a 2 out of 5 while the WAYMO system is the most advanced of them all at a 4.5 blowing TESLAS FSD out of the water. Once they perfect this tech, GOOGLE will be offering their tech for sale to car companies & simi truck companies whoever has the $$$$. They intend to corner the self driving tech market. And they are very close. !

[@constanttraveler]

This is an insider, astute comment.

[@Deontjie]

$40,000 for a Tesla, and $200,000 for a Waymo.

[@andis9076]

Damn, feel surreal seeing so many cars drive and parking by itself.

[@trektn]

I don't think you could hide in the back seats, the rider support camera can probably see what you're doing so it wouldn't be effective

[@phillyphil1513]

yeah they know when you're in there as the cars are equipped with 2-way Audio/Video, so they can talk to you and you can talk to them. source: i just talked to them from the back seat on 4/18 out in Phoenix.

[@trektn]

@@phillyphil1513 in some of these videos I can see a couple of infrared LEDs blink towards the front and I assume it's lighting up the person in the car when they drop in to see what's going on, but no rider support call or anything, so it doesn't have to be two way unless they also record audio as well

[@phillyphil1513]

@@trektn re: "so it doesn't have to be two way..." repeat: it's 2-way cause i just talked to them from the backseat of a Waymo out in Phoenix on South 52nd Street, date: 4/18.

[@trektn]

​@@phillyphil1513 repeat: I've seen the camera ir leds blink in some of the videos so it's possible they're tabbing in without you needing to talk to them

[@jon-kl9mk]

Weird seeing Waymo do it's thing on its own around in the parking lot. We need Waymo here in the Orange county, Ca area

[@johnwolf7073]

this is awesome ! thanks for showing this

[@rajnaik5787]

I drove a Tesla Model Y in the UK for six months - the phantom braking was so annoying.

[@maciekb7555]

Cars are so slow in the depot area due to so many people working around. It was programmed that way.

[@modolief]

And I always thought that spinning thing on Robbie the Robot's head was some kind of nonsense. I was wrong all these years!

[@jijin2450]

We need Waymo Indian guys(AI) with simulators

[@growtocycle6992]

Or you could pay people and give someone a job!?!

[@nroose]

Seems like the language we use for AI entities is just wrong. It's not "as they please", it's "as needed" or "as necessary".

[@matt45540]

I'd say the biggest problem with how they aimlessly drive around the parking lot is wear and tear on the front end. At slower speeds turning is more difficult. You're also not using regen below 5 to 10 miles an hour, so you're putting wear on the brakes. I'd say a steering rack and all the ball joints and front-end parts are probably 5 to 10k installed. Not to mention the tire wear

[@NikConwell]

Thanks for sharing this. Great video, great production values!

[@franksnowboarder]

The coolest thing about these cars is you don't have to worry about tipping

[@constanttraveler]

Great comment!

[@natehill8069]

No, theyll come up with that next. Shhh!

[@patriot7083]

The Waymo driverless cars seem to be better drivers than many humans. Maybe people who lose the drivers license for being bad drivers or DUI could be ordered by the court that they may only use driverless cars.

[@MikstyOnYt]

Wait do u get your money back after you cancel your trip?

[@TaylorCks03]

Great coverage. I'm looking forward to when they get to my city.

[@pancww]

no matter where you want to go,your destination will be hell.😂😂😂😂

[@mark9294]

Isn’t that the normal speed for a parking lot? In Germany at least, it needs to be at “walking speed” so about 4-7 km/h

[@user-ln7of9gs4s]

5 mph around cars, walking speed. Unfortunately some people have low IQs and speed.

[@robertyoung8615]

Yes though it is rare anyone here drives at that speed, about double is what is more common in a flat parking lot.

