Google has reportedly stopped developing its own self-driving car • Hacker News Board

Re: Google has reportedly stopped developing its own self-driving car

#21

Post by Animats » Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 9:11 AM UTC

throwaway40483 wrote: post #7

Pyxl101 wrote: post #3

Is that surprising? I never assumed that Google was planning to build actual cars with this tech. I suppose I never really thought that deeply about how it would roll out, but if I had, I would have guessed partnerships with others in the industry. If they can nail "self-driving tech" as well as they've nailed search, they'll potentially earn licensing fees from all vehicles, rather than from the slice of vehicles th…

I think the insane part of Google's original plan was the "no steering wheel" part, not the fact that they wanted to manufacture the cars themselves. There are so many corner cases. I can't imagine that they would get the tech working 100% out of the gate without needing some sort of manual override.

For a little 25MPH mini-car, full automation was and is quite practical. Google could have manufactured those things and put them on campuses, senior communities, and such. About five companies are already making slow-speed autonomous shuttle vehicles, most of which have no manual controls.

Re: Google has reportedly stopped developing its own self-driving car

#22

Post by vesinisa » Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 9:11 AM UTC

denzil_correa wrote: post #16

> The Information reports that Google’s self-driving car unit — known internally as Chauffeur — is working with establish automotive names to develop cars which will include some self-driving features, but won’t ditch the steering wheel and pedal controls. Self-Driving cards to self-driving technology was the exact same news which was reported out of Apple "Project Titan" too. It seems to be a trend in this self-driv…

> working with establish automotive names

Is that a typo in the article or some esoteric grammar for avoiding the past participle of 'establish'?

Re: Google has reportedly stopped developing its own self-driving car

#23

Post by finstell » Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 9:11 AM UTC

Everybody is rushing to develop their own self-driving car, then they change their minds in various ways, then team members change who they work for, some of them quit and start their own company, some fail, some got acquihired. They give deadlines and cannot meet them. Everyone is dying to be first in the market or something like it. Feels there is so much greed. I don't get it, what's the big fuss, why must everyone hurry? Can't they be just calm and progress in a sensible manner. I don't expect this thing to turn out to be winner takes it all. Automative industry is much like a close knit society where they depend on similar resources. It's not exactly the same as posh start up culture.

Re: Google has reportedly stopped developing its own self-driving car

#24

Post by helb » Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 9:13 AM UTC

"Google’s self-driving car team preparing to spin out from Alphabet’s X"

[http://www.recode.net/2016/12/7/13875208/google-x-self-drivi...]

on HN yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13155600

Re: Google has reportedly stopped developing its own self-driving car

#25

Post by Loic » Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 9:15 AM UTC

lambdasquirrel wrote: post #17

russdill wrote: post #6

The headline is a bit misleading, it looks like Google is not going to manufacture self driving cars, but will develop self-driving technology. I'm not sure how this is a surprise.

Well, given how deep its pockets are and its past propensity to try on big projects, I'd say it was surprising. What's more surprising is that both Apple and Google seem to have ended up in this same place.

If Google develop the car, they need to do all the end user support. This is not in the DNA of Google. If they provide the technology to a car manufacturer, they can extract a fair amount of money from them and they do not have to deal with direct end user support.

When my car has a problem, I want to talk directly with someone to get it fixed.

Re: Google has reportedly stopped developing its own self-driving car

#26

Post by emdowling » Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 9:17 AM UTC

finstell wrote: post #23

Everybody is rushing to develop their own self-driving car, then they change their minds in various ways, then team members change who they work for, some of them quit and start their own company, some fail, some got acquihired. They give deadlines and cannot meet them. Everyone is dying to be first in the market or something like it. Feels there is so much greed. I don't get it, what's the big fuss, why must everyon…

Simple: everyone is looking for the next big platform. The smartphone revolution came by surprise to most and it has taken years for companies to catch up. Everyone is racing because they don't want to be caught with their pants down again.

Re: Google has reportedly stopped developing its own self-driving car

#27

Post by Tepix » Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 9:17 AM UTC

This decision will be beneficial for the relationship between Google and the car manufacturers. Google will no longer be a competitor.

Whether or not there will be a first mover advantage remains to be seen. It certainly feels as if Tesla has such an advantage for the electric car market with the huge amount of pre-orders placed for the Model ≡.

Re: Google has reportedly stopped developing its own self-driving car

#28

Post by devoply » Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 9:18 AM UTC

All these side projects are just to keep certain developers busy until Goog figures out what to do with them. There was never any intention of making a viable car. Just R&D to figure out what can be done that would then be applied to Goog's ad business.

Re: Google has reportedly stopped developing its own self-driving car

#29

Post by pkolaczk » Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 9:22 AM UTC

Kiro wrote: post #13

ars wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article is marketing speak. It's dead. That's how they talk when they kill a product but don't want to say that. Which doesn't surprise me in the slightest. I suspect a self driving car, on city streets, without general AI, is impossible. It'll only work on prepared, limited access roads (like highways). Next step: Instrument highways for self driving cars. In-City self-driving cars is dead.

You have no idea what you're talking about.

I also think he does. Currently all new cars come with some kind of automated assistants, some even semi-autonomous. Unfortunately they are much less reliable than humans. They are still struggling with "easy" problems like keeping in lanes and occasionally I have to "fight" with the lane-assistant because it tries to push me out of the lane I'm driving, particularly in turns, bad roads or in bad weather conditions. I'm not counting the number of times when it just shuts off because it can't "see" the lanes or the lanes are "too complex" for it.

Or take the traffic-sign recognition systems. Seems easy, right? Not so fast. All the systems I tried made a lot of severe mistakes. For example sometimes they were thinking speed limit signs painted on the back of trucks or buses were real ones. Or they struggled when they saw too many signs or signs partially covered by something else.

Recently I watched a test of a semi-autonomous Mercedes S500 in a typical big-city traffic. During a 10 minute test-drive it managed to "unconciously" change the lane and drive 2 lanes for some time. And also it would have passed a crossing on a red light, if the operator didn't intervene. Nice try, but the car industry is still very far from making fully autonomous driving a reality.

Re: Google has reportedly stopped developing its own self-driving car

#30

Post by usrusr » Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 9:26 AM UTC

Pyxl101 wrote: post #3

Is that surprising? I never assumed that Google was planning to build actual cars with this tech. I suppose I never really thought that deeply about how it would roll out, but if I had, I would have guessed partnerships with others in the industry. If they can nail "self-driving tech" as well as they've nailed search, they'll potentially earn licensing fees from all vehicles, rather than from the slice of vehicles th…

At first glance, Google becoming a car industry supplier like Delphi or Bosch seems just as weird. I kind of was expecting them to eventually go for the robocab business, with the steely bits manufactured by some Chinese OEM or underutilized plants in Detroit, Wolfsburg or wherever. It could be nicely phased in in limited access, limited range, low speed settings like e.g. island resorts.

But repeating the Android model, generously handing over software to whoever wants it so that they get a huge market share seems so much more consistent. This is Google, after all. If people can "ok Google" their car to actually take them to search results, Google's stranglehold on local business discovery will be even stronger than it is today. And on the reverse side, when it came to the point where people would "Hi Audi, take me to...", they could get quickly pushed of large parts of the search/decision market that originally emerged from web search and that they then so carefully extended to Maps, Android and voice assist. If cars become "Siri-smart", drivers won't use Google maps anymore. Seen like this, Google's self-driving endeavors suddenly appear like a forced defensive move, very much unlike the quirky billionaire's moonshot hobby vibe surrounding other parts of X.