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  • Hacker News
  • In the not-so-distant future, you’ll be able to book a trip from your front door to any other front door in the world in 1 ticket/payment.

    Imagine not even having to switch vessels with the vehicle morphing from freeway driving to personal flight even to in-town or scenic driving (or flight) with different routes, handling and displays.

    I’d like to float around in a bubble, like Glinda the good witch

    by thoughtbefore
  • Iets first try to get inter-European train tickets shall we?
    by TomJansen
  • Curious how different the safety outcomes will be to the US. A Waymo is safer than an American driver, but so is a European driver. A driver from Norway is even safer than a Waymo.
    by Stevvo
  • Oh no. The traffic in München is allready crap. Noone needs those selfstopping monsters.
    by hulitu
  • Lol, the entire article is about backroom deals with the German car industry.

    Get out the traffic cones.

    by qwhaah
  • I've learned to be wary of these cars in the bay area, they seem to cut it close often, and they get stuck because they're not L5. I hope municipalities know what they're getting.
    by ece
  • Related vw self driving project in Hamburg https://www.moia.io/de-DE/blog/autonome-mobilitaet-in-hambur...
    by lava_pidgeon
  • super interesting, i really wanted to try waymo but just never had the opportunity; maybe in Munich then

    also, uber (in partnership with pony.ai and verne, a Croatian startup) launched robotaxis in Zagreb a week ago https://www.reuters.com/technology/uber-launches-autonomous-...

    so waymo/Munich is in fact the second in the EU; also they are playing it safe

    > In the coming weeks, you’ll start to see Waymo vehicles on the streets of Munich where we’ll begin driving manually across the city. We are taking a rigorous, phased approach that starts with high-definition mapping of local street networks and testing with trained autonomous specialists behind the wheel. This validation period will ensure the Waymo Driver adapts seamlessly to Munich’s distinct driving conditions before we aim to open commercial ride-hailing to the public towards the end of 2027.

    by puszczyk
  • Cool!

    AI vehicle coordination (and autonomous driving) could save so much traffic.

    But before I get into a rant here: Munich seems like the perfect city for this beta, and I wish them loads of success.

    Munich has wide streets, affluent population, and a freshly elected progressive government.

    by moritzwarhier
  • How? The traffic is the movement of vehicles. Can you save traffic by increasing the volume of trafficked things? How would AI vehicle coordination work with non-AI participants (i.e. meatbags)
    by FromHoiPolloi
  • Idk they could lead to significantly _more_ traffic

    As driving becomes easier to access due to an influx of vehicles, could lead to a Jevon's paradox situation where there's more driving demand, and more autonomous vehicles on the road, often circling because they know they're likely to get another rider soon, causing more congestion than today

    The lobbying done by these companies also clearly favors car traffic over public transit & pedestrian traffic. I'd much rather optimize for better walking and biking traffic than car traffic

    by whoislewys_1
  • I think it will be interesting to see how this plays out for Waymo, as (unlike Uber in Zagreb) they will be competing with a world-class public transport system. A bold move! But perhaps that only goes to show how far ahead of the competition Waymo is, if they are this confident.
    by darthoctopus
  • Taxis and public transport have coexisted since forever. They just serve different occasions and/or people. Why would it be different with Waymo?
    by amunozo
  • Uber is doing fine in Munchen as well, afaik. There are still people who want to pay a premium for them to be picked up where they are and dropped off where they need to be.
    by jaapz
  • > world-class public transport

    It’s really not at all at the same level as other European cities. It’s so bad that basically every year high up officials write a Brandbrief (urgent appeal) to either Deutsche Bahn or Ministry of transport that the situation is unbearable. Having lives in 3 different German cities, it’s by far the worst and most unreliable.

    In contrast to the US, many people exclusively rely upon public transport and eg a drivers license costs north of 4K € (approx 5k USD), in addition to much higher gasoline prices - making a car way less affordable.

    # 1. State Minister Bernreiter's Brandbrief to DB InfraGO (2026) https://www.bayern.de/kritik-an-langsamfahrstellen/

    # 2. Pullach Municipal Brandbrief on the S7 (2025) https://www.pullach.de/buergerbrief-uns-reicht-es-jetzt-geme...

    # 3. MVV & Stakeholders Brandbrief to Deutsche Bahn (2022) https://www.abendzeitung-muenchen.de/muenchen/s-bahn-muss-zu...

    # 4. Mayors' Joint Transit Funding Brandbrief (2025) https://www.bild.de/politik/friedrich-merz-neuer-brandbrief-...

    # 5. Landräte Transit Cuts Warning Brandbrief (2024) https://in-motion.me/articles/2024-12-22_es-drohen-kuerzunge...

    # 6. Pro Bahn Munich Analysis & Brandbrief (2024) https://www.pro-bahn.de/oberbayern/pbp/pbp202401.pdf

    by pkos98