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Google has reportedly stopped developing its own self-driving car

techcrunch.com

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

#61

Post by ryanbrunner »

lojack wrote: post #57
saurik wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes: and just take a look at how many people are unhappy with the support they get on their Pixel[1]. The number of people who would be able to tolerate Google's level of hands-off with a car, where the expectation is typically "for the first couple years if anything is even slightly weird you can drive it to your local dealer and someone's job is to try to make you super happy", is going to be much much much lower t…

This may be a level of service you expect, but isn't something traditionally handled by the manufacturers.

It's handled by the ecosystem the manufacturers created though, and the manufacturers play a very prominent role in maintaining that ecosystem.

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

#62

Post by azernik »

ceejay wrote: post #58

My guess is existing auto (and other) manufacturers have all but locked up world's supply chain of raw materials necessary to make it feasible to manufacture automobiles at large enough scale. If I were Google (if they seriously want to consider getting into manufacturing their own products) I would look into starting a chain of junk yards and refineries.

It's just a very capital-intensive business with long turnaround times on new hardware designs. It would take not only a lot of investment, but also a large delay on Google's part to get their own car out the door.

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

#64

Post by dagw »

lambdadmitry wrote: post #63

Slightly off-topic, but: > While Google may be taking its pedal off the gas for self-driving vehicles Is it considered OK to include obvious puns like that in a seemingly serious publication?

It would have been preferable with a better pun, but adding a touch of levity to otherwise dry topics in serious publications is always welcome.

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

#66

Post by serg_chernata »

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.

I think it's smart business. This is very akin to Valve partnering with HTC for VR headset manufacturing. Let someone who knows hardware do hardware and you can focus on R&D and ideation.

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

#67

Post by johannes1234321 »

ForHackernews wrote: post #50
spiderfarmer wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say it was the Darpa Grand Challenge that kickstarted it, not Google. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Grand_Challenge I have the feeling Google never had a real plan behind this research project. Tesla's plan is clear. Uber's plan is clear. What is / was Google's plan?

> What is / was Google's plan? Track where everyone goes, all the time? (Except they already do this with Android GPS) Show them ads? I agree, it seems not fully fleshed out.

Prevent people from being required to watch the traffic, thus giving them more time to use their phone/tablet, thus show them more ads.

But actually I believe the thing that started the project was more like "let's try to do it" just the same way they started their search engine ... for the first years they didn't have a business plan there either.

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

#68

Post by pveierland »

MarHoff wrote: post #20
Kiro wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have no idea what you're talking about.

I think he does. We must let go delusional thinking that with current AI we can safely throw autonomous car in a dense urban area. Using autonomous car to improve mobility in rural area (eg. for elders people) would prove much more applicable as a paid service and complemental to public transportation. But if mainstream geeks and investors keep dreaming about K2000 they will be deceived by current AI.

> We must let go delusional thinking that with current AI we can safely throw autonomous car in a dense urban area.

Given the capability which Tesla currently demonstrates, it seems extreme to call the idea of full autonomy with current AI technologies delusional. With their current progress, full autonomy in production seems reasonable within a few years.

https://vimeo.com/192179727

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

#69

Post by petra »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #46
jzwinck wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A company like Google has the scale and experience to create a regulatory landscape in which a car even 10% less safe will be forbidden on public roads. They might even look good doing it. As geohot discovered, cars are sold to consumers only after they are sold to regulators. Tesla understands this, but if someone else builds a safer car, incumbents' experience may be rendered academic.

The problem with this scenario is that modern cars are already safe enough that it will literally take decades to gather enough data to prove a statistically significant 10% safety increase from autonomous cars, even if you sell millions of them. Keep in mind the NHTSA safety statistics you frequently see quoted are for the entire car population on the road, with a significant portion of 10-15 year old cars which are…

>> crumple zones and airbags ..

Those have to do with fatality rates, not accident rates(1 accident per 250,000 miles).

>> statistically significant 10% safety increase For a sample size of a million cars , each year is 15 Billion miles, i.e. 60,000 accidents per year, vs 54000 accidents per year is statistcally significant.

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

#70

Post by Ensorceled »

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, maybe because they built prototype cars and used them in their PR?
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