5 ms·

Agreed. When theres 3 inches of snow on the road (before the plows have hit your neighborhood) and/or snow blowing there's zero chance of an autonomous car bein

Agreed. When theres 3 inches of snow on the road (before the plows have hit your neighborhood) and/or snow blowing there's zero chance of an autonomous car being able to decide where the lanes are.

Alupis 10y ago
> there's zero chance of an autonomous car being able to decide where the lanes are Let alone the seemingly indefinite construction zones that have become commonplace across America - often with the lane markers missing or going off in directions that do not exist anymore (old lanes now blocked, etc...).
- galdosdi 10y ago
  Is that right, have construction zones become more commonplace in highways and/or roads across America recently? I had not heard about that but that sounds interesting and I would love to learn more. Any sources you can point me at?
  - Alupis 10y ago
    I wouldn't say recently... it's a symptom of how the roads and highways were built in the US. They are essentially in a constant state of construction due to repaving needs, growing traffic congestion, etc. What sort of "source" do you expect would exist for this? It's just the day-to-day job of DOT.
    - galdosdi 10y ago
      I guess I misunderstood your usage of "have become" to mean that this is a new state of affairs, and it didn't use to be this way in the past.
  - greedo 10y ago
    In the midwest, we have two season, Winter, and road construction. As soon as winter ends, road construction begins. Neverending road construction.
zzzzzzzza 10y ago
http://www.ll.mit.edu/news/Highly-accurate-vehicle-localization-under-adverse-weather.html http://www.ll.mit.edu/news/Highly-accurate-vehicle-localizat...
- milesokeefe 10y ago
  The drawback with that approach is that it requires the road to have been previously scanned. So all roads would have to be scanned and added to a database, much like Streetview.
  - snovv_crash 10y ago
    So it just needs to be driven in the summer first, then. Seriously, how do people navigate in whiteout conditions if they don't already know the terrain?
beefield 10y ago
It is something that puzzles me that there is no-one talking about making lane markers reflective on a radio frequency that passes through water (liquid and frozen) without too much trouble and put a radar on those frquencies on the car. Is it because there is no such frequency (I doubt)? Or would that be for whatever reason prohitively expensive? Or something else, like difficulties in getting good enough resolution from radar or that there exist no such material that reflects those frequencies well enough?
- mikeash 10y ago
  Many localities can't even be bothered to maintain their paint. It's been speculated that this is one reason why Tesla's Autopilot is so much better than Mercedes' supposedly equivalent system: Mercedes is testing their system on German roads with perfect markings everywhere, Tesla is testing theirs on California roads that haven't been painted since the Reagan administration.
  - kamaal 10y ago
    I can give you a better test environment, Come here and test in India. If you can get your car to self drive here, I assure you, your car will run anywhere on earth.
    - mikeash 10y ago
      Now that you mention it, it will be really interesting to see what happens with self-driving cars in places like India.
- placeybordeaux 10y ago
  Who is gonna pay for that?
  - infogulch 10y ago
    We are, through the government, as usual. Laying down some RF reflective paint/markers on the road wouldn't be nearly as expensive as other proposals (like embedding electronics or special wire underneath the road surface), it would be similar in expense to pavement markers[0] that are applied to some roads today, plus with a HUD it could even help human drivers in snow environments. Lots of places make special modifications to the road specifically for snow, and especially for snowplows. [0]: http://www.highway-markers.com/pavement-reflectors/PM290.html http://www.highway-markers.com/pavement-reflectors/PM290.htm...

Agreed. When theres 3 inches of snow on the road (before the plows have hit your neighborhood) and/or snow blowing there's zero chance of an autonomous car being able to decide where the lanes are.

Alupis 10y ago

> there's zero chance of an autonomous car being able to decide where the lanes are Let alone the seemingly indefinite construction zones that have become commonplace across America - often with the lane markers missing or going off in directions that do not exist anymore (old lanes now blocked, etc...).

galdosdi 10y ago
Is that right, have construction zones become more commonplace in highways and/or roads across America recently? I had not heard about that but that sounds interesting and I would love to learn more. Any sources you can point me at?
- Alupis 10y ago
  I wouldn't say recently... it's a symptom of how the roads and highways were built in the US. They are essentially in a constant state of construction due to repaving needs, growing traffic congestion, etc. What sort of "source" do you expect would exist for this? It's just the day-to-day job of DOT.
  - galdosdi 10y ago
    I guess I misunderstood your usage of "have become" to mean that this is a new state of affairs, and it didn't use to be this way in the past.
- greedo 10y ago
  In the midwest, we have two season, Winter, and road construction. As soon as winter ends, road construction begins. Neverending road construction.

zzzzzzzza 10y ago

http://www.ll.mit.edu/news/Highly-accurate-vehicle-localization-under-adverse-weather.html http://www.ll.mit.edu/news/Highly-accurate-vehicle-localizat...

milesokeefe 10y ago
The drawback with that approach is that it requires the road to have been previously scanned. So all roads would have to be scanned and added to a database, much like Streetview.
- snovv_crash 10y ago
  So it just needs to be driven in the summer first, then. Seriously, how do people navigate in whiteout conditions if they don't already know the terrain?

beefield 10y ago

It is something that puzzles me that there is no-one talking about making lane markers reflective on a radio frequency that passes through water (liquid and frozen) without too much trouble and put a radar on those frquencies on the car. Is it because there is no such frequency (I doubt)? Or would that be for whatever reason prohitively expensive? Or something else, like difficulties in getting good enough resolution from radar or that there exist no such material that reflects those frequencies well enough?

mikeash 10y ago
Many localities can't even be bothered to maintain their paint. It's been speculated that this is one reason why Tesla's Autopilot is so much better than Mercedes' supposedly equivalent system: Mercedes is testing their system on German roads with perfect markings everywhere, Tesla is testing theirs on California roads that haven't been painted since the Reagan administration.
- kamaal 10y ago
  I can give you a better test environment, Come here and test in India. If you can get your car to self drive here, I assure you, your car will run anywhere on earth.
  - mikeash 10y ago
    Now that you mention it, it will be really interesting to see what happens with self-driving cars in places like India.
placeybordeaux 10y ago
Who is gonna pay for that?
- infogulch 10y ago
  We are, through the government, as usual. Laying down some RF reflective paint/markers on the road wouldn't be nearly as expensive as other proposals (like embedding electronics or special wire underneath the road surface), it would be similar in expense to pavement markers[0] that are applied to some roads today, plus with a HUD it could even help human drivers in snow environments. Lots of places make special modifications to the road specifically for snow, and especially for snowplows. [0]: http://www.highway-markers.com/pavement-reflectors/PM290.html http://www.highway-markers.com/pavement-reflectors/PM290.htm...