Autonomous Car Progress

[diplomat33]

Does "across multiple domains" includes driverless?

It certainly could. This AI work, namely "out of distribution reasoning", is very relevant to autonomous driving because it could allow AVs to solve edge cases that they have not been trained on. This will be key to scaling AVs.

 

[aset]

Operational will lag behind testing. But we've seen significant progress. We know from Waymo's videos that they are doing driverless in moderate rain in SF. They are also testing in heavier rain areas like Bellevue, WA and Orlando or Miami, FL. Back in December, Dolgov provided an update on handling rain:
...
When will robotaxis be operational in heavy rain cities? My guess is 1 year, maybe 2.

This is a good example of survivorship bias. Dolgov wouldn't share any clips where Waymo frankencar gets stuck in concrete. Tesla is exposed to ordinary people as testers who are happy to share their annoyance with FSD behavior.

 

[diplomat33]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1697290553312878726

 

[diplomat33]

VDL Groep and automotive supplier Schaeffler announce they are jointly exploring the development and production of a new generation of self-driving electric shuttles for public transport. The two family-owned companies will be showing a first demonstrator of the vehicle at IAA Mobility in Munich.

The prototype, which integrates Mobileye autonomous driving technology, and all relevant automotive electrification and steering technology can be experienced until Friday 8 September, 2023, at the booth of VDL Groep (hall B3, booth B21) as well at the booth of Schaeffler (hall B3, booth B40).

VDL and Schaeffler are working together on driverless shuttles (with Mobileye technology) - Sustainable Bus

VDL Groep and automotive supplier Schaeffler announce they are jointly exploring the development and production

www.sustainable-bus.com

 

[hooty]

This is a good example of survivorship bias. Dolgov wouldn't share any clips where Waymo frankencar gets stuck in concrete. Tesla is exposed to ordinary people as testers who are happy to share their annoyance with FSD behavior.

And Tesla is dishonest in its sharing of 'data'. Never independently assessed.

 

[willow_hiller]

And Tesla is dishonest in its sharing of 'data'. Never independently assessed.

Are any AV data independently assessed?

 

[diplomat33]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1697609660591702453

 

[diplomat33]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1697677653304807451

 

[ThomasD]

Maybe Hotels and Restaurants will subsidize ride if you use their Businesses. Say you are staying at the MGM Grand Hotel. A car picks you up at the Airport and takes you to the Hotel and it's free.

 

[hooty]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1697677653304807451

I’m looking forward to Waymo & Cruise offering driverless rides in New York the most

 

[diplomat33]

I’m looking forward to Waymo & Cruise offering driverless rides in New York the most

Unfortunately, NY has very strict regulations, worse than CA. So it will likely delay when Waymo and Cruise offer driverless rides.

 

[flutas]

Well, count one big lawsuit in the works for Cruise.

San Francisco pedestrian died after Cruise cars blocked ambulance: SFFD

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Two driverless Cruise cars blocked a street and delayed an ambulance transporting a critically injured pedestrian to a hospital, according to the San Francisco Fire Dep…

www.kron4.com

 

[Bladerskb]

Mobileye's Supervision (2x EyeQ5 version) on Highway videos in China on Zeekr 001

 

[KArnold]

Well, count one big lawsuit in the works for Cruise.

San Francisco pedestrian died after Cruise cars blocked ambulance: SFFD

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Two driverless Cruise cars blocked a street and delayed an ambulance transporting a critically injured pedestrian to a hospital, according to the San Francisco Fire Dep…

www.kron4.com

Do they lock the doors while driving? I'm assuming yes. Seems it would be fairly easy to allow emergency workers the ability to unlock/move these vehicles as needed - no? That's not enough but it would help.

 

[cwerdna]

Well, count one big lawsuit in the works for Cruise.

San Francisco pedestrian died after Cruise cars blocked ambulance: SFFD

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Two driverless Cruise cars blocked a street and delayed an ambulance transporting a critically injured pedestrian to a hospital, according to the San Francisco Fire Dep…

www.kron4.com

The above incident also made another station's local news: Cruise pushes back against claims from the SF fire department.

