4 ms·

Interesting random fact: when it rains, waymo turns on the windshield wipers

pengaru 2y ago
> Interesting random fact: when it rains, waymo turns on the windshield wipers The jaguar i-pace does this independent of the waymo use case.
- dgfitz 2y ago
  My 2011 Mazda also did this.
  - Grazester 2y ago
    Cars dating back to 2008 if not earlier. It can also be annoying/doesn't work very efficiently
- rdsubhas 2y ago
  The interesting part here is... the Waymo has no reason to. There is no driver. All cameras and sensors are outside. It's just for not freaking out the passenger :)
  - pengaru 2y ago
    > The interesting part here is... the Waymo has no reason to. There is no driver. All cameras and sensors are outside. It's just for not freaking out the passenger :) We have very different thresholds for what's interesting. The platform provides this feature out of the box, why would waymo go out of their way to disable it. Obviously potential occupants would appreciate seeing out the windshield if it's raining, why that is interesting escapes me.
  - Fricken 2y ago
    Waymo has wipers on it's LIDAR dome https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying/comments/6biyr8/waymo_wipers_on_the_lidar_sensor/#lightbox https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying/comments/6biyr8/way...
  - autoexec 2y ago
    some places have laws that require wipers to be on while it's raining. Seems like a smart thing to have until laws are updated just to prevent your cars from getting pulled over by police.
falcor84 2y ago
Is this relevant? Are any of its cameras/sensors behind the windshield? Or are there wipers directly on the external cameras?
- ecesena 2y ago
  I think it's just for passengers' experience
  - phantom784 2y ago
    Probably also a legal requirement to run them during rain, even if it's not actually needed for the self-driving cars to work.
stemlord 2y ago
Plenty of south florida rain is not helped by windshield wipers. Anyway I wonder if waymo sensors actually have better visibility in such conditions than people do
- hn_throwaway_99 2y ago
  I think the comment you are replying to is implying that it's a bit funny/weird that the wipers turn on, because there aren't any sensors that are looking out the window to see. (As others pointed out, it could just be default auto-wiper functionality, and of course passengers still like being able to see out the window, even if they aren't controlling the vehicle).
jayd16 2y ago
They would probably have to go out of their way to disable the auto-wipers, no?
- tshaddox 2y ago
  They definitely go out of their way to make significant modifications to their vehicles.
bushbaba 2y ago
Rain + lidar = challenges
ecocentrik 2y ago
I'm guessing you've never tried driving in a tropical rainstorm. It's as bad a driving in heavy fog. Sometimes you only really have visibility of a few feet.
- 0xbadcafebee 2y ago
  The.... driverless car... doesn't look out the window....
  - ecocentrik 2y ago
    Who said anything about windows? I would imagine LIDAR looses some accuracy when its refracted by raindrops.

> Interesting random fact: when it rains, waymo turns on the windshield wipers The jaguar i-pace does this independent of the waymo use case.

dgfitz 2y ago
My 2011 Mazda also did this.
- Grazester 2y ago
  Cars dating back to 2008 if not earlier. It can also be annoying/doesn't work very efficiently
rdsubhas 2y ago
The interesting part here is... the Waymo has no reason to. There is no driver. All cameras and sensors are outside. It's just for not freaking out the passenger :)
- pengaru 2y ago
  > The interesting part here is... the Waymo has no reason to. There is no driver. All cameras and sensors are outside. It's just for not freaking out the passenger :) We have very different thresholds for what's interesting. The platform provides this feature out of the box, why would waymo go out of their way to disable it. Obviously potential occupants would appreciate seeing out the windshield if it's raining, why that is interesting escapes me.
- Fricken 2y ago
  Waymo has wipers on it's LIDAR dome https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying/comments/6biyr8/waymo_wipers_on_the_lidar_sensor/#lightbox https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying/comments/6biyr8/way...
- autoexec 2y ago
  some places have laws that require wipers to be on while it's raining. Seems like a smart thing to have until laws are updated just to prevent your cars from getting pulled over by police.

falcor84 2y ago

Is this relevant? Are any of its cameras/sensors behind the windshield? Or are there wipers directly on the external cameras?

ecesena 2y ago
I think it's just for passengers' experience
- phantom784 2y ago
  Probably also a legal requirement to run them during rain, even if it's not actually needed for the self-driving cars to work.

stemlord 2y ago

Plenty of south florida rain is not helped by windshield wipers. Anyway I wonder if waymo sensors actually have better visibility in such conditions than people do

hn_throwaway_99 2y ago
I think the comment you are replying to is implying that it's a bit funny/weird that the wipers turn on, because there aren't any sensors that are looking out the window to see. (As others pointed out, it could just be default auto-wiper functionality, and of course passengers still like being able to see out the window, even if they aren't controlling the vehicle).

jayd16 2y ago

They would probably have to go out of their way to disable the auto-wipers, no?

tshaddox 2y ago
They definitely go out of their way to make significant modifications to their vehicles.

bushbaba 2y ago

Rain + lidar = challenges

ecocentrik 2y ago

I'm guessing you've never tried driving in a tropical rainstorm. It's as bad a driving in heavy fog. Sometimes you only really have visibility of a few feet.

0xbadcafebee 2y ago
The.... driverless car... doesn't look out the window....
- ecocentrik 2y ago
  Who said anything about windows? I would imagine LIDAR looses some accuracy when its refracted by raindrops.