3 ms·

Wouldn’t remote control cars require a near zero latency network connection at all times in all areas?

by 300bps 9y ago

_wmd 9y ago
Yup! Even with LTE average-case latency of around 100ms (and easily double that for 4G/3G-only areas), worst case latencies are easily measured in _seconds_. According to Google, driver reaction times are measured in the range 0.7..3.0 seconds. Now add to that the bandwidth requirements for at least high quality front/back video and instrumentation. I doubt anyone is mad enough to think in the general case remotely piloting a vehicle in a safety-critical scenario using these consumer networks is an even remotely sane option
Fricken 9y ago
Phantom Auto, mentioned in the article, demoed their RC cars in CES last month, and they were ferrying journalists around using a driver 500 miles away. Latency isn't as much of an issue as one might think, but to maintain network reliability phantom uses 5 different networks simultaneously. Waymo and Cruise (GM) are both building out call centres with agents that have some sort of remote control over the car. Both Waymo and GM have emergency stop buttons connected to an air gapped computer that can take the vehicle to a minimum viable risk condition (which basically means pulling over to the side of the road) for security.
saas_co_de 9y ago
It would be computer assisted remote control, similar to how a drone works. The remote operator provides general directions but the computer has direct control over the vehicle systems to implement those directions in response to sensor feedback. Human reaction time is very slow so to do better than a human definitely does not require zero latency.
- notatoad 9y ago
  this sounds a bit like what Cruise is planning to do. Not remote control, but remote instruction >“The specially trained operator [then] provides a domain extension to the vehicle to help define safe operating boundaries (e.g., permission to use the opposing traffic lane where cones are demarcating a new path of travel) https://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/self-driving/gm-says-look-ma-no-steering-wheel https://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/sel...

Wouldn’t remote control cars require a near zero latency network connection at all times in all areas?

by 300bps 9y ago

Wouldn’t remote control cars require a near zero latency network connection at all times in all areas?

_wmd 9y ago

Yup! Even with LTE average-case latency of around 100ms (and easily double that for 4G/3G-only areas), worst case latencies are easily measured in _seconds_. According to Google, driver reaction times are measured in the range 0.7..3.0 seconds. Now add to that the bandwidth requirements for at least high quality front/back video and instrumentation. I doubt anyone is mad enough to think in the general case remotely piloting a vehicle in a safety-critical scenario using these consumer networks is an even remotely sane option

Fricken 9y ago

Phantom Auto, mentioned in the article, demoed their RC cars in CES last month, and they were ferrying journalists around using a driver 500 miles away. Latency isn't as much of an issue as one might think, but to maintain network reliability phantom uses 5 different networks simultaneously. Waymo and Cruise (GM) are both building out call centres with agents that have some sort of remote control over the car. Both Waymo and GM have emergency stop buttons connected to an air gapped computer that can take the vehicle to a minimum viable risk condition (which basically means pulling over to the side of the road) for security.

saas_co_de 9y ago

It would be computer assisted remote control, similar to how a drone works. The remote operator provides general directions but the computer has direct control over the vehicle systems to implement those directions in response to sensor feedback. Human reaction time is very slow so to do better than a human definitely does not require zero latency.

notatoad 9y ago
this sounds a bit like what Cruise is planning to do. Not remote control, but remote instruction >“The specially trained operator [then] provides a domain extension to the vehicle to help define safe operating boundaries (e.g., permission to use the opposing traffic lane where cones are demarcating a new path of travel) https://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/self-driving/gm-says-look-ma-no-steering-wheel https://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/sel...