 

[JB47394]

The above incident also made another station's local news: Cruise pushes back against claims from the SF fire department.

The tragic irony to all this is that the pedestrian who died was killed by a car driven by a human.

 

[flutas]

The tragic irony to all this is that the pedestrian who died was killed by a car driven by a human.

You could really split hairs on this, but I mostly agree.

The pedestrian died, that is a fact.

The primary injuries were caused by a vehicle (assumed to be driven by a person), also a fact.

If they would have died had it not been for the AVs blocking the ambulance, is the debate. If (BIG IF) they would have been survivable injuries if they had gotten to the hospital faster, and the AV blocked them for a time in that range, then the blame would likely fall on the AV for their death. Similar to protestors blocking the road, they won't likely be criminally charged as causing the death but they open themselves to civil suits and more regulation being put in place.

 

[JB47394]

You could really split hairs on this, but I mostly agree.

The irony that I was commenting on was that if the car had been autonomous, it wouldn't have struck the pedestrian in the first place.

 

[stopcrazypp]

Well, count one big lawsuit in the works for Cruise.

San Francisco pedestrian died after Cruise cars blocked ambulance: SFFD

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Two driverless Cruise cars blocked a street and delayed an ambulance transporting a critically injured pedestrian to a hospital, according to the San Francisco Fire Dep…

www.kron4.com

That article has tons of details on various incidents. For the headline incident, Cruise claims with video that one car moved away really quickly and only one was left stuck, which Cruise claims the ambulance could have driven around.

There was another Waymo incident where it halted on a highway when there was an emergency vehicle (and presumably didn't pull over).

Do they lock the doors while driving? I'm assuming yes. Seems it would be fairly easy to allow emergency workers the ability to unlock/move these vehicles as needed - no? That's not enough but it would help.

The last incident in that article had the firefighter able to gain access, but Waymo refused to authorize them to move the vehicle. This happened in April this year.

 

[flutas]

That article has tons of details on various incidents. For the headline incident, Cruise claims with video that one car moved away really quickly and only one was left stuck, which Cruise claims the ambulance could have driven around.

Yup, I found it interesting that NBC asked for the video footage they referenced and were told it's "proprietary material". IMO that just seems shady to me, if you have video that proves your side of a story, why turn it into a "yeah, well totally believe us" claim unless the video, again, makes Cruise look bad.

Additionally, there are multiple claims in the linked doc for this one incident. I don't see how Cruise can claim their cars never stalled, when it was a long enough stall to apparently go from arrival to the scene, to them trying to leave. Even going so far as SFPD trying to manually move the cars, and being unable to.

Upon arrival on scene, (...) SFPD had a vehicle parked in the #1 lane of Harrison, and E01 had positioned its apparatus across the left 2 lanes of Harrison to shield the patient from oncoming traffic. The right 2 lanes of Harrison were blocked by (2) autonomous Cruise vehicles that had stopped and were not moving, blocking ingress and egress to the incident scene. While loading the patient to the ambulance, the (2) Cruise vehicles were stil stopped in the right 2 lanes of Harrison, prohibiting rapid egress from the scene. SFPD had attempted manual takeover of the autonomous vehicles, but were unsuccessful.

The linked doc has a ton of interesting commentary around some stalls as well.

Truck 12 was heading Westbound on Judah Street responding with lights and sirens to a building alarm. As we approached 11th Avenue a driverless Waymo vehicle with passengers heading Southbound on 11th Avenue stopped at the stop sign then started to proceed across the intersection directly in front ofT12. The vehicle stopped and started 3 times until it finally came to a stop in the middle of the intersection causing the driver of T12 to swerve abruptly left into the oncoming traffic lane to avoid the vehicle and causing an extreme hazard.

They also still have issues running over fire hoses apparently.

On 08/21/2023 (...) All approaching motorist stopped and made U-tums to avoid the scene. E42 notice a vehicle approaching very fast. This vehicle ran over our ready line and stopped short of E42, which had its emergency lights on. We were fortunate that our ready line was not damaged. Upon approaching the vehicle to see if the driver would move by safely, 1 noticed that it was an autonomous Cruise vehicle.