6 ms·

I don't know much about this google project. Can autonomous cars (i) drive on the highway (ii) drive at night (iii) drive in snow or rain?

jacobquick 14y ago
I thought they were limited to driving on the highway in the empty parts of nevada?
- andyakb 14y ago
  that is for a car with no human in it, afaik. the google cars drive on normal roads with other cars present
  - eblume 14y ago
    To date, all Google autonomous cars have had two occupants - a driver (who is strictly hands-off - she's only there in case something goes wrong) and a tech who monitors the data to make sure things are proceeding as expected.
- datasink 14y ago
  I've seen the Google self-driving car navigating within morning traffic in San Jose. There were two men with laptops in the driver and passenger seats, presumably monitoring the car and available to step in if something went wrong. It was also kind of surprising to see the roof-mounted device it used to map its surrounding. It was fairly large and rapidly rotating.
  - toomuchtodo 14y ago
    The device on top is a laser scanner creating a cloud point map for spatial awareness.
  - michaelt 14y ago
    Did it look like this: http://velodynelidar.com/lidar/hdlproducts/hdl64e.aspx http://velodynelidar.com/lidar/hdlproducts/hdl64e.aspx Very impressive spec - as you'd expect for a $75,000 product.
- eblume 14y ago
  I drove behind one yesterday as it returned to Google HQ in Mountain View. It was pretty exciting. It was also rush hour, and people didn't like that it tried so hard to give a safe amount of space in front and behind itself - it ended up being a little bubble of lane-changing space that moved slower than the rest of traffic. Not that I hold any of this against the car - it was clearly doing the intelligent thing. But people... we are animals.
  - RobotCaleb 14y ago
    Weird. Your post didn't have a reply link. I had to click the permalink for it. Anyway, I wanted to say that I read an article about a guy in Seattle that always kept a couple car lengths ahead of him. I seem to remember the article saying he was able to get home quicker that way than by behaving like the rest of the cars on the road.
    - riffic 14y ago
      http://trafficwaves.org/ http://trafficwaves.org/
      - stephengillie 14y ago
        I too live in the Seattle area, and I've heard of this technique. Sadly, when implementing it, all you see is the angry drivers behind you who rush to pass and gobble up the traffic bubble you've been saving.
        andybak 14y ago
        I thought that this was covered by the Traffic Waves guy who said his method deals with that problem quite well?
        wbeaty 14y ago
        Yep: it doesn't happen, FAQ: http://trafficwaves.org/tfaq.html#five http://trafficwaves.org/tfaq.html#five - if truckers can maintain a bubble, how can it be impossible? - yes, aggressively weaving drivers sometimes jump in ...then they jump out again. - at merge zones, the entire point is to let people into your lane. - In theory, everyone else wants your precious bubble. In practice, not. ...and in a burning building, we all know the best way to escape, eh? EVERYONE AGGRESSIVELY PUSH FORWARD, DON'T LET ANYONE ELSE GET PAST, COOPERATION AND TEAMWORK ARE FOR LOSERS! Yep, that certainly won't trigger a huge clogged mess where everyone dies.
bartonfink 14y ago
Autonomous cars have driven on the highway in real-traffic conditions [1], [2], although they had a driver at the ready in the event of any problem. I don't know about night or weather conditions for these instances. [1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VaMP http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VaMP (their citations pages aren't responding at the moment) [2] - http://www.argo.ce.unipr.it/argo/english/index.html http://www.argo.ce.unipr.it/argo/english/index.html
stephengillie 14y ago
Could it handle Lombard Street? How would it react to a roadway that's covered in several feet of water due to flooding (and poor road design)? Or sinkholes? One-way streets? Freeways which change directions at different times of day? Dirt roads? (Can we make it autonomously offroad?) How will it react during an earthquake or tornado? How will it react to a bicyclist running a red stoplight and into the car's path, when the car has a green light? When the car comes across kids playing football/street hockey/baseball in the street, will it stop for them? How far out of the way will the kids have to move before the car thinks it's safe to go past? Will these cars have systems to react when they take damage?
- jjwiseman 14y ago
  Yes, a Google autonomous car drove down Lombard Street: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-were-driving-at.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-were-driving-at....
  - mbrubeck 14y ago
    Here you can see video of self-driving cars handling Lombard Street, as well as dirt roads, off-road driving, pedestrians and bicyclists and other obstacles in the road, plus tons of information about how they work: https://www.ai-class.com/course/video/videolecture/48 https://www.ai-class.com/course/video/videolecture/48 https://www.ai-class.com/course/video/videolecture/209 https://www.ai-class.com/course/video/videolecture/209 https://www.ai-class.com/course/video/videolecture/210 https://www.ai-class.com/course/video/videolecture/210 (Lombard Street at about 4:40) One thing that strikes me is how much more these robots can potentially see than a human driver. Imagine how much better you could drive if you could see in all directions at once with multiple range-finding sensors and cameras, track dozens of moving objects simultaneously, never get sleepy or look away from the road at the wrong time, react to events in milliseconds, and learn from hundreds of thousands of miles of training data as your driving "experience".
- danweber 14y ago
  Google's algorithm (which Strum seems to be pollinating everywhere -- and good, because the old algorithms were failing DARPA tests) is to pre-map the road. The car knows exactly where it is and what is supposed to be there, which it also compared with what it sees now. How will it react to a bicyclist running a red stoplight and into the car's path, when the car has a green light? It will stop. In fact, the "failure mode" of self-driving cars will be how pedestrians can bully them by stepping in front of them so they stop. When the car comes across kids playing football/street hockey/baseball in the street, will it stop for them? There is already video of this. The radar/lidar isn't good enough to see a baseball, but it's definitely good enough to see a kid. Will these cars have systems to react when they take damage? It will probably pull over and stop if something is wrong.
archgoon 14y ago
They talk about weather issues in this video at 3:40. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkYFIhJ3rnY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkYFIhJ3rnY In summary: They can handle darkness and rain, but not snow. If you're interested, Sebastian Thrun has an intro to the topic as this course (you can preview all videos and problems) http://www.udacity.com/overview/Course/cs373/CourseRev/apr2012 http://www.udacity.com/overview/Course/cs373/CourseRev/apr20...
danweber 14y ago
Driving at night and the rain will probably be where autonomous cars really outshine humans. Lidar systems don't care if you are wearing all black during a night at new moon. Snow is much harder for the time being. A snow drift falling off a car can make a google car think a cooler has appeared in the road.

