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the hype around it is fun, but the reality is that autonomous driving is harder than anything we've done before as a species and we have a bunch of the best min

the hype around it is fun, but the reality is that autonomous driving is harder than anything we've done before as a species and we have a bunch of the best minds working on it already (as the article notes). rockets and electric cars are really cool, but those have largely been engineering challenges. autonomous vehicles are in the basic scientific research stage. i can't imagine we'll see true autonomous vehicles within the next 20 years. i say this not to discourage the efforts to build this wonderful technology, but only to temper expectations, so that we avoid implausible conclusions like "uber will save itself by replacing its fleet with autonomous cars in the next 5 years".

cr0sh 9y ago
> autonomous vehicles are in the basic scientific research stage. Autonomous vehicles have been virtually out of the "basic scientific research stage" ever since Darpa's Grand Challenge in 2005 and 2007. While there is still a ton of research being done, most of it has been focused on refining existing solutions, or applying existing solutions into new problem spaces. For the most part, we know what is needed both in hardware and software to gain Level 5 capability, and for the most part we have working examples of all those functions. What is left is refinement. I also believe that Tesla is on the right path by using cameras for it's main sensor input (augmented by radar, and probably some LIDAR too). We already know that our road system can be navigated visually - it's inherently designed for this. In theory, radar and LIDAR shouldn't be needed at all, but just as they are useful augmentations for humans (in those areas that they are used - such as proximity detection on some vehicles), so they are also useful for self-driving systems.