Interesting Links for 06-05-2023

[andrewducker]

1. For the first time ever, the Green Party run an English council

(tags:politics green uk england )

2. the bumbling WW2 German espionage attempt that was stopped in its tracks at Edinburgh's Waverley Station

(tags:wwii history spying germany uk viaDanielDWilliam )

3. Is there anything finer than watching the Conservatives descending into civil war?

(tags:conservatives politics )

4. The Harmful Side Effect of Cleaning Up the Ocean

(tags:ocean waste cleaning life )

5. If you can't fart in front of your partner, what the hell are you doing together?

(tags:relationships )

6. Science Fiction Movie Lettering

(tags:movies scifi font )

7. Babylon 5 animated movie on the way

(tags:movies Babylon5 animation )

8. Essays on Typography and Design in Science Fiction Movies

(tags:movies font scifi viaFanf )

9. Waymo are running a successful driverless taxi service. Why is it expanding so slowly?

(tags:driving automation business )

10. Republican protesters being arrested ahead of coronation

(tags:monarchy protests OhForFucksSake )

Comments

[cmcmck]

Manchester Ancoats has elected the first ever trans woman councillor in the city- Chris Northwood! :o)

[dewline]

1. Hoping it goes well for that community!

3. Several things are finer. I would not undermine the joy of anyone watching this spectacle, though.

4. Ouch. :-/

7. Sounds good!

8. I have the book that those essays were compiled into.

[major_clanger]

I have the book that those essays were compiled into.

Me too. I think I may actually have read it with a silly grin, it pushed my buttons so precisely.

[conuly]

10. Republican protesters being arrested ahead of coronation

Proof that you need more protestors and less kings.

[channelpenguin]

*King Stannis gives you a glare*

(I hope Andrew will forgive this as a fandom joke and not a violation of his grammar-crit rules)

[andrewducker]

I'll allow it :⁠-⁠)

[conuly]

You know, what I really resent about that made up zombie rule is that the guy who invented it in 1770 shares the same name as my father.

At any rate, his only justification was "I like it more", and I don't know why people pretend it's a rule when it never has actually been one.

[channelpenguin]

Lol. Really? English is a funny language.

[conuly]

Not really, no more so than any of the others.

Not a victory, a veritable turd de farce...

[hairyears]

The question, for those who hold their noses and follow Conservative Party politics, is 'Which potential leader will do tbe least damage before the January 2025 election?'

The question, for those who immerse themselves in it gleefully, nostrils flaring and declaring it the finest scent of roses in all Christendom, is: 'Boris Johnson or Rishi Sunak? Who is more likely to salvage the next election?'

9 WAYMO

[danieldwilliam]

So Waymo can scale up quicker once more of the following are more true than they are today

1) experience with scaling up so they know how to do it quicker, cheaper, more effectively
2) reducing the mapping costs as part of the initial set up
3) lowering the capital cost of new vehicles and depots
4) lowering the maintenance costs per vehicle
5) having more reliable and more trusted technology so they can reduce per ride or per vehicle support cots
6) having better cash flows from operations e.g. being profitable or at least positive cash generation

And their nearest competitors will be watching them closely for some second-mover advantage.

Re: 9 WAYMO

[andrewducker]

The top reply to the comment I linked to is from someone who works on Waymo, who says:

I would only caution that people shouldn't overindex on mapping costs. When you're talking about entering a major metro area, you need lots of vehicles and depots and so on anyway just to provide the eventual service. So the upfront initial map build out is certainly a component of starting in a new geography, but I think people assume it is somehow dominant. It's not.

The current approach then for ride hailing, which requires depots, means that:

> just turn on the tap, buy a million cars and cover the whole country

is not happening anytime soon.

So it sounds like buying depots and setting up the infrastructure to run from them is the big blocker.

But also, from what I can understand, they don't make a profit, so until they can work out how to do so (at scale) they aren't going to do that.

Best I can find on that is: "the company’s “Other Bets,” which include Waymo, lost a staggering $4.8 billion in 2020 and $5.2 billion in 2021" - but I'd love to know about them specifically.

Re: 9 WAYMO

[danieldwilliam]

I get the impression that the mapping took time rather than being a huge cost.

You can have a positive cashflow without making a profit, particularly if a lot of your costs are things like depreciation of vehicles or amortisation of capitalised R&D costs.

Also helpful would be if Waymo's fixed costs were a relatively large part of their cost base. Again largely thinking of R&D costs of operations. So that as operations scale the fixed costs are spread more thinly.

I can see a situation where Waymo go from being very unprofitable to generating a fair bit of cash quite suddenly.

3

[danieldwilliam]

I doubt Boris Johnson is a vote winner with voters at the moment.

I'm pretty sceptical of his vote winning qualities in general. He's mostly won against poor opposition who could be painted as part of the looney left. After his resignation for the Covid parties I think the majority of the public are actively against him.

Re: 3

[andrewducker]

I agree. Some Conservatives seem to have turned to revisionism of the "It was all going fine, until he was knifed in the back", rather than "Incompetent idiot repeatedly broke all of the rules and was deeply unpopular".

These trackers do not look good for him: https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/explore/public_figure/Boris_Johnson?content=trackers

Re: 3

[danieldwilliam]

And I think some of them just don't much care for Rishi Sunak or think Boris Johnson would be better for them personally and Johnson's supposed electability is a stick to beat Sunak with.

Re: 3

[andrewducker]

True. Although one would hope that they're not getting a lot of traction.

(Not me, I'm hoping they get a lot of traction, but the more hinged Tories presumably hope that)