jacobquick 14y ago

I thought they were limited to driving on the highway in the empty parts of nevada?

andyakb 14y ago
that is for a car with no human in it, afaik. the google cars drive on normal roads with other cars present
- eblume 14y ago
  To date, all Google autonomous cars have had two occupants - a driver (who is strictly hands-off - she's only there in case something goes wrong) and a tech who monitors the data to make sure things are proceeding as expected.
datasink 14y ago
I've seen the Google self-driving car navigating within morning traffic in San Jose. There were two men with laptops in the driver and passenger seats, presumably monitoring the car and available to step in if something went wrong. It was also kind of surprising to see the roof-mounted device it used to map its surrounding. It was fairly large and rapidly rotating.
- toomuchtodo 14y ago
  The device on top is a laser scanner creating a cloud point map for spatial awareness.
- michaelt 14y ago
  Did it look like this: http://velodynelidar.com/lidar/hdlproducts/hdl64e.aspx http://velodynelidar.com/lidar/hdlproducts/hdl64e.aspx Very impressive spec - as you'd expect for a $75,000 product.
eblume 14y ago
I drove behind one yesterday as it returned to Google HQ in Mountain View. It was pretty exciting. It was also rush hour, and people didn't like that it tried so hard to give a safe amount of space in front and behind itself - it ended up being a little bubble of lane-changing space that moved slower than the rest of traffic. Not that I hold any of this against the car - it was clearly doing the intelligent thing. But people... we are animals.
- RobotCaleb 14y ago
  Weird. Your post didn't have a reply link. I had to click the permalink for it. Anyway, I wanted to say that I read an article about a guy in Seattle that always kept a couple car lengths ahead of him. I seem to remember the article saying he was able to get home quicker that way than by behaving like the rest of the cars on the road.
  - riffic 14y ago
    http://trafficwaves.org/ http://trafficwaves.org/
    - stephengillie 14y ago
      I too live in the Seattle area, and I've heard of this technique. Sadly, when implementing it, all you see is the angry drivers behind you who rush to pass and gobble up the traffic bubble you've been saving.
      - andybak 14y ago
        I thought that this was covered by the Traffic Waves guy who said his method deals with that problem quite well?
        wbeaty 14y ago
        Yep: it doesn't happen, FAQ: http://trafficwaves.org/tfaq.html#five http://trafficwaves.org/tfaq.html#five - if truckers can maintain a bubble, how can it be impossible? - yes, aggressively weaving drivers sometimes jump in ...then they jump out again. - at merge zones, the entire point is to let people into your lane. - In theory, everyone else wants your precious bubble. In practice, not. ...and in a burning building, we all know the best way to escape, eh? EVERYONE AGGRESSIVELY PUSH FORWARD, DON'T LET ANYONE ELSE GET PAST, COOPERATION AND TEAMWORK ARE FOR LOSERS! Yep, that certainly won't trigger a huge clogged mess where everyone dies.

