I'm assuming that self-driving cars will also perform data collection for the rest of Google's self-driving cars. I could be incorrect about that, but if they d

I'm assuming that self-driving cars will also perform data collection for the rest of Google's self-driving cars. I could be incorrect about that, but if they do, it won't matter that the current data is from 2005. Alternatively, if Google do need to collect manually, I would assume they will mobilize to do just that. They did it for Street View, a feature that isn't directly linked to revenue. A much more solid business case could be made for doing it for self-driving cars. Humans rely almost solely on vision from a single source (counting both eyes as just one source) when driving. Autonomous vehicles have far greater potential when it comes to sensors. Google's current vehicles utilize LIDAR and GPS. Tesla's lane following uses cameras, but they get more than one perspective. If it added anything, infrared could be used. There's potential to have tonnes of cameras on the car to get a fuller view. They can triangulate position more effectively by listening out for Wi-Fi and cellular network signals. There's gyroscopes, too. CPUs can calculate exactly how much stopping distance is required in the particular road conditions and adjust speed accordingly. When you think about the sensors and processing capability compared with two human eyes and a brain, it seems to me as though humans are very poorly equipped for dealing with driving in hazardous weather. You're probably right that the current cars struggle under poor weather conditions, but it hardly seems like an unsolvable problem. Once they do function in poor weather conditions, they'll probably do a far better job of it than a human driver would.