Goalposts

Hacker News has set AI a lot of challenges over the years. Which ones has it met?

2025 Augustsensanaty

About whether critics keep shifting goalposts on whether self-driving cars are here.

I mean by your logic self driving cars were invented back when we put a steam engine on some tracks in the 1800s. Of course the goalposts shift when the hypesters are trying to sell you on an idea like "AI will be able to do literally everything next week".

Yes, Waymo can today drive around extremely dense car-friendly cities that are scanned and mapped in great detail weekly... They also still have to have remote human intervention all the time, and are freaked out by traffic cones being placed on the hood. I grew up in Indonesia and that's where I learned to drive, and trust me, if Waymo is ever able to navigate 100 meters on any road in Jakarta I'll happily concede and consider self-driving to be a solved problem.

Waymo's self-driving cars navigate 100 meters on any road in Jakarta.

Has this happened?

Yes 10 (8%)Not sure 69 (53%)No 51 (39%)

Votes cast 1–2 October 2026: 100,590 votes from 9,694 people.