Autonomous Car Progress

[EVNow]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1612451959734407169

Gotta agree. Making excuses for bad driving is not good look.

At this point - Cruise really doesn't look any better than Tesla in actual driving (even though geofenced). Atleast Waymo doesn't do stuff like this ...

 

[diplomat33]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1613538286890254338

 

[EVNow]

Well, Comma can also do a (pre-determined) route hands-free now ...

A drive to Taco Bell

Delivering on our first Twitter promise!

blog.comma.ai

 

[diplomat33]

Brad Templeton made an "autonomap" that shows where public autonomous driving is happening, including ride-hailing, delivery etc...

Autonomy Map

 

[Doggydogworld]

Brad Templeton made an "autonomap" that shows where public autonomous driving is happening, including ride-hailing, delivery etc...

Autonomy Map

Interesting. Mostly little sidewalk delivery bots from Starship (Brad is a shareholder) and Kiwi. May has more sites than I realized, too.

I did not know Gatik pulled safety drivers from a couple of box trucks in Arkansas more than a year ago. Has Waymo even done that with any trucks yet? The autonomous trucking business model is terrific, though the regulatory hurdle is higher. Einride in Europe also looks like a contender, just raised a boatload of money.

 

[diplomat33]

I did not know Gatik pulled safety drivers from a couple of box trucks in Arkansas more than a year ago. Has Waymo even done that with any trucks yet?

No, Waymo has not. But Gatik only operates 2 driverless delivery trucks, on a 7.1 mile route. and only in fair weather. It is a very limited ODD. Waymo is testing semi-trucks on longer routes.

"Gatik has five self-driving trucks operating in Arkansas, which are used to shuttle goods for Walmart. Two of these trucks are fully driverless now and operate seven days a week on a 7.1-mile route between a Walmart fulfillment center (or dark store) and one of its neighborhood markets. Gatik still has safeguards in place, however. An employee is in the passenger seat of the truck, there is a chase vehicle and it only operates in fair weather conditions."

 

[bradtem]

Interesting. Mostly little sidewalk delivery bots from Starship (Brad is a shareholder) and Kiwi. May has more sites than I realized, too.

I did not know Gatik pulled safety drivers from a couple of box trucks in Arkansas more than a year ago. Has Waymo even done that with any trucks yet? The autonomous trucking business model is terrific, though the regulatory hurdle is higher. Einride in Europe also looks like a contender, just raised a boatload of money.

Actually, the most deployments are "roadbot" deployments in China from JD, Neolix, Meituan etc. (Nuro has a similar device but only 2 deployments at present.) These go on the roads and have no place for a human.

Delivery is easier.

 

[ThomasD]

There is also Kodiak

 

[Bladerskb]

Driverless Cruise in Heavy Rain Storm...No problem.
But @powertoold said this was impossible?

 

[diplomat33]

Mobileye is deepening ties with VW:

"Most recently, Volkswagen had agreed on extensive cooperation with Mobileye - and at the same time discontinued the Argo AI joint venture started with Ford . Shashua does not want to comment on the deal. According to industry circles, the new partners want to work together to improve autonomous driving performance on the motorway, among other things."

Mobileye will be announcing a deal with a non-European automaker in the coming weeks:

As the founder confirms, another partnership with a large car manufacturer that does not come from Europe is to be announced in the coming weeks.

BMW decides to go with Qualcomm instead of Mobileye:

For future generations of electric cars , however, BMW is cooperating with Californian competitor Qualcomm . "Hopefully we will have a closer relationship again in the future," Shashua says of BMW.

Shashua criticizes Mercedes' L3 highway system:

Shashua thinks little of this approach. "All autonomous driving systems below a speed of 130 kilometers per hour are useless," he says. Too often drivers have to intervene, the system switches on and off at will. “That cannot be marketed in the future.” The aim must be for the car to drive autonomously from the motorway entrance to the exit – and also to be able to deal with dangerous situations without the driver having to intervene.

Shashua also thinks Tesla will need to add active sensors for autonomous driving:

The Mobileye boss believes that Tesla will soon have to make a fundamental change. “What Tesla says publicly is different than what they do internally. Tesla will have to add active sensors, I'm sure," says Shashua. There are already reports that Tesla is testing imaging radars.

