Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Uber’s self-driving cars start picking up passengers in San Francisco

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 217 posts

Re: Uber’s self-driving cars start picking up passengers in San Francisco

#71

Post by jacobwcarlson »

bigtones wrote: post #61

Actually these Uber Volvo self driving cars have been picking up passengers using UberX in San Francisco for weeks. They're easy to spot because they have a huge lidar contraption on the roof and a lot of camera's mounted on the roof, rear vision mirrors, and the rear tailgate of the vehicle. The depot they use is on Harrison and 3rd so you see a lot of them driving around the area just south of Market Street, which…

Indeed, and I'm almost positive that I've seen models other than the C90s. I didn't realize that they were toting real passengers, though. I thought they were just Alpha Tests As Marketing. Given that they made this announcement the day after Google announced Waymo, I'm now convinced that's what they are, but I guess with real passengers?

Re: Uber’s self-driving cars start picking up passengers in San Francisco

#72

Post by jcl »

stuckagain wrote: post #52
nradov wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest problem computer drivers have in winter weather is not being able to see lane markers. Humans are (for now) still better at figuring out where the lane is. Presumably this problem can be solved with improvements in maps, cameras, and image recognition algorithms.

Humans do an unbelievably bad job at this, too, like all other tasks behind the wheel. Humans essentially just follow the tracks of the last car, creating ad hoc lanes. Computers can do this just as well.

On the other hand, humans also have the common sense not to (e.g.) follow the tracks of a car that has spun off the road.

I'd expect logic at that level might be more difficult to train for than the relatively low-level visual task of identifying and following tracks. But I guess existing self-driving systems already need to work at that level to predict the actions of other cars and pedestrians, so presumably the current data-driven training techniques would also handle it OK? (Assuming a lack of pranksters with shovels...)

Re: Uber’s self-driving cars start picking up passengers in San Francisco

#73

Post by hackerboos »

vivekd wrote: post #69
aedron wrote: post #34

Uber's product is the company's stock. All of their "AI" and "self-driving" stunts so far have been transparent hype fuel that anyone with the slightest domain knowledge knows have no practical significance. Their PR department are, as can be expected, top notch though. I especially like how they put a populist spin on their announcements, like the beer delivery (yay, beer!) and now picking up passengers with their p…

Nah, Uber and Lyft CEOs both said they envision a future where we don't own cars and just call self driving taxi services via app when we need them. They both envision this happening in less than a decade. This seems to be coming true, millennials have the lowest rate of car ownership and it seems to be the best explanation for why both companies are willing to bleed money to expand market-share as quickly a possible…

It'd be nice if we could get to the point where my self-driving car is earning cash as a taxi whilst I'm doing my 9-5.

Re: Uber’s self-driving cars start picking up passengers in San Francisco

#74

Post by rconti »

artlogic wrote: post #65
ams6110 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest problem human drivers have in winter weather is simply driving too fast. Self-driving cars won't get impatient and will presumably never exceed safe speeds for given conditions.

Having lived nearly my whole life in Michigan, I think this grossly oversimplifies the problem. I'm sure my Canadian friends will agree. This assumes there's some clear algorithm for determining a "safe" speed. There's not. Even in highway driving you can lose traction in an instant if you hit a patch of black ice. Autonomous vehicles will need to be able to recover from a complete loss of traction safely. This isn't…

You may be correct that relatively little work is being done in this area, however I think you overstate the difficulty.

Winter driving is really no different from any other kind of driving in which the driver exceeds the limits of the vehicle's available traction. The methods of recovery are mostly well-known; the problem is more often the driver's inability to implement them in a timely manner.

Constant input from wheel speed and accelerometer sensor arrays, coupled with the vehicle's ability to individually brake/slow wheels (which also gives the vehicle the ability to accelerate individual wheels independently!) means that it could be a far easier 'problem' for self-driving cars to solve than it is for humans.

Again, if they're working on it :) But there's already been decades of work put into ABS, traction/stability control, etc.

Re: Uber’s self-driving cars start picking up passengers in San Francisco

#75

Post by ams6110 »

artlogic wrote: post #65
ams6110 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest problem human drivers have in winter weather is simply driving too fast. Self-driving cars won't get impatient and will presumably never exceed safe speeds for given conditions.

Having lived nearly my whole life in Michigan, I think this grossly oversimplifies the problem. I'm sure my Canadian friends will agree. This assumes there's some clear algorithm for determining a "safe" speed. There's not. Even in highway driving you can lose traction in an instant if you hit a patch of black ice. Autonomous vehicles will need to be able to recover from a complete loss of traction safely. This isn't…

I don't disagree. But without exception every winter slide-off I've witnessed first hand has been caused by excessive speed. You're driving along on a snow-covered interstate highway, someone in a BMW or 4x4 flies past you because "I have all wheel drive" starts to fishtail, overcorrects, spins out, and ends up backwards and stuck on the median.

Re: Uber’s self-driving cars start picking up passengers in San Francisco

#78

Post by wcummings »

drcode wrote: post #63
bigtones wrote: post #61

Actually these Uber Volvo self driving cars have been picking up passengers using UberX in San Francisco for weeks. They're easy to spot because they have a huge lidar contraption on the roof and a lot of camera's mounted on the roof, rear vision mirrors, and the rear tailgate of the vehicle. The depot they use is on Harrison and 3rd so you see a lot of them driving around the area just south of Market Street, which…

If you think self driving cars are cool, wait until two years from now when you're stuck behind them in your morning commute every day, while they drive 15 miles under the speed limit.

I can't wait to ride my fixie 5mph in front of them :)

Re: Uber’s self-driving cars start picking up passengers in San Francisco

#79

Post by stuckagain »

dsr_ wrote: post #67
Globz wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happen when you are the first on the road with no tracks to follow from previous cars and suddenly it turns into a blizzard/zero visibility? I am guessing the car can pull over and turn on emergency flasher...I don't know but to me I believe a Human will always have to take over at some point because you never know what mother nature will throw at you, keep in mind I am talking about a future where we aim for 10…

Having lived through many such blizzards, there are two things that humans do: The smart ones pull over and turn on the emergency flasher. Then they check to make sure they have lots of gas, blankets and water, just as they prepared. The dumb ones slow down to 45 mph and stare into the white blankness looking for clues about curves.

Exactly! Every question about how a computer-driven car will handle exceptional situations encountered by humans shares the same answer: the computer won't have got itself into the situation in the first place. Humans might drive a car into a whiteout blizzard, but that only serves to demonstrate the urgency of cutting humans out of the loop.

Re: Uber’s self-driving cars start picking up passengers in San Francisco

#80

Post by waterphone »

vivekd wrote: post #69
aedron wrote: post #34

Uber's product is the company's stock. All of their "AI" and "self-driving" stunts so far have been transparent hype fuel that anyone with the slightest domain knowledge knows have no practical significance. Their PR department are, as can be expected, top notch though. I especially like how they put a populist spin on their announcements, like the beer delivery (yay, beer!) and now picking up passengers with their p…

Nah, Uber and Lyft CEOs both said they envision a future where we don't own cars and just call self driving taxi services via app when we need them. They both envision this happening in less than a decade. This seems to be coming true, millennials have the lowest rate of car ownership and it seems to be the best explanation for why both companies are willing to bleed money to expand market-share as quickly a possible…

People in urban environments, maybe. Never going to be the case for the majority of areas.
Post reply on HN