Autonomous Car Progress

[thewishmaster]

The Cruise video and the Waymo information really is incredible, but IMO, it's kind of an apples/oranges comparison to what Tesla is doing.

The Cruise video is a geofenced area, and last time I read about the tech, it was based on HD mapping and LIDAR. And again, last time I checked, Waymo was similarly based. So they are good at what they do, as long as they stay in the confines of their geofenced areas, and the HD maps are kept up to date.

Tesla's approach if very different, as we all know.

Which tech will win in the end? Stay tuned!

Definitely apples to oranges, but today I watched a Cruise car today stop far short of the traffic light (there were some cyclists in their dedicated bike lane nearby ahead of it) and then phantom brake as it started crossing the intersection on a green light, and that gives me hope that as much as we think AP can be terrible, other AV systems can be pretty bad in uncontrolled environments too

 

[cwerdna]

If you have 1 hour for Nova episode "Look who's driving" premiered tonight:

Look Who's Driving

It should be a great public relations to educate the public but both Uber and Tesla declined to participate in this document (You can guess what both got in common).

It doesn't sound like the technology is here.

Thanks for the heads up! I set my TiVo to record it and found it already record a copy of it in standard def as a suggestion.

Setting my TiVo to record it in HD.

 

[CarlK]

(You can guess what both got in common).

Both are more daring than the rest but the similarity stops right there.

 

[cwerdna]

https://www.engadget.com/2019/10/24/toyota-self-driving-car-test-tokyo-olympics/
https://www.engadget.com/2019/10/25/hyundai-botride-launches-in-irvine-november-4/
BotRide debuts in the city on November 4th.

Renault is testing an autonomous shared car service that can be hailed using a smartphone
The trial will last until November 8, with roughly 100 people using the service.

Renault, Waymo partner on potential self-driving route from Paris airport

 

[diplomat33]

Cruise cars responding to emergency vehicles:

 

[mongo]

Cruise cars responding to emergency vehicles:

Can someone calculate how lucky they were to have have a fire truck cross and then an ambulance going straight in the same event?
<self censoring>

 

[cwerdna]

If you have 1 hour for Nova episode "Look who's driving" premiered tonight:

Look Who's Driving

It should be a great public relations to educate the public but both Uber and Tesla declined to participate in this document (You can guess what both got in common).

It doesn't sound like the technology is here.

I watched this on my plane ride to Japan (where I am now). Was good. I'd recommend it for anyone in this thread or anyone interested in the technology.

Semi-OT: https://www.engadget.com/2019/10/28/waymo-rider-only-autonomous-taxis-phoenix.

 

[Bladerskb]

 

[dgatwood]

Can someone calculate how lucky they were to have have a fire truck cross and then an ambulance going straight in the same event?
<self censoring>

Around here, the ambulance is usually right behind the fire truck, because they both start out from the same building as soon as they get an emergency call, and assuming they don't take too long to get ready, who gets there first is almost a coin toss.

But going in opposite directions? Yeah, no way. Never. Not in a million years, unless it was planned that way.

 

[diplomat33]

Waymo cars and pedestrians dressed up in Halloween costumes:

 

[TonyT]

Toyota will offer rides in self-driving cars at the Tokyo Olympics
Hyundai will offer free self-driving rides in Irvine, California
BotRide debuts in the city on November 4th.

Renault is testing an autonomous shared car service that can be hailed using a smartphone
The trial will last until November 8, with roughly 100 people using the service.

Renault, Waymo partner on potential self-driving route from Paris airport

Looks like botride app is active... I have not tried to hail a ride yet as I'm currently outside of the zone.

Anyone try it? Feedback?

 

[diplomat33]

 

[CarlK]

I bet you it's not true "driverless". The "safety engineer" instead of sitting inside the car is in a remote control center somewhere watching the car run every second. Pretty easy to figure out. Good PR stunt though.

 

[diplomat33]

I bet you it's not true "driverless". The "safety engineer" instead of sitting inside the car is in a remote control center somewhere watching the car run every second. Pretty easy to figure out. Good PR stunt though.

if the safety engineer in a remote control center, is merely monitoring the car, that would be still be true driverless. It would only not be true driverless, if the safety engineer in the remote control center is actually controlling the car.

 

[willow_hiller]

if the safety engineer in a remote control center, is merely monitoring the car, that would be still be true driverless. It would only not be true driverless, if the safety engineer in the remote control center is actually controlling the car.

Technical question: having a remote safety driver would still firmly place a system in SAE level 2, wouldn't it? As long as the human is expected to take control at a moment's notice?

 

[diplomat33]

Technical question: having a remote safety driver would still firmly place a system in SAE level 2, wouldn't it? As long as the human is expected to take control at a moment's notice?

No. I don't believe so. Having a safety driver does not make a system L2. That is a common misconception. The levels are based on what the car is designed to do. So if a car is designed to perform at say L4 autonomy, it is considered L4 even if a safety driver is present.

 

[SandiaGrunt]

I bet you it's not true "driverless". The "safety engineer" instead of sitting inside the car is in a remote control center somewhere watching the car run every second. Pretty easy to figure out. Good PR stunt though.

No, that’s not how Waymo cars work. That would be stupid.

 

[alsetym]

No, that’s not how Waymo cars work. That would be stupid.

If you actually know what how they are handling this, can you shed light?

I have assumed that they have the ability to log-in to the car if it gets 'stuck' somewhere because you still see evidence that they get stuck in weird situations every once in a while and having to wait for an engineer to show up would be dumb. I would also assume that they would start with some level of video oversight and gradually reduce oversight as time and confidence marches on. But they haven't said anything publicly AFAIK.

 

[Bladerskb]

Technical question: having a remote safety driver would still firmly place a system in SAE level 2, wouldn't it? As long as the human is expected to take control at a moment's notice?

There's a misconception about remote driver. They don't have direct control to the car (due to latency problems). They don't take over at a moment's notice. They simply send the car a route to take if the car stops and requests help.

 

[alsetym]

There's a misconception about remote driver. They don't have direct control to the car (due to latency problems). They don't take over at a moment's notice. They simply send the car a route to take if the car stops and requests help.

I'm sure that every manufacturer implements this in different ways. Since google seems to be the only ones actually doing this right now (in uncontrolled environments,) I'm most interested in how they are doing it.