Autonomes Fahren: Mobileye-Gründer kritisiert Tesla und Mercedes

Der Chef der Autopilot-Firma Mobileye will nach Rückschlägen neue Allianzen schließen. Mit den Strategien einiger Autobauer geht er jedoch hart ins Gericht.

www.handelsblatt.com

 

[ThomasD]

Driverless Cruise in Heavy Rain Storm...No problem.
But @powertoold said this was impossible?

Why not just leave them out there then to drive around

 

[diplomat33]

Why not just leave them out there then to drive around

Because an "atmospheric river" was approaching that would cause serious flooding. Roads would be undriveable. Cruise also would not want to leave their expensive robotaxis in the middle of a flood to risk damage.

 

[diplomat33]

Mobileye's FMCW lidar:

Mobileye's 4D imaging radar:

 

[diplomat33]

Looks like BMW CEO does not really believe in their own L3 system.

From a DPA report:

“The car is not an iPhone on wheels,” Zipse said. “A Level 3 system, whether at 60, 80 or 120 kilometers per hour, which constantly switches off in the tunnel, switches off when it rains, switches off in the dark, switches off in fog – what’s that supposed to mean? No customer buys it. No one wants to be in the shoes of a manufacturer who misinterprets a traffic situation during the liability phase, for example when control is handed back to the driver. We don’t take the risk,” Zipse added.

There’s also the topic of cost. Zipse sees limits to the willingness of customers to buy additional vehicle functions, like in a subscription model. “If they pay 50,000 euros for a car, they can’t say that everything isn’t included,” the BMW CEO says.

Additionally, every country has its own requirements for autonomous driving which adds complexity and cost to the development of self-driving features. For example, the Level 3 in the new BMW 7 Series will only be available in Europe, for now. The U.S. market will continue using the Level 2+ system which we also tested last year.

BMW is Skeptical About Level 3 Autonomous Driving

One of the biggest tech additions to the BMW fleet this year is the Level 3 autonomous driving capability in the BMW 7 Series

www.bmwblog.com

Seems like BMW pursued L3 because they thought it would put them ahead and now they are realizing their mistake. But I got to wonder. If the CEO is so skeptical, why are they still pursuing L3? Or could this hint that BMW will drop L3 soon?

 

[stopcrazypp]

Looks like BMW CEO does not really believe in their own L3 system.

From a DPA report:

BMW is Skeptical About Level 3 Autonomous Driving

One of the biggest tech additions to the BMW fleet this year is the Level 3 autonomous driving capability in the BMW 7 Series

www.bmwblog.com

Seems like BMW pursued L3 because they thought it would put them ahead and now they are realizing their mistake. But I got to wonder. If the CEO is so skeptical, why are they still pursuing L3? Or could this hint that BMW will drop L3 soon?

Because Mercedes has it? They probably don't want to look worse than Mercedes, so better to have something and not like it than to not have anything at all to compete.

 

[diplomat33]

Because Mercedes has it? They probably don't want to look worse than Mercedes, so better to have something and not like it than to not have anything at all to compete.

Maybe. I still think BMW would be better off ditching L3 and focusing on hands-free L2 first and then L4 Highway and L4 full ODD later.

 

[EVNow]

Seems like BMW pursued L3 because they thought it would put them ahead and now they are realizing their mistake. But I got to wonder. If the CEO is so skeptical, why are they still pursuing L3? Or could this hint that BMW will drop L3 soon?

Yes, I keep saying ... these marketing hacks to call their system "L3" is dangerous.

 

[Daniel in SD]

Yes, I keep saying ... these marketing hacks to call their system "L3" is dangerous.

Such a pessimist! We have no idea how safe these L3 systems are yet.

 

[Bladerskb]

Such a pessimist! We have no idea how safe these L3 systems are yet.

It’s actually good to be pessimistic about L3 because we have yet to see an actual real L3 car. Everything so far has been a marketing PR scam.

 

[EVNow]

Such a pessimist! We have no idea how safe these L3 systems are yet.

I'm a pessimist because they also have no idea how safe the L3 systems are ... Or may be the BMW guy knows