[@zachb1706]

Sure, no one follows it though

[@lwilton]

In the US parking lots are usually private property rather than public, so generally government-mandated traffic laws do not apply. Owner-posted traffic speed in a parking lot is usually around 10 to 15 MPH, or 16-24 KPH. You are still required to be cautious of pedestrians, vehicles backing out, and the like, so in busy areas the driving speed is somewhere between stopped and say 5 KPH. Traffic speed postings in the US (not necessarily actual traffic speed) are generally faster than in European cities, except on main highways: Parking lot: 10-15 MPH Residential area: 25 MPH Business district: 35 MPH Main street with limited on-street parking: 45-50 MPH Highway speed: 55-65 MPH In some fairly rare cases 70 MPH on designated stretches of some freeways. This roughly corresponds to: Parking lot: 16-24 KPH Residential: 40 KPH Business: 56 KPH Main street: 72-80 Highway: 88-104 Freeway: 88-104, sometimes to 112.

[@jonathanbott87]

​@@robertyoung8615yeah, but robots don't "cheat", and it's probably a safety requirement (OSHA or insurance)

[@JerryGonzalez-un3ho]

It looks like they're spending more money with that garage and security than to pay an Uber driver to use his car

[@lfsalt]

Also, there's a charging station right in downtown on Jackson Street that I always see them stop(about 8 cars) at and a live person cleans them while they are being charged-FYI

[@desertchild3550]

Cool,but I,w rather see my hard earned cash going to a taxi driver who need the income then to give it to a faceless company.

[@syproful]

Dude goes filming Google from the top. I find that very ironic. Spying on the spy.

[@emilianogabriel9613]

We have those in Las Vegas how to call them for a ride

[@mglmouser]

How is this service even profitable given all the infrastructure?

[@mgdewitt]

what would happen if my I have 50 cars from my firm park in this lot?

[@kw-jk8yu]

why do you like to talk so much shit about how *painfully* slow it goes? get over it man

[@telekommandant]

Imagine a remake of "Taxi Driver" but with a Waymo.

[@richardnixon4345]

You talking to me?

[@Nicholas-f5]

Waymo Driver 🤖

[@jonathanbott87]

I think there may partially be a safety speed limit in the parking lot - any loading zone at Amazon is signed at 5mph.

[@dreamliner2]

Is spray paint free in the US or something? What a mess…

[@123gh]

Never will i ever support this industry and i hope if fails

[@dmacallister]

Terrific job, Kevin

[@VedaSay]

Seems there needs a huge evolution to self-driving. This is now how it will happen. At least in places where its only robot-vehicles, they should communicate over an algorithm and it must be very fast movement. This is what the future will be. Once we reach 80-90% autonomous driving, traffic signals will be of no use, the robot-vehicles will communicated and slow down or speedup to clear a junction without need to bother other direction of traffic.

[@kccorliss3922]

Can waymo cars detect a flat tire?

[@harbourwoodlandvisitor2445]

but what happens to the drivers of taxis now they no longer needed?

[@zachb1706]

They get different jobs

[@Deontjie]

Crime?

[@ourv9603]

Just because the WAYMO cars dont drive like you does not mean it is wrong, it just drives differently. Maybe your driving style is wrong. Maybe you should strive to drive more like WAYMO. !

[@glademaster]

Awesome video of behind the scenes

[@JTevish]

That Waymo parking was being driven by someone. You see them get out in the next clip viewing from the back of the depot lot

[@motherslove686]

Little bit eerie to see that parking lot without anybody there

[@TheRealmfc90125]

No offense, but you seem obsessed with the speed of these vehicles with no people in them. I’d rather them proceed “painfully slow” rather then behave recklessly. Your constant comments about their speed took me out of the video.

[@lilxlilx3902]

Don't use Google waymo robots not safe!

[@ethandolny]

Just realized they use Jaguar EVs.. seems like a kinda strange choice hahaha

[@SanthiratanMandyam]

Thanks, was curious about this.

[@FrogandFlangeVideo]

Great video, Kevin. Greetings from Canada. I took one of these while on vaca in SF recently. It was very cool ride. I wondered where the depots were. Now I know. James.

