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Having the rendered car's view visible to passengers inside is a very great idea for at least the first couple generations of self-driving cars, and especially

Having the rendered car's view visible to passengers inside is a very great idea for at least the first couple generations of self-driving cars, and especially being as prominent as they are in this car. It helps get people comfortable with the idea, and feel better knowing the car is picking up on everything in its surroundings. I'm a bit skeptical about if those are real graphics though -- they look quite detailed beyond what I feel the 'sensors' can see, but maybe I just underestimate this technology. The screens are also (unfortunately) a great place to blast ads at a quite literally "captive" audience, but I digress.

jvolkman 9y ago
If you watch closely, the periodic "pulsing" on the view screens shows the actual lidar data. The rendered obstacles (cars/peds) are based on the vehicle's model of the world after processing that data. The buildings presumably come from its HD maps.
thanatos_dem 9y ago
It wouldn’t surprise me if they were dummy or dramatically simplified graphics just to make people more comfortable. Planet Money had a show on this topic a few years back - https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=427467598 https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?stor... They drew a comparison to the early days of elevators, when everyone was terrified of them, especially after transitioning away from having a lift operator controlling it. The solution at the time was the big red emergency stop button.
- stevenwoo 9y ago
  The first elevators in Europe (mostly legacy ones in Germany now I think) that never stop and don't have doors still terrify me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternoster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternoster
ehsankia 9y ago
The same UI is shown in the Pheonix promotional video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaOB-ErYq6Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaOB-ErYq6Y It seems like the it's the real UI currently used.

jvolkman 9y ago

If you watch closely, the periodic "pulsing" on the view screens shows the actual lidar data. The rendered obstacles (cars/peds) are based on the vehicle's model of the world after processing that data. The buildings presumably come from its HD maps.

thanatos_dem 9y ago

It wouldn’t surprise me if they were dummy or dramatically simplified graphics just to make people more comfortable. Planet Money had a show on this topic a few years back - https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=427467598 https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?stor... They drew a comparison to the early days of elevators, when everyone was terrified of them, especially after transitioning away from having a lift operator controlling it. The solution at the time was the big red emergency stop button.

stevenwoo 9y ago
The first elevators in Europe (mostly legacy ones in Germany now I think) that never stop and don't have doors still terrify me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternoster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternoster

ehsankia 9y ago

The same UI is shown in the Pheonix promotional video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaOB-ErYq6Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaOB-ErYq6Y It seems like the it's the real UI currently used.