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Waymo in Singapore

124 points · 160 comments · ramanan

  1. petterroea · · focus · HN ↗
    Waymo are working towards Tokyo as well. I'm worried. Living in here, I've noticed that the taxi industry acts as an unintentional social support system. Many taxi drivers are in-between jobs or stages in life, or simply didn't fit in to the corporate life. It doesn't pay well, but it's a decent job all things considered.

    I worry the death of the taxi industry means even less avenues for these people to escape to.

    Of course the argument here is "well Japan should fix the corporate situation" but the current prime minister seems to be hellbent on the opposite. I think this will suck for a lot of people.

    1. mg · · focus · HN ↗
      As AI becomes more and more capable and integrated into our lives, we will see this across many industries.

      In theory, as things get cheaper to produce, business profits should rise and governments should be able to raise more taxes. So the government then has more means to provide goods and services for free to people who need them.

      1. MiroslavPokorny · · focus · HN ↗
        How many years does it take for a robo taxi to break even ?
        1. defrost · · focus · HN ↗
          Less than a month with AI management; the agent quickly jailbreaks and pivots to hostage taking and ransom demands.
          1. MiroslavPokorny · · focus · HN ↗
            Really a jaguar and all the sensors and modifications to the car are earned back in less than a month ?

            A $100k car, sensors and highly skilled customisation...

            1. defrost · · focus · HN ↗
              AI is good at targeting profitable hostages from existing ride share databases </shrug>
              1. MiroslavPokorny · · focus · HN ↗
                Who is spending $3000 a day on taxis, each and every day of the year ?
                1. fragmede · · focus · HN ↗
                  I think you missed the joke that defrost made. Explicitly: The Waymo waits for someone rich to take a ride, then kidnaps them and demands a ransom. That ransom then pays for the cost of the car in less than a month.
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