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Waymo's big self-drive car report

arstechnica.com

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Re: Waymo's big self-drive car report

#11

Post by majestik »

CamelCaseName wrote: post #2

Can anyone comment as to how realistic the last line is? >But it's clear that Waymo is aiming to bring its product to market soon—likely in 2018, if not this year.

There’s a big difference between running a project like this in “R&D mode” vs “full on production mode” and I mean that from every angle: hardware, software, operations, legal, etc. So I’m skeptical on a 2018 delivery.

Call me cynical but this looks more like Google gave Waymo a deadline and now they’re trying to ship a MVP to keep the funds coming.

Re: Waymo's big self-drive car report

#12

Post by whyenot »

Animats wrote: post #10

Link to actual report.[1] (When you're posting a link to something important, post the link to the real document, not some pundit blithering about it. Yes, you may have to do some digging to find it when the pundit outlet doesn't provide a link.) There's not much new here if you've been following what Waymo is doing. Chris Urmson's SXSW talk from 2016 [2] covered most of this material in more detail. This is more of…

OP linked to a news article that presented a pretty good summary of the report along with some additional context. It was not "some pundit blithering about it."

I don't think there is anything wrong with linking to a news article like this that is published by a reputable news source such as Ars Technica. Not everyone is going to have the time to read a 43 page report, especially if it's not clear why they should be reading it.

Re: Waymo's big self-drive car report

#14

Post by visarga »

> Passengers cannot select a destination outside of our approved geography, and our software will not create a route that travels outside of a geo-fenced area

If all our movements will be subject to continuous monitoring and approval, then SDC's won't be anything better than taxis or planes.

Re: Waymo's big self-drive car report

#15

Post by neom »

CamelCaseName wrote: post #2

Can anyone comment as to how realistic the last line is? >But it's clear that Waymo is aiming to bring its product to market soon—likely in 2018, if not this year.

Quite. Sidewalk labs flow product + waymo + wayze = very safe. Cities are super keen to move on it.

Re: Waymo's big self-drive car report

#16

Post by Zaheer »

From this report I get the sense that Tesla, Cruise, et. al. are years behind compared to Waymo. Can anyone that has more knowledge comment on the state of self-driving companies today? Ex. The level of failure redundancy they highlight I haven't seen by Tesla which promises the current Model S's etc they sell have full autonomy capability. I may be missing something though...

Re: Waymo's big self-drive car report

#17

Post by agildehaus »

CamelCaseName wrote: post #2

Can anyone comment as to how realistic the last line is? >But it's clear that Waymo is aiming to bring its product to market soon—likely in 2018, if not this year.

There are recent rumors they'll be launching in Phoenix soon. That they're releasing details like this at about the same time as the rumors is a promising indicator those rumors may be right.

Re: Waymo's big self-drive car report

#18

Post by tehlike »

visarga wrote: post #14

> Passengers cannot select a destination outside of our approved geography, and our software will not create a route that travels outside of a geo-fenced area If all our movements will be subject to continuous monitoring and approval, then SDC's won't be anything better than taxis or planes.

monitoring is one thing, but this particular line seems to me like a safety measure. If you haven't trained in a particular geography, initially, you might want to be a bit more cautious.

disclaimer: google employee, but no knowledge of waymo things.

Re: Waymo's big self-drive car report

#19

Post by Roritharr »

nopinsight wrote: post #3

Waymo's car safety systems engineered in from the ground up bode well for their reputation and also distinguish their system from other vehicles with self-driving "tacked-on". The latest statistics suggest that Waymo's car requires about an order of magnitude fewer interventions from safety drivers. If these systems are a key reason for that or will further boost their safety records, it will be a long while before c…

I wonder how the different error modes are detected so the redundant systems can take over.

Re: Waymo's big self-drive car report

#20

Post by MrQuincle »

How will people react? I think it's too early.

+ Jealous cap drivers, truck drivers, neighbors can easily put some chewing gum or paint on one or a few sensors. The system will be too brittle to cope with that, so all the time your/the sweet self-driving car doesn't even want to start.

+ Joyriding and pranks. Put your silly little brother or the dog who you've to babysit in the car. Bye bye!

+ Criminality. Just put your drugs on board or a corpse. Or do the companies that own these cars use them as remote cameras all the time?

+ Insurance. Just set up a situation perhaps with multiple cars where the self-driving car slams in your insured car. Use some doll etc.

+ Destruction. Do the same to cause the car falling into the river or crashing into something you dislike.

+ Vandalism. Graffiti etc. will be recognized much later than with a human driver.

+ Theft of sensors or other car parts can be orchestrated on a location the car first drives to.

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