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Given how important self-driving vehicles are, on so many fronts, I think it's fantastic that a company with resources is pushing forward an OSS implementation.
by SwellJoe 10y ago
Given how important self-driving vehicles are, on so many fronts, I think it's fantastic that a company with resources is pushing forward an OSS implementation. Safety alone is reason enough for there to be a good OSS reference implementation. I'm surprised/disappointed that government hasn't been more instrumental in pushing forward an agenda of promoting self-driving cars (while expending resources on other types of work that will be far less effective long-term).
So, this is super cool. I'm surprised it's Udacity doing it; on a couple of fronts:
It seems, on the surface, outside of their core competency...but thinking about it, it does make some sense, if they really have enough paying students (and maybe sponsoring organizations) to make it work. I mean, schools that teach auto repair don't work on fake cars. Why would a school teaching self-driving limit themselves to simulated cars?
But, it's also surprising that Udacity has the funds to make it work. The cost of building self-driving car technology must have come way down just in the past few years. And/or Udacity must be making a lot more money than I would have guessed based on how crowded their market is.
Regardless, it's super cool!
- asimuvPR 10y agoIt is way cheaper. The cars can be leased or rented and are ready to be used with electronic control steering, throttle and braking. The hardware is accessible. The software is fairly straightforward as long as you define a good sandbox.
- olivercameron 10y agoThank you, and great thoughts! I think we'd surprise you on our growth, but costs have also decreased a fair amount in the past 4-5 years.
- dcposch 10y ago> I'm surprised/disappointed that government hasn't been more instrumental in pushing forward an agenda of promoting self-driving cars The DARPA Grand Challenge in 2005 and Urban Challenge in 2007 are what started it all. Now that Google, Uber and others are racing to commercialize, all the government has to do is not overregulate. No need to "push forward an agenda". (FWIW DARPA, then known as ARPA, did the same thing the internet a few decades ago.)
- cpeterso 10y agoThere's a rule-of-thumb that academic research takes 10–15 years to be commercialized, so we're right on schedule now 10 years after DARPA's 2005 and 2007 Challenges. :)
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- tnecniv 10y agoI can't wait for 10 years from now when I have a walking robot slave then from the recent grand challenges
- fma 10y agoMy university had participated in those challenges. They were pretty cool. But yes, once it was proven that something was possible it open the flood gates for commercialization. I'm more surprised/disappointed that someone on HN wasn't aware of those initiatives. It shows why people are for defunding government research. Though I imagine DARPA being part of the military, wouldn't have been in that boat, but my point remains the same to NASA, NSF, NOAA etc.
- SwellJoe 10y ago"I'm more surprised/disappointed that someone on HN wasn't aware of those initiatives." You've made an assumption that I'm unaware of them, which is incorrect. I just think they're very small in the grand scheme of things. The DARPA challenges are a blip on the radar of the federal budget, as it relates to highways, auto safety, fuel efficiency, and a variety of other areas where self-driving cars will have a tremendous impact.
- tachim 10y agoThis is false. People were thinking about and researching autonomous driving seriously since the 80s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_autonomous_cars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_autonomous_cars.
- mhuffman 10y agoThis is not surprising. Sebastian Thrun[1], one of the founders of Udacity, specializes in robotic automobiles. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_Thrun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_Thrun
- cybertronic 10y agoYes, he won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge
- marvin 10y agoAnd they're an education startup. Udacity has a leg up in that they can make their own robotic car engineers.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]