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Google's Autonomous cars complete 300,000 miles without an accident

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Re: Google's Autonomous cars complete 300,000 miles without an accident

#111

Post by apike »

fghh45sdfhr3 wrote: post #33
TylerE wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So will susceptibility to car sickness become a federally-protected disability?

I wonder how much of car sickness is thanks to the driver. And if a good enough software could drive without causing car sickness?

In theory, yes. Motion sickness depends on the type of motion. A very bouncy or aggressive ride will result in more sickness, whereas a very smooth ride (such as a train) results in less. It's all about how much confusion there is between what you're seeing and your sense of balance.

As it happens, the same types of driving that are more fuel efficient cause less motion sickness. Still, driving anywhere with stop lights and other traffic probably necessitates enough stopping and starting that even maximally efficient driving software would cause motion sickness in many people.

Re: Google's Autonomous cars complete 300,000 miles without an accident

#112

Post by RobotCaleb »

riffic wrote: post #102
RobotCaleb wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weird. Your post didn't have a reply link. I had to click the permalink for it. Anyway, I wanted to say that I read an article about a guy in Seattle that always kept a couple car lengths ahead of him. I seem to remember the article saying he was able to get home quicker that way than by behaving like the rest of the cars on the road.

http://trafficwaves.org/

That's the one. Thanks!

Re: Google's Autonomous cars complete 300,000 miles without an accident

#113

Post by jjwiseman »

stephengillie wrote: post #98
iskander wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know much about this google project. Can autonomous cars (i) drive on the highway (ii) drive at night (iii) drive in snow or rain?

Could it handle Lombard Street? How would it react to a roadway that's covered in several feet of water due to flooding (and poor road design)? Or sinkholes? One-way streets? Freeways which change directions at different times of day? Dirt roads? (Can we make it autonomously offroad?) How will it react during an earthquake or tornado? How will it react to a bicyclist running a red stoplight and into the car's path, w…

Yes, a Google autonomous car drove down Lombard Street: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-were-driving-at....

Re: Google's Autonomous cars complete 300,000 miles without an accident

#114

Post by sp332 »

swalsh wrote: post #24
daenz wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good evening, John Anderton. Routing you to the pre-crime facility for detainment.

I see you're on your way to the drug deal you briefly discussed over gmail, i've taken the liberty to ensure the local human authorities are aware.

Better: robot authorities. Who can be bought off with a few bitcoins :)

Re: Google's Autonomous cars complete 300,000 miles without an accident

#115

Post by toomuchtodo »

datasink wrote: post #71
jacobquick wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought they were limited to driving on the highway in the empty parts of nevada?

I've seen the Google self-driving car navigating within morning traffic in San Jose. There were two men with laptops in the driver and passenger seats, presumably monitoring the car and available to step in if something went wrong. It was also kind of surprising to see the roof-mounted device it used to map its surrounding. It was fairly large and rapidly rotating.

The device on top is a laser scanner creating a cloud point map for spatial awareness.

Re: Google's Autonomous cars complete 300,000 miles without an accident

#116

Post by saraid216 »

kevinalexbrown wrote: post #67

The most amazing part is that autonomous cars have completed 300,000 miles at all. Congratulations to the engineering team! Around fifteen years ago, I read as a child with fascination an account in Scientific American about an automated highway project where sensors were to be placed every few feet on the road, and cars would follow them, until a driver retook control at the end. I imagined a future network of roads…

> This is such a cooler solution, one that doesn't depend on a parallel development of infrastructure, one that would presumably take lots of bureaucratic steps that are naturally associated with usage decisions on publicly owned land (which makes sense).

And taxes. Google isn't being funded by our dollars, except through a series of indirections.

Re: Google's Autonomous cars complete 300,000 miles without an accident

#117

Post by prodigal_erik »

pkulak wrote: post #95
eblume wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I drove behind one yesterday as it returned to Google HQ in Mountain View. It was pretty exciting. It was also rush hour, and people didn't like that it tried so hard to give a safe amount of space in front and behind itself - it ended up being a little bubble of lane-changing space that moved slower than the rest of traffic. Not that I hold any of this against the car - it was clearly doing the intelligent thing. Bu…

Seems like the safe distance in front of a robot car would be significantly less than for that of a car driven by a human. Of course, most humans I know think that the safe distance is 2 feet, which is probably less still.

They probably have to assume the human co-pilot may still need to assume control and avert disaster, and give them enough extra time to do that (beyond the time they'd need after starting out in control). With no need for failover, the robot should reliably react faster, though it's probably only reacting to immediate events rather than predicting drivers' (mis)behavior.

Re: Google's Autonomous cars complete 300,000 miles without an accident

#118

Post by marvin »

eblume wrote: post #81
jacobquick wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought they were limited to driving on the highway in the empty parts of nevada?

I drove behind one yesterday as it returned to Google HQ in Mountain View. It was pretty exciting. It was also rush hour, and people didn't like that it tried so hard to give a safe amount of space in front and behind itself - it ended up being a little bubble of lane-changing space that moved slower than the rest of traffic. Not that I hold any of this against the car - it was clearly doing the intelligent thing. Bu…

Most people stay way too close to the car in front, though. You're doing well as long as nothing unexpected happens. But if someone for some reason has to hit the brake really fast, you'll get a completely unnecessary pileup.

The Google cars probably also have additional margins of safety to allow for the driver to react to unexpected computer behavior _and_ actually step in and perform the maneuver himself.

Re: Google's Autonomous cars complete 300,000 miles without an accident

#119

Post by danparsonson »

enraged_camel wrote: post #78
adolfojp wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eating food from a tube could also give us a lot more free time but we don't do it because it is not an enjoyable experience. We not only enjoy the flavors and textures that regular food provides, we also enjoy the rituals that accompany eating. In this regard driving cars is somewhat similar. A lot of people enjoy driving and many actually find it therapeutic. Some exceptions do exist, like driving in heavy traffic,…

>> Eating food from a tube could also give us a lot more free time but we don't do it because it is not an enjoyable experience. We not only enjoy the flavors and textures that regular food provides, we also enjoy the rituals that accompany eating. In this regard driving cars is somewhat similar. Yeah, I felt this way for about two weeks after I learned how to drive. After that, it quickly got tedious and boring.

I've been driving for over 10 years and I still enjoy almost every journey - I think autonomous cars are a fantastic idea but I would miss driving if I couldn't ever do it.

Re: Google's Autonomous cars complete 300,000 miles without an accident

#120

Post by ShabbyDoo »

>Google warns that “there’s still a long road ahead.” The cars >still need to learn how to handle snow-covered roads, ...

What if the car was smart enough to identify situations where it was unable to auto-navigate safely? It could pull-over and ask the human to take-over for awhile. I would rather see a mostly capable self-driving car come to market sooner than wait around for near perfection.

On this note, it seems that the trucking industry could adopt a self-driving truck even if it was only good enough to travel along long stretches of highway. The first/last miles would be manually driven just like today. Could the trucking companies use remote navigation (much like military drones) to handle first/last mile and perhaps problem spots along the way?

What's the minimum viable product?

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