I took a trip in a Cruise before they shut down. It was around twice the time it should have taken due to avoidance of legal left turns (leading to a genuinely strange route) and bizarre and jarring sudden braking and acceleration. There was a large plexiglas shield between the passenger and "driver" area, preventing air conditioning from reaching the passenger compartment, and it was hot - it was like riding in a taxi with broken AC. It was a strange and unsettling ride.
I've also ridden in a Waymo, and apart from the strangely small amount of clearance into the rear passenger compartment (I am tall), the ride was smooth and refined.
I'm willing to give Cruise some sort of pass on the San Francisco issue - a body hit by another vehicle had been suddenly thrown into the path of the Cruise at close range, a terrible and confusing situation for any human or automated driver - but based on my experience, they did not generally have things worked out in a commercial fashion and needed to hit pause until they did.
| While second to Waymo, they still seemed already far ahead from others; maybe they were, say, 90% there.
That is a strong claim. As someone who watched them drive around their neighborhood, you could easily tell Cruise was the worse driver compared to Waymo. When the 2023 incident occured, I was not surprised at all. They had difficulties with even the most basic of intersections. Waymo on the other hand has a much more natural driving style. Waymo has its issues, but not like Cruise. It drove like it was 15 and still in Driver's Ed.
I took a trip in a Cruise before they shut down. It was around twice the time it should have taken due to avoidance of legal left turns (leading to a genuinely strange route) and bizarre and jarring sudden braking and acceleration. There was a large plexiglas shield between the passenger and "driver" area, preventing air conditioning from reaching the passenger compartment, and it was hot - it was like riding in a taxi with broken AC. It was a strange and unsettling ride.
I've also ridden in a Waymo, and apart from the strangely small amount of clearance into the rear passenger compartment (I am tall), the ride was smooth and refined.
I'm willing to give Cruise some sort of pass on the San Francisco issue - a body hit by another vehicle had been suddenly thrown into the path of the Cruise at close range, a terrible and confusing situation for any human or automated driver - but based on my experience, they did not generally have things worked out in a commercial fashion and needed to hit pause until they did.
| While second to Waymo, they still seemed already far ahead from others; maybe they were, say, 90% there.
That is a strong claim. As someone who watched them drive around their neighborhood, you could easily tell Cruise was the worse driver compared to Waymo. When the 2023 incident occured, I was not surprised at all. They had difficulties with even the most basic of intersections. Waymo on the other hand has a much more natural driving style. Waymo has its issues, but not like Cruise. It drove like it was 15 and still in Driver's Ed.
In case it's still not clear with the "while second to Waymo" phrase: "others" refers to contenders other than Waymo.