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> [Apple] is seeking a lead engineer to integrate “audio drivers, tuners, speakers, microphones, wired buses, power supplies, wireless communication, and antenn

> [Apple] is seeking a lead engineer to integrate “audio drivers, tuners, speakers, microphones, wired buses, power supplies, wireless communication, and antennas” into autonomous systems. As an outsider to this space, it’s always puzzled me that Elon constructs a dichotomy between lidar-based and vision-based self-driving. I find that I rely on my hearing nearly as much as my eyesight. Especially to detect dangerous conditions that demand quick decisions, I find that hearing is the most important of the senses. Does anyone know the extent to which microphones and audio processing feeds into Tesla or Waymo or other self-driving systems?

ianferrel 6y ago
>I find that I rely on my hearing nearly as much as my eyesight. Especially to detect dangerous conditions that demand quick decisions, I find that hearing is the most important of the senses. Would that still be true if you had eyes pointed in all directions? Hearing is 360 degrees, and so is automotive vision/lidar.
- artfulhippo 6y ago
  Someone can correct me if I’m wrong about the biophysics of perception, but it seems to me that I register surprising sounds with less latency than unusual sights. Computers definitely have less latency for audio than video, what with audio waves having many thousands of hertz while for video anything over 120fps is high speed.
  - ianferrel 6y ago
    The latency of sound processing in computers is probably less relevant than the latency of sound propagation due to physics. Speed of sound is ~350m/s. So, whatever you're processing in 1/120th of a second is sound that was only like 10 feet away.
staplung 6y ago
I can't speak to how Tesla or Waymo work at that level but I suspect they don't use sound. Even for yourself, it seems as if sound helps you to be aware of something that you then look at. If a car can already "see" in 360 degrees and everything already gets the same amount of attention, would sound help?
mandeepj 6y ago
>I find that hearing is the most important of the senses. Sorry, I disagree. If you can see why you need to hear also? Seeing will give you more insight (size, speed, clear distance etc). A sound will give you none of that. You can get some clue about distance from sound but it may not be entirely accurate.
- baybal2 6y ago
  > Seeing will give you more insight (size, speed, clear distance etc). There is a device that does all of that complete flawlessly, consumes single watts, requires no exotic materials, costs few dollars in mass production, fits on a business card, and is manufacturable in millions. It's called radar. Accentuation on just anything else is the best proof that they never took the task seriously.
bonestamp2 6y ago
I don't think these components are related to the self driving aspect of the project. I've worked on vehicle systems for 12 years and to me this reads more like the multimedia and telematics components of a vehicle. These days, nearly everything in a car is connected by a wired data bus: steering wheel buttons, ignition, rearview mirror, tail lights, accelerator pedal, door locks... even transmission and brakes in many vehicles.
deleted 6y ago
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ianferrel 6y ago

>I find that I rely on my hearing nearly as much as my eyesight. Especially to detect dangerous conditions that demand quick decisions, I find that hearing is the most important of the senses. Would that still be true if you had eyes pointed in all directions? Hearing is 360 degrees, and so is automotive vision/lidar.

artfulhippo 6y ago
Someone can correct me if I’m wrong about the biophysics of perception, but it seems to me that I register surprising sounds with less latency than unusual sights. Computers definitely have less latency for audio than video, what with audio waves having many thousands of hertz while for video anything over 120fps is high speed.
- ianferrel 6y ago
  The latency of sound processing in computers is probably less relevant than the latency of sound propagation due to physics. Speed of sound is ~350m/s. So, whatever you're processing in 1/120th of a second is sound that was only like 10 feet away.

staplung 6y ago

I can't speak to how Tesla or Waymo work at that level but I suspect they don't use sound. Even for yourself, it seems as if sound helps you to be aware of something that you then look at. If a car can already "see" in 360 degrees and everything already gets the same amount of attention, would sound help?

mandeepj 6y ago

>I find that hearing is the most important of the senses. Sorry, I disagree. If you can see why you need to hear also? Seeing will give you more insight (size, speed, clear distance etc). A sound will give you none of that. You can get some clue about distance from sound but it may not be entirely accurate.

baybal2 6y ago
> Seeing will give you more insight (size, speed, clear distance etc). There is a device that does all of that complete flawlessly, consumes single watts, requires no exotic materials, costs few dollars in mass production, fits on a business card, and is manufacturable in millions. It's called radar. Accentuation on just anything else is the best proof that they never took the task seriously.

bonestamp2 6y ago

I don't think these components are related to the self driving aspect of the project. I've worked on vehicle systems for 12 years and to me this reads more like the multimedia and telematics components of a vehicle. These days, nearly everything in a car is connected by a wired data bus: steering wheel buttons, ignition, rearview mirror, tail lights, accelerator pedal, door locks... even transmission and brakes in many vehicles.

deleted 6y ago

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