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Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel

techcrunch.com

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Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel

#31

Post by jpm_sd »

rayiner wrote: post #29
udfalkso wrote: post #2

Waymo’s tech requires the area to be meticulously mapped correct? Is this why the test is limited to a small geography?

That's pretty terrifying that it can't read street signs and is dependent on mapping. Here in D.C., there are all sorts of fine-grained road rules, such as streets that are one-way only certain times of day, streets that reverse direction at certain times of day, turns that are legal or illegal depending on time of day, etc. That's not including random road closures. These databases apparently don't get updated that…

It can read street signs, even hand-held STOP signs in the hands of construction workers. And the cars are continuously mapping their surroundings. But they ALSO use a shared, extremely high quality map database for first-level path planning.

edit: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/08/insid...

Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel

#32

Post by tacomonstrous »

rayiner wrote: post #29
udfalkso wrote: post #2

Waymo’s tech requires the area to be meticulously mapped correct? Is this why the test is limited to a small geography?

That's pretty terrifying that it can't read street signs and is dependent on mapping. Here in D.C., there are all sorts of fine-grained road rules, such as streets that are one-way only certain times of day, streets that reverse direction at certain times of day, turns that are legal or illegal depending on time of day, etc. That's not including random road closures. These databases apparently don't get updated that…

>That's pretty terrifying that it can't read street signs

Not sure how you arrived at that. There's nothing in the article or in the comment you were replying to that supports it.

Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel

#33

Post by stale2002 »

hardtke wrote: post #26

What happens if these cars get in a situation where there is no legal way to move? For instance, the other day I was driving down the street and it was closed because of a Farmers market. Will they just sit there for hours? In gridlock, there is often no way to move without "blocking the box."

Probably alert Google HQ, who will then send a human to pick it up in 10 minutes?

Or any number of other solutions, as I easily thought up that one in 5 seconds?

Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel

#34

Post by ggggtez »

rayiner wrote: post #29
udfalkso wrote: post #2

Waymo’s tech requires the area to be meticulously mapped correct? Is this why the test is limited to a small geography?

That's pretty terrifying that it can't read street signs and is dependent on mapping. Here in D.C., there are all sorts of fine-grained road rules, such as streets that are one-way only certain times of day, streets that reverse direction at certain times of day, turns that are legal or illegal depending on time of day, etc. That's not including random road closures. These databases apparently don't get updated that…

>it can't read street signs and is dependent on mapping.

Says who? The article didn't say anything about that.

Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel

#35

Post by aroman »

jpm_sd wrote: post #31
rayiner wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's pretty terrifying that it can't read street signs and is dependent on mapping. Here in D.C., there are all sorts of fine-grained road rules, such as streets that are one-way only certain times of day, streets that reverse direction at certain times of day, turns that are legal or illegal depending on time of day, etc. That's not including random road closures. These databases apparently don't get updated that…

It can read street signs, even hand-held STOP signs in the hands of construction workers. And the cars are continuously mapping their surroundings. But they ALSO use a shared, extremely high quality map database for first-level path planning. edit: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/08/insid...

And it can even see and understand the hand gestures (e.g. turn signs) of cyclists.

Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel

#38

Post by dna_polymerase »

RingwormOne wrote: post #8

I'd like to see successful rain/night/snow/road construction/fog condition tests before I get in one

No worries, they won't put you in a self driving car that isn't perfectly safe. Considering Alphabet sold Boston Dynamics because of PR issues (remember kicking the robots) they won't allow any human losses.

Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel

#39

Post by eggpy »

nwatson wrote: post #13

>>> "Waymo will be operating a fully autonomous ride hailing service without any humans at the wheel ... Waymo wants to broaden the geographic scope of its trial, starting with expansion in the near-term to cover the entire Phoenix metro area, which represents more acreage than the whole of the Greater London area, he noted" My family is mostly in Tempe / Mesa area (near Chandler, AZ) and during my last few visits I'…

I dunno I can see this remaining small-scale for a while so Waymo can gather data about how people feel about the experience. I can see the backlash now if they were to suddenly unleash a battalion of fully autonomous vehicles on the unsuspecting public. I suspect keeping the numbers relatively low will be a good way to gather just how disturbing this is to the general populace without overwhelming people and ultimately causing an unnecessary uproar and rejection based on appearance, with no regard to quality.

Re: Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel

#40

Post by Fricken »

hardtke wrote: post #26

What happens if these cars get in a situation where there is no legal way to move? For instance, the other day I was driving down the street and it was closed because of a Farmers market. Will they just sit there for hours? In gridlock, there is often no way to move without "blocking the box."

Waymo and Cruise automation are building out call centres, where remote human monitors will be available to help out the vehicles when they get hung-up. The monitors won't be able to make safety-critical interventions, but they'll be able to give the cars and passengers instructions, kind of like a backseat driver, I guess.

So if there's an accident scene, for example, the human monitor will judge whether to stop and wait, navigate a path through, or turn around and find a detour.

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