bartonfink 14y ago

Autonomous cars have driven on the highway in real-traffic conditions [1], [2], although they had a driver at the ready in the event of any problem. I don't know about night or weather conditions for these instances. [1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VaMP http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VaMP (their citations pages aren't responding at the moment) [2] - http://www.argo.ce.unipr.it/argo/english/index.html http://www.argo.ce.unipr.it/argo/english/index.html

stephengillie 14y ago

Could it handle Lombard Street? How would it react to a roadway that's covered in several feet of water due to flooding (and poor road design)? Or sinkholes? One-way streets? Freeways which change directions at different times of day? Dirt roads? (Can we make it autonomously offroad?) How will it react during an earthquake or tornado? How will it react to a bicyclist running a red stoplight and into the car's path, when the car has a green light? When the car comes across kids playing football/street hockey/baseball in the street, will it stop for them? How far out of the way will the kids have to move before the car thinks it's safe to go past? Will these cars have systems to react when they take damage?

jjwiseman 14y ago
Yes, a Google autonomous car drove down Lombard Street: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-were-driving-at.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-were-driving-at....
- mbrubeck 14y ago
  Here you can see video of self-driving cars handling Lombard Street, as well as dirt roads, off-road driving, pedestrians and bicyclists and other obstacles in the road, plus tons of information about how they work: https://www.ai-class.com/course/video/videolecture/48 https://www.ai-class.com/course/video/videolecture/48 https://www.ai-class.com/course/video/videolecture/209 https://www.ai-class.com/course/video/videolecture/209 https://www.ai-class.com/course/video/videolecture/210 https://www.ai-class.com/course/video/videolecture/210 (Lombard Street at about 4:40) One thing that strikes me is how much more these robots can potentially see than a human driver. Imagine how much better you could drive if you could see in all directions at once with multiple range-finding sensors and cameras, track dozens of moving objects simultaneously, never get sleepy or look away from the road at the wrong time, react to events in milliseconds, and learn from hundreds of thousands of miles of training data as your driving "experience".
danweber 14y ago
Google's algorithm (which Strum seems to be pollinating everywhere -- and good, because the old algorithms were failing DARPA tests) is to pre-map the road. The car knows exactly where it is and what is supposed to be there, which it also compared with what it sees now. How will it react to a bicyclist running a red stoplight and into the car's path, when the car has a green light? It will stop. In fact, the "failure mode" of self-driving cars will be how pedestrians can bully them by stepping in front of them so they stop. When the car comes across kids playing football/street hockey/baseball in the street, will it stop for them? There is already video of this. The radar/lidar isn't good enough to see a baseball, but it's definitely good enough to see a kid. Will these cars have systems to react when they take damage? It will probably pull over and stop if something is wrong.

archgoon 14y ago

They talk about weather issues in this video at 3:40. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkYFIhJ3rnY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkYFIhJ3rnY In summary: They can handle darkness and rain, but not snow. If you're interested, Sebastian Thrun has an intro to the topic as this course (you can preview all videos and problems) http://www.udacity.com/overview/Course/cs373/CourseRev/apr2012 http://www.udacity.com/overview/Course/cs373/CourseRev/apr20...

danweber 14y ago

Driving at night and the rain will probably be where autonomous cars really outshine humans. Lidar systems don't care if you are wearing all black during a night at new moon. Snow is much harder for the time being. A snow drift falling off a car can make a google car think a cooler has appeared in the road.