4 ms·

L4 in Phoenix in the wintertime is much, much easier than L4 in Seattle (or Minnesota, or New York)

kobalsky 5y ago
yeah I reckon they started on the easiest place to implement. but it's still impressive seeing the thing driving around a shopping mall parking lot with pedestrian traffic, they put a lot of trust in this thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBJ0GvsQeak&t=3820s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBJ0GvsQeak&t=3820s
- hunterb123 5y ago
  Surprising as Uber killed that pedestrian: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/technology/uber-driverless-fatality.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/technology/uber-driverles... As someone who doesn't live in a city with Waymo, do they have backup drivers? If they do, hopefully they are paying attention and not watching Hulu.
  - Dylan16807 5y ago
    I don't find it surprising that they would trust a system where the emergency braking isn't disabled.
macNchz 5y ago
Yeah I've wondered about testing conditions for a while, at least for a human snow certainly adds a big twist to things. Off the top of my head the most challenging driving conditions I semi-regularly encounter in the Northeast US are: - Heavy snow falling at night on an unplowed, narrow road with ill-defined shoulders. The falling snow ruins visibility, and the smooth, white, unplowed surface of the road makes it super hard to identify where the pavement actually ends. - In traffic on a busy highway in snow. Berms of slush make sudden movements very dangerous, and there is lots of unpredictable behavior from other cars nearby. Often there are cars/trucks nearby getting stuck, sliding off the road or spinning out. Going slowly enough for conditions might mean others start passing you dangerously. Other times taking a more aggressive approach is required if cars around are going too slowly and don't have the momentum to avoid getting stuck on hills. In either of those cases I'd likely decide just to not make a trip at all if I knew in advance what it would be like, but sometimes you get caught or otherwise simply have to push through. I guess that's an interesting question: at what point does the car tell you it's too dangerous to go or keep going? Hopefully not while on a back road in the middle of nowhere at the beginning of a two day blizzard.

yeah I reckon they started on the easiest place to implement. but it's still impressive seeing the thing driving around a shopping mall parking lot with pedestrian traffic, they put a lot of trust in this thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBJ0GvsQeak&t=3820s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBJ0GvsQeak&t=3820s

hunterb123 5y ago
Surprising as Uber killed that pedestrian: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/technology/uber-driverless-fatality.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/technology/uber-driverles... As someone who doesn't live in a city with Waymo, do they have backup drivers? If they do, hopefully they are paying attention and not watching Hulu.
- Dylan16807 5y ago
  I don't find it surprising that they would trust a system where the emergency braking isn't disabled.

macNchz 5y ago

Yeah I've wondered about testing conditions for a while, at least for a human snow certainly adds a big twist to things. Off the top of my head the most challenging driving conditions I semi-regularly encounter in the Northeast US are: - Heavy snow falling at night on an unplowed, narrow road with ill-defined shoulders. The falling snow ruins visibility, and the smooth, white, unplowed surface of the road makes it super hard to identify where the pavement actually ends. - In traffic on a busy highway in snow. Berms of slush make sudden movements very dangerous, and there is lots of unpredictable behavior from other cars nearby. Often there are cars/trucks nearby getting stuck, sliding off the road or spinning out. Going slowly enough for conditions might mean others start passing you dangerously. Other times taking a more aggressive approach is required if cars around are going too slowly and don't have the momentum to avoid getting stuck on hills. In either of those cases I'd likely decide just to not make a trip at all if I knew in advance what it would be like, but sometimes you get caught or otherwise simply have to push through. I guess that's an interesting question: at what point does the car tell you it's too dangerous to go or keep going? Hopefully not while on a back road in the middle of nowhere at the beginning of a two day blizzard.