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Waymo: Google's self-driving car company

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Re: Waymo: Google's self-driving car company

#131

Post by treehau5 »

mmbleh wrote: post #104
treehau5 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

False -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clutter_(radar) Anyways, if this is true, it's a grim future then. Radar is incredibly trivial to interfere with.

From the "How it works" Google self driving car page: "Sensors Lasers, radars and cameras detect objects in all directions" It uses many kinds of sensors. Yes I know about clutter, I've spent quite a lot of time in the radar industry. But by combining data from radars of multiple wavelengths, it becomes pretty feasible. Though yes, difficult. https://www.google.com/selfdrivingcar/how/

It strikes me as curious that someone who spent a lot of time in the radar industry would make the original statement you made, at least in that fashion. Also, radar is subject to interference as well. In addition, there are many things that act as "natural" corner reflectors that would pose more challenges, I can only think of some mountainous snowy / icey nothern US/Canadian routes and just thinking No way Light sensors and Radar sensors will conquer this.

We need to fundamentally redesign our road systems to accommodate self driving cars. That might happen... in 50-100 years...after we address the already crumbling infrastructure we have. For perfect, sunny conditions, like the roads in Nevada all these self driving startups are doing their testing, with straight flat landscapes, I am sure the tech can work fine. Rest of the country, maybe not so much.

Re: Waymo: Google's self-driving car company

#132

Post by ma2rten »

arijun wrote: post #116

I still don't understand why every company doing self driving cars is focusing on consumer cars while no major player is doing interstate trucking. Interstate trucking could pretty much be done now, and has several advantages. Driving on interstate freeways is orders of magnitude easier than driving in a city with pedestrians, bikes, cars parked in the road, etc. And there is a great monetization scheme--no driver me…

I think Otto/Uber and Mercedes are working on that.

Re: Waymo: Google's self-driving car company

#133

Post by arjie »

cjcole wrote: post #68

"The average US city gets 26 inches of snow per year." http://www.bestplaces.net/climate/city/california/mountain_v... "Snowfall is 0 inches." http://www.bestplaces.net/climate/city/arizona/phoenix "Snowfall is 0 inches." http://www.bestplaces.net/climate/city/texas/austin "Snowfall is 1 inches." http://www.bestplaces.net/climate/city/washington/kirkland "Snowfall is 4 inches." I hope they are driving far enough from…

Truth be told, two thirds of America is worthless in a consumer sense. You can be successful targeting literally only the Bay Area. Why bother solving every problem at once?

Re: Waymo: Google's self-driving car company

#134

Post by celticninja »

stormbrew wrote: post #59
joeguilmette wrote: post #49

I'm interested to see where all the major players end up in 5yrs: • Tesla bootstrapping a ride service on the backs of buyers • Waymo directly rolling their own fleet • Uber trying to get a self-driving fleet up, burning mountains of money to maintain their "monopoly" on Uber for rides • Lyft working with GM to get a fleet up • All of the other car manufacturers trying to get autonomous vehicles going, presumably hop…

Uber is literally all over the world, though. Google can barely launch a keyboard app outside the US. Or a payment system. Lyft is still constrained entirely to the US and a handful of large Asian cities. I think people severely underestimate Uber's worldwide push in preparing themselves to be a force to be reckoned with when the autonomous vehicle takes off.

User is ubiquitous only because of its ability to burn an astonishing amount of money. Their bet is that they am do this long enough to make themselves the market leader. I am not convinced that they can continue to lose money at the rate they currently are for the future potential as a monopoly provider. At some point investors are going to ask for a return or bail on the company.

Re: Waymo: Google's self-driving car company

#135

Post by pg314 »

shardo wrote: post #121

I'm not sure how I would feel about the absence of steering wheels and pedals within their cars. Tesla's auto-pilot can be over-ridden due to the presence of the steering wheels and the pedals. But in a car that has none, you're not in control. And that, is scary no matter how you look at it.

Once the technology is mature, I don't think it would be any scarier than driving with the average driver as a passenger.

Re: Waymo: Google's self-driving car company

#137

Post by Florin_Andrei »

virmundi wrote: post #97
cphoover wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a whole industry of workers will be out of the job. How will society react? Will we have a socialist revolt? Want to stay clear from politics... but seriously why isn't anyone talking about the socioeconomic impact this will have once drivers are put out of the job? IMHO this is the reason Trump won the election, because there is no plan for these people.

There are plenty of conversations around that idea here. UBI for example. Some people think that the population in general will retool (some will get left behind). Others point to the horse population in the US that went from some 5 million to a few hundred thousand following mechanized transportation as an example of what will happen to the middle class.

"Retooling" sounds like such a great idea when you're a 20-something urban male single software engineer, you've got nothing to lose, and the world is yours to take. It also sounds like a great idea when you're independently wealthy and you don't have to work for a living, so you can afford to bloviate from your ivory tower.

Most other demographics have very a different perspective on that concept, and for good reason.

There will be cataclysmic changes ahead if we don't seriously reconsider, well, everything about society. Under the current way of thinking, millions of people will get sent to the glue factory - to persist in your horse analogy here.

Re: Waymo: Google's self-driving car company

#138

Post by bambax »

emmett wrote: post #99
cjcole wrote: post #68

"The average US city gets 26 inches of snow per year." http://www.bestplaces.net/climate/city/california/mountain_v... "Snowfall is 0 inches." http://www.bestplaces.net/climate/city/arizona/phoenix "Snowfall is 0 inches." http://www.bestplaces.net/climate/city/texas/austin "Snowfall is 1 inches." http://www.bestplaces.net/climate/city/washington/kirkland "Snowfall is 4 inches." I hope they are driving far enough from…

Do you really think it hasn't occurred to WayMo/Google that maybe they should test their cars in snow/rain/sleet/fog/confetti?

Well, they only tested in US cities, so it's unclear what has occurred to them. How will it work in small crowded streets in India, China, or just Italy?

Re: Waymo: Google's self-driving car company

#139

Post by jrockway »

soared wrote: post #65
tedajax wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems a little premature to require this as we don't necessarily know that this would help.

I think we do know it would help. If your car can't physically see the car 1/4 mile ahead, but gets info that it has slammed on its brakes, thats very useful. If you've ever driven in bumper to bumper traffic on a highway you know how invaluable this info would be, even to a human driver. Plus info about road conditions (icy spots ahead!), etc..

I also feel like if you know where every car on the road is, you can also optimize the traffic light timing.

There is no reason to sit at a red light at 2:00 in the morning when there are no other vehicles, pedestrians or bicycles on the road. But the law currently requires it.

Re: Waymo: Google's self-driving car company

#140

Post by scarmig »

XorNot wrote: post #102
untog wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why have a garage and a driveway in the future? If you can "hail" a self driving car within 5 minutes then having one in your house becomes a waste of valuable space.

Cleaning comes to mind as a serious, unsolved problem here. The reason I like my own car is because I know the history of its dirt.

I wonder what the worst case scenario is here. I'll put Muni-level syringes and human waste as the worst. But (1) fare evasion wouldn't be a problem and (2) the 1% of worst offenders who account for 99% of the disgustingness can be readily blacklisted.

I suspect the typical case will be a drunk person throwing up in it on the way home. Hopefully they self-report; if they don't, it comes to the next rider to report it, who does and gets a generous reimbursement, charged to the credit card of the last rider.

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