The only way a door gets left open is if someone orders a ride and leaves it open. That person is charged a fee, which pays for the Doordash person - which is cheaper than installing motors/automatic doors in every ride. And, there's good availability of Doordash (or Uber Eats, etc.) drivers in every market Waymo is in right now.
Why isn't the loud audible warning? Maybe send notification? It seems insane to charge for this instead of adding big flashing warning light for example.
The car announces on the outside speaker that the door isn't closed, turns its hazard lights on, and they send an app notification. Some people will still miss all of the above, or ignore it. Sometimes the seatbelt is jammed and stops the door from closing, and they assume the car is 'wrong' and walk off. There will always be edge cases, you build operational policies like the doordash one to cover them.
I considered this, but actually it's a bad strategy if the door is only slightly ajar and not all the way open. The nice thing about my approach is that it works no matter what. Obviously even better if the vehicle can rapidly change from reverse to drive instead of merely slamming the brake.
Sounds like something that engineers can solve near them and good findings of field testing.
The only way a door gets left open is if someone orders a ride and leaves it open. That person is charged a fee, which pays for the Doordash person - which is cheaper than installing motors/automatic doors in every ride. And, there's good availability of Doordash (or Uber Eats, etc.) drivers in every market Waymo is in right now.
Seems like a pretty good solution, honestly.
Why isn't the loud audible warning? Maybe send notification? It seems insane to charge for this instead of adding big flashing warning light for example.
The car announces on the outside speaker that the door isn't closed, turns its hazard lights on, and they send an app notification. Some people will still miss all of the above, or ignore it. Sometimes the seatbelt is jammed and stops the door from closing, and they assume the car is 'wrong' and walk off. There will always be edge cases, you build operational policies like the doordash one to cover them.
It is already solved. But motors are expensive and the safety software also.
Might be cheaper to stick to DoorDash than replace doors when the "safety software" keeps the customers locked inside the car.
I don't think it's terribly expensive or difficult. Many modern vehicles have power lift gates. Minivans have had power sliding doors for ages.
Yes, it has cost, but this is a solved problem.
Japanese taxis have "normal doors" that are powered: https://www.youtube.com/v/8DZK9jyyxAg
They could solve this in software by accelerating backwards and then hitting the brake.
or just do a burnout forward.
I considered this, but actually it's a bad strategy if the door is only slightly ajar and not all the way open. The nice thing about my approach is that it works no matter what. Obviously even better if the vehicle can rapidly change from reverse to drive instead of merely slamming the brake.