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If you're wondering what the One Trick is to decide whether it's worth reading the article, it's that their maps of Mountain View are more detailed than normal

by jwise0 12y ago

If you're wondering what the One Trick is to decide whether it's worth reading the article, it's that their maps of Mountain View are more detailed than normal maps: they're full world-level models of all of the spaces and areas of streets in the city. (The article also touches on general machine learning strategies, rather than hard-wired functionality.) If you wish a less irritating title, then, I'd put it at: "Google-scale machine learning and data collection is the thing that makes Google's self-driving cars work"

ctdonath 12y ago
TL;DR: 1. They map the streets to inches, right down to the height of the curb. 2. They record prior trips in such detail, data-mine it appropriately, and then hand-massage the results. So far they've done this in little more than the Mountain View area. Having done the hard work in that limited region to that much detail, they now can derive how to automate the process. I imagine their recent high-detail-mapping "phone" will be a key part of this, tracking minute aspects of how someone travels from A to B, and merging that info with many other identical & overlapping trips so the cars can make the trip darn near blind, with a little help from monitoring immediacies (like actual position, pedestrian detection, weather, etc).
- encoderer 12y ago
  Having played with a Tango device, if the phone is a part of the plan, they're playing the game like 5+ years out. Tango is a long way from a device that could somehow help map things as described.
  - grrowl 12y ago
    At Google's scale, they have to think 5+ years out. The technology doesn't just "become" good, it's enterprises and entities which iteratively reach that point. Street View helped them get this far, maybe Tango's research makes the last mile. The self-driving car itself has been in the works for 4.5 years already, with actual commercialisation at least that far away again (by my shot-in-the-dark estimation). edit: Although there's a distinction between tech that can be previewed (Tango, Street View) and those which is developed in relative secrecy.
- morganw 12y ago
  Odd that the article mentions Oakland as one of the places you couldn't use a Google car because the New Yorker's article mentions Levandowski driving Berkeley to Mtn. View through Oakland via 880. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/11/25/131125fa_fact_bilger?currentPage=all http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/11/25/131125fa_fact_... They also hinted that the cars drive over the speed limit to match prevailing traffic.
  - aetherson 12y ago
    My understanding is that they need the ultra-specific maps for the (more challenging) city-street driving, not the (less challenging) highway driving.
- maxerickson 12y ago
  I wonder if they will go the other way and use the detailed maps and data to work on systems that use only the real time sensor data. Who knows though, I was reading about a transmission that used mapping data to anticipate shifts. I guess it was in the new Rolls Royce Wraith.
deleted 12y ago
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by jwise0 12y ago

ctdonath 12y ago

TL;DR: 1. They map the streets to inches, right down to the height of the curb. 2. They record prior trips in such detail, data-mine it appropriately, and then hand-massage the results. So far they've done this in little more than the Mountain View area. Having done the hard work in that limited region to that much detail, they now can derive how to automate the process. I imagine their recent high-detail-mapping "phone" will be a key part of this, tracking minute aspects of how someone travels from A to B, and merging that info with many other identical & overlapping trips so the cars can make the trip darn near blind, with a little help from monitoring immediacies (like actual position, pedestrian detection, weather, etc).

encoderer 12y ago
Having played with a Tango device, if the phone is a part of the plan, they're playing the game like 5+ years out. Tango is a long way from a device that could somehow help map things as described.
- grrowl 12y ago
  At Google's scale, they have to think 5+ years out. The technology doesn't just "become" good, it's enterprises and entities which iteratively reach that point. Street View helped them get this far, maybe Tango's research makes the last mile. The self-driving car itself has been in the works for 4.5 years already, with actual commercialisation at least that far away again (by my shot-in-the-dark estimation). edit: Although there's a distinction between tech that can be previewed (Tango, Street View) and those which is developed in relative secrecy.
morganw 12y ago
Odd that the article mentions Oakland as one of the places you couldn't use a Google car because the New Yorker's article mentions Levandowski driving Berkeley to Mtn. View through Oakland via 880. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/11/25/131125fa_fact_bilger?currentPage=all http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/11/25/131125fa_fact_... They also hinted that the cars drive over the speed limit to match prevailing traffic.
- aetherson 12y ago
  My understanding is that they need the ultra-specific maps for the (more challenging) city-street driving, not the (less challenging) highway driving.
maxerickson 12y ago
I wonder if they will go the other way and use the detailed maps and data to work on systems that use only the real time sensor data. Who knows though, I was reading about a transmission that used mapping data to anticipate shifts. I guess it was in the new Rolls Royce Wraith.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]