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Cruise Shows Off Level 4 Skills in SF, Passing Uber and Maybe Waymo

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81–90 of 149 posts

Re: Cruise Shows Off Level 4 Skills in SF, Passing Uber and Maybe Waymo

#81
post #4

Now that tesla has started to pretend selling autonomous cars now is making sense, the field went from research ( where researcher honestly reports shortcomings themselves) to the horrendous world of SV start up, where everything should be considered a lie until the day someone can actually buy the stuff and test for himself. And so you end up with posts like this trying to analyse a video frame by frame to assess th…

Researchers have egos and do not honestly report shortcomings.

Re: Cruise Shows Off Level 4 Skills in SF, Passing Uber and Maybe Waymo

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree completely. And the video although not new is quite impressive. But if the claim of the author that San Francisco is a tough city in which to drive is true, than I fear that some parts of Italy (and probably A LOT of cities in the world) won't have self driving cars for a very long time. When I saw the video the first time I was very impressed, but I would have never imagined that for someone that was a VERY…

This is moreso true for China and India. If you've ever been to those countries, the first thing you notice as a westerner is that the streets are chaos, traffic rules are barely obeyed, and aggressiveness is required to get anywhere. Meanwhile, Beijing and Dehli have extreme pollution problems partially caused by cars. If any place was in need of point to point autonomous ride sharing, it's Asia. The reduction in ca…

I could imagine the robot car having an easier time in a place with minimal expectation to obey traffic rules. It simply becomes an entirely self-serving entity solving a constraint maximization problem. Namely, get from A to B, don't hit anything, don't get hit.

Re: Cruise Shows Off Level 4 Skills in SF, Passing Uber and Maybe Waymo

#84
post #57

At the risk of sounding pedantic this is not a Level 4 demo. It is a Level 2 demo where the driver didn't have to intervene during the demonstrated route. What's the difference? Apart from the legal requirement to have a diver ready to take over in test vehicles (which necessarily makes it Level 2), the fundamental difference is that you'd have to show a lot more than one demo to establish that you've achieved Level…

I agree completely. And the video although not new is quite impressive. But if the claim of the author that San Francisco is a tough city in which to drive is true, than I fear that some parts of Italy (and probably A LOT of cities in the world) won't have self driving cars for a very long time. When I saw the video the first time I was very impressed, but I would have never imagined that for someone that was a VERY…

There's also the issue of technical problems with for example traffic lights. I remember an occasion in Berlin where the traffic lights broke down on a major intersection with long queues. The right of way ended up being solved in a contest between the status quo competed with the impatience of those who were waiting. The only way as a pedestrian to get across was to step out into the street so cars would stop, which was a bit uncomfortable. Worked out alright, if not terribly efficient. Fixed pretty fast, I think, but an AI would still have to handle, uh, dynamic traffic in western countries.

Ideally, the AI should be able to figure out how the dynamics of such a situation work and not create a jam or something.

Re: Cruise Shows Off Level 4 Skills in SF, Passing Uber and Maybe Waymo

#85
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree completely. And the video although not new is quite impressive. But if the claim of the author that San Francisco is a tough city in which to drive is true, than I fear that some parts of Italy (and probably A LOT of cities in the world) won't have self driving cars for a very long time. When I saw the video the first time I was very impressed, but I would have never imagined that for someone that was a VERY…

There's also the issue of technical problems with for example traffic lights. I remember an occasion in Berlin where the traffic lights broke down on a major intersection with long queues. The right of way ended up being solved in a contest between the status quo competed with the impatience of those who were waiting. The only way as a pedestrian to get across was to step out into the street so cars would stop, which…

Arguably, the city should dispatch a traffic guard to deal with the situation.

Re: Cruise Shows Off Level 4 Skills in SF, Passing Uber and Maybe Waymo

#87
post #51

Dumb question: how do these systems distinguish a traffic light? Here in New England at least, there's quite a variety of lights, many different modes (red, yellow, green, flashing red, flashing yellow, no-turn-left red arrow, no-turn-right red arrow, and different light technologies: old-fashioned style, Fresnel lens, slotted shade. Add to this complexity the weather conditions. Suppose the sun is shining straight a…

red, yellow, green, flashing red, flashing yellow, no-turn-left red arrow, no-turn-right red arrow You forgot flashing green, which does actually exist, at least in MA. You treat it like a green light, but it could go yellow and then red if a pedestrian presses the walk button.

In some parts of San Francisco there's a stoplight with a green X. Took me a long time to figure out it means "one way street, don't enter"

Re: Cruise Shows Off Level 4 Skills in SF, Passing Uber and Maybe Waymo

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree completely. And the video although not new is quite impressive. But if the claim of the author that San Francisco is a tough city in which to drive is true, than I fear that some parts of Italy (and probably A LOT of cities in the world) won't have self driving cars for a very long time. When I saw the video the first time I was very impressed, but I would have never imagined that for someone that was a VERY…

This is moreso true for China and India. If you've ever been to those countries, the first thing you notice as a westerner is that the streets are chaos, traffic rules are barely obeyed, and aggressiveness is required to get anywhere. Meanwhile, Beijing and Dehli have extreme pollution problems partially caused by cars. If any place was in need of point to point autonomous ride sharing, it's Asia. The reduction in ca…

I like this video of traffic in Hyderabad, India. Whole different kind of logic applies there: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JYjG_S8XJM4

Re: Cruise Shows Off Level 4 Skills in SF, Passing Uber and Maybe Waymo

#89
post #76

Dumb question: how do these systems distinguish a traffic light? Here in New England at least, there's quite a variety of lights, many different modes (red, yellow, green, flashing red, flashing yellow, no-turn-left red arrow, no-turn-right red arrow, and different light technologies: old-fashioned style, Fresnel lens, slotted shade. Add to this complexity the weather conditions. Suppose the sun is shining straight a…

> Dumb question: how do these systems distinguish a traffic light? Well, how do you distinguish / identify a traffic light? For me it's a combination of knowing the area, knowing what a traffic light looks like, and observing the behaviour of traffic around (mostly in front) of me (if the intersection isn't visible). For an autonomous vehicle, they'd use the same methods plus they'd have the non-trivial added benefit…

OK the inter-vehicle communication and crowd sourcing and AI sound like they will manage it. I'm assuming though that we'll eventually want AV-aware sensors attached to every light and every stop sign and every intersection. UHF RFID or some such that is cheap to deploy.

Re: Cruise Shows Off Level 4 Skills in SF, Passing Uber and Maybe Waymo

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is moreso true for China and India. If you've ever been to those countries, the first thing you notice as a westerner is that the streets are chaos, traffic rules are barely obeyed, and aggressiveness is required to get anywhere. Meanwhile, Beijing and Dehli have extreme pollution problems partially caused by cars. If any place was in need of point to point autonomous ride sharing, it's Asia. The reduction in ca…

I like this video of traffic in Hyderabad, India. Whole different kind of logic applies there: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JYjG_S8XJM4

As we get to 100% autonomy, traffic will probably look like this but 100x faster and safer.
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