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"The Waymo Driver operates at Level 4 autonomy, meaning, Waymo says, that “no human driver is needed in our defined operational conditions.” This, Waymo continu

by marcc 5y ago

"The Waymo Driver operates at Level 4 autonomy, meaning, Waymo says, that “no human driver is needed in our defined operational conditions.” This, Waymo continues, represents “fully autonomous driving technology,” with the Waymo Driver being “fully independent from a human driver.” " (https://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/self-driving/full-autonomy-waymo-driver https://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/sel...) Also, your question refers to Waymo in the past tense, but not sure if you meant it that way. Waymo still is building and shipping and driving, AFAIK.

runawaybottle 5y ago
What is Waymo waiting for then if they are this far?
- debrice 5y ago
  This is a great question
- johannes1234321 5y ago
  > What is Waymo waiting for then if they are this far? Quoting from the gp: "in our defined operational conditions." The operational conditions (weather, location) are probably way too limited
  - dathinab 5y ago
    The problem is less the limits on itself, but more that they might be reached "surprisingly". E.g. sudden dust storm on the highway in Germany where dust and/or sand storms on itself are a rarity (also this is something humans are bad at coping with themself, as given example caused a accident with multiple dead people). Less unusual but still realistic example: Sudden extreme heavy rain (I had that once, the car I was driving in was old needed new windows and I wasn't able to see anything at all. The only reason I didn't cause a crash is because I knew the road I was driving on very very well). Or sudden fog. Humans just tend to be better at handling such potential fatal unexpected situations, e.g. because they have a good memory of the road and contextual thinking in ways which are hard to explicitly train a robot in. So they kinda need to find ways to still handle things well in such situations and "just stopping" isn't an option as this might endanger people around you (and yourself).
- CydeWeys 5y ago
  I think they're being very cautious, and for good reason. One preventable pedestrian death was enough to kill Uber's entire self-driving program. As a new technology, self-driving cars are under significantly higher scrutiny than the status quo of human drivers.
- judge2020 5y ago
  If I had to imagine, they need HD maps everywhere and don’t consider their cars capable of level 4 in non-typical circumstances like heavy snow or thunderstorms. As Waymo is targeting the ride-sharing network, they probably need to work in any circumstance in case things happen during an existing ride (so that people don’t need to be dropped off on the side of a busy highway in bad weather).
- redis_mlc 5y ago
  They're doing cicles in Mountain View (ie. no weather.)

by marcc 5y ago

runawaybottle 5y ago

What is Waymo waiting for then if they are this far?

debrice 5y ago
This is a great question
johannes1234321 5y ago
> What is Waymo waiting for then if they are this far? Quoting from the gp: "in our defined operational conditions." The operational conditions (weather, location) are probably way too limited
- dathinab 5y ago
  The problem is less the limits on itself, but more that they might be reached "surprisingly". E.g. sudden dust storm on the highway in Germany where dust and/or sand storms on itself are a rarity (also this is something humans are bad at coping with themself, as given example caused a accident with multiple dead people). Less unusual but still realistic example: Sudden extreme heavy rain (I had that once, the car I was driving in was old needed new windows and I wasn't able to see anything at all. The only reason I didn't cause a crash is because I knew the road I was driving on very very well). Or sudden fog. Humans just tend to be better at handling such potential fatal unexpected situations, e.g. because they have a good memory of the road and contextual thinking in ways which are hard to explicitly train a robot in. So they kinda need to find ways to still handle things well in such situations and "just stopping" isn't an option as this might endanger people around you (and yourself).
CydeWeys 5y ago
I think they're being very cautious, and for good reason. One preventable pedestrian death was enough to kill Uber's entire self-driving program. As a new technology, self-driving cars are under significantly higher scrutiny than the status quo of human drivers.
judge2020 5y ago
If I had to imagine, they need HD maps everywhere and don’t consider their cars capable of level 4 in non-typical circumstances like heavy snow or thunderstorms. As Waymo is targeting the ride-sharing network, they probably need to work in any circumstance in case things happen during an existing ride (so that people don’t need to be dropped off on the side of a busy highway in bad weather).
redis_mlc 5y ago
They're doing cicles in Mountain View (ie. no weather.)