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I realize this is probably an April Fools' prank, but I'm guessing that a race around a fixed track would actually be a great way to test autonomous cars: you d
by lpolovets 15y ago
I realize this is probably an April Fools' prank, but I'm guessing that a race around a fixed track would actually be a great way to test autonomous cars: you don't need to worry about pedestrians, bicyclists, stoplights, pets, traffic laws, etc; all you have to do is focus on driving and turning at high speeds, and on the other cars on the track.
- InclinedPlane 15y agoThe more I think about it, the less likely this is to be real. Normal day to day driving is actually incredibly easy. But racing requires intense and constant concentration and quick reactions.
- olalonde 15y agoWould be nice to have a race of self driving cars only. With no human life at stake, the races could get pretty crazy!
- ars 15y ago> But racing requires intense and constant concentration and quick reactions Which is exactly what computer are great at. What they are terrible at is dealing with incomplete information. A computer would actually make a great race car driver.
- rickmb 15y agoI don't think it would. Because part of racing is gambling on the other driver to back off when fighting for position. And when I say "gambling", there are a lot of very human factors involved in trying to figure out an opponents likely behavior. It's not like chess.
- ars 15y agoComputers actually play poker rather well. And in racing computers have no fear for their life, and they know exactly what their (cars) limits are - I think it could be done.
- InclinedPlane 15y agoAbove all racing requires situational awareness, which computers are very bad at. For ordinary driving scenarios the bar on situational awareness is fairly low, but that bar goes way up in racing.
- jonursenbach 15y agoI don't know. How often do you drive a car without having to worry about pedestrians, cyclists, stoplights or traffic laws? If I'm going to test an autonomous car, I'm going to do mimic real-world situations in my test environment.
- lpolovets 15y agoAgreed. However, being able to isolate a large component of driving seems useful, too. It's like a unit test as opposed to an acceptance test.
- enneff 15y agoWe already do test the self-driving cars on a race track. It goes _really_ fast. :-)