[@TNT-projects]

Those waymo could never navigate a UK carpark… they would not get round the tight corners 😂

[@mikethecargeek]

Interesting there is no EV Charging (Opportunity Charging) at the first parking lot. Their intention is to only have them wait there briefly and they wait until later to charge 🔋

[@jonathanbott87]

They probably try to maintain a distribution across the city and not crowd if they're underutilized

[@테스트유튜브배우-x5c]

사람들이 AI와 로봇에 밀려서 직업을 못 구하면, 자본주의 시장경제는 더이상 돌아갈수가 없어. 사람들이 돈 못벌면 소비를 못해. 쓸돈이 없는데 어떻게 자본주의 시장경제가 돌아가?그리고 인간은 뭔 짓을해도 AI와 로봇에 상대가 안돼. 이길수가 없어. 직업을 지킬수가 없어. 그러니까 더이상 자본주의 시장경제는 존립할수가 없다는것이 증명돼. 그거 막을려고 지금 이짓을 하고 있는거야. 얼마나 엉터리이고 말도 안되는짓인가?

[@lkrnpk]

I like how Tesla fanboys go like ''well Elon's solution does not require geofencing and it is way cheaper, just based on vision''... Well Elon's solution also does not work at the moment at all (if we talk about service levels required to run robotaxis), while Waymo service seems to work rather fine even if in restricted areas and not making economic sense yet and maybe just in good weather. Don't get me wrong, when it works FSD is impressive for only vision driven system, but there is no idea how long may it take for Tesla to get to where Waymo is even now. For the robotaxi reveal they are also doing geofenced solution it seems... No matter if it has steering wheel or not, it is not like everyone has no disengagement drives every time... it's just not ready. Maybe the Dojo or whatever, new AI techniques will ''solve'' it soon, but maybe not

[@raphaelmahumane1648]

My questions now: who matches rides with customers, does the car take all these decisions on its own, like what to do now since it does not have anything to do..... does each car have someone behind it from the depo such as a controller, like someone who fly a drone using some FPV gogles of some sort.....? I know these question might have top secreet answers....

[@huulegobetrotter1660]

This it the most boring and interesting video ever.

[@HayesHaugen]

@2:00 you seem confused why the car doesn't just drive across the sidewalk and into the road. Vehicles must stop before they cross a sidewalk. Unclear why you don't know this.

[@wobjebn1]

This is the BlackBerry product before iPhone came online.

[@gorombolyierik]

This is how i feel when i watch the beamng ai cars trying to do things

[@ridged8]

This is so bizarre

[@SwiffyDK]

4:33 Not a Focus, but Escape/Kuga

[@Phauglin99]

The cars are insanely slow even given they know that area perfectly. Time between you requesting a ride and the parked Waymo car actually approaching you is super high, they need to work on that

[@javier4694]

No son autónomos. Son teledirigidos por ingenieros. Que intervienen si la situación lo requiere. Y no son rentables.

[@sarng3832]

Stop spying robots need privacy also

[@yoHOBODAN]

Criminals should tag the cars not the building. Obviously tagging is legal in CaliCo

[@believein1]

How are you gonna inconvenience a robot by canceling the ride you made just outside the depot? How dare you. 😂😂😂

[@MusicalMemeology]

So they just sit there idling? That’s pretty bad why not have an idle mode and internal battery?

[@zachb1706]

They’re electric are they not? Idling doesn’t use electricity

[@jonathanbott87]

​@@zachb1706well it uses some, they things are spinning

[@konsul2006]

The spinning sensor system is aweful to watch! I don't like it! Can they make one that don't stand out like that?

[@ngroy8636]

Feels like watching ant colonies

[@theotheleo6830]

Very interesting.

[@Bren39]

So you called a car fully knowing that you would cancel. That's kinda douche baggy thing to do.

[@trixie9867]

yeah those cars are on - they are spinning

[@kccorliss3922]

With three depots, the last one looks to handle at least 40 cars, can we speculate there are at least 100 cars operating in SF?

[@mikelCold]

Very cool, thanks for doing this!

[@GroovyVideo2]

Waymo Gone Wild

[@swp466]

13:13 -- There are plenty of wireless antennae on the building. Look at the edge of the roof. Each light installation along the edge has two wireless network access points on it. That's plenty of antenna coverage to do full wireless data transfers.

[@michaelWells-ef9bx]

Well ..... at least they ain’t getting Stoned all day like those Fools on the Scooters ....

[@nathansheard9576]

Does slow driving really cause you physical discomfort?