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You need the map because you want to know where to go, not in order to avoid debris. Pick two points in your town: say your home and your office. Imagine a str

You need the map because you want to know where to go, not in order to avoid debris. Pick two points in your town: say your home and your office. Imagine a stranger had to get from one to the other, and they know how to drive. The map if for all the information that stranger does not have.

bluGill 9y ago
You don't need a map for that, just a sense of direction and distance. I have often navigated someplace by making seemingly random turns - I knew where I was going was southeast so any east or south road was fine. Once I got close street signs got me the rest of the way.
- babuskov 9y ago
  > You don't need a map for that, just a sense of direction and distance. Without map you also need time. In some cases, a lot of it. Not all cities have perfect grid structure and there are one-way streets that can mess you up a lot. In the city where I live it would be really time consuming, because there's a huge pedestrian-only area in the center and many the streets around it are one way, or turning is prohibited at some crossroads so you cannot suddenly decide that you made a mistake and you want to make a U-turn and go back. Without maps you need time or luck.
- maccard 9y ago
  That works in cities that are perfect grids. Try navigating the scottish highlands like that. You might have gone miles down a road before you realise that it's not going the way you want to go.
- sah2ed 9y ago
  > ... just a sense of direction and distance OK, how does a first time visitor with a rental car get a sense of direction and distance without a map or driving directions from a local? How do you reliably solve the beginner's mind problem for a self-driving computer? Without a baseline input, the car will have to rely on the passengers to do back-seat driving which defeats the point of driverless.
- BrandoElFollito 9y ago
  If you are from the US you may be used to use cardinzl points. I was often given directions like "the south side of the building" or "go north east" when visiting the US. This is not common at all in Europe. Sure, we have a general idea of the direction ("it's with of Paris") but we would not use that for anything else. Especially the building case was weird to me, I woukd have said "the side chose to the entrance" rather than "SE"
Slansitartop 9y ago
Why do you need anything with more precision that current-day Google maps for that?
- inputcoffee 9y ago
  That is a different question about how often they should be updated, what sort of updates, when does construction happen etc.

bluGill 9y ago

You don't need a map for that, just a sense of direction and distance. I have often navigated someplace by making seemingly random turns - I knew where I was going was southeast so any east or south road was fine. Once I got close street signs got me the rest of the way.

babuskov 9y ago
> You don't need a map for that, just a sense of direction and distance. Without map you also need time. In some cases, a lot of it. Not all cities have perfect grid structure and there are one-way streets that can mess you up a lot. In the city where I live it would be really time consuming, because there's a huge pedestrian-only area in the center and many the streets around it are one way, or turning is prohibited at some crossroads so you cannot suddenly decide that you made a mistake and you want to make a U-turn and go back. Without maps you need time or luck.
maccard 9y ago
That works in cities that are perfect grids. Try navigating the scottish highlands like that. You might have gone miles down a road before you realise that it's not going the way you want to go.
sah2ed 9y ago
> ... just a sense of direction and distance OK, how does a first time visitor with a rental car get a sense of direction and distance without a map or driving directions from a local? How do you reliably solve the beginner's mind problem for a self-driving computer? Without a baseline input, the car will have to rely on the passengers to do back-seat driving which defeats the point of driverless.
BrandoElFollito 9y ago
If you are from the US you may be used to use cardinzl points. I was often given directions like "the south side of the building" or "go north east" when visiting the US. This is not common at all in Europe. Sure, we have a general idea of the direction ("it's with of Paris") but we would not use that for anything else. Especially the building case was weird to me, I woukd have said "the side chose to the entrance" rather than "SE"

Slansitartop 9y ago

Why do you need anything with more precision that current-day Google maps for that?

inputcoffee 9y ago
That is a different question about how often they should be updated, what sort of updates, when does construction happen etc.