News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Driverless Hype Collides with Merciless Reality. Parent comment

Re:Driverless Hype Collides with Merciless Reality by Fricken on Thursday September 13, 2018 @05:28PM (#17982777)
The two key aspects of an autonomous OS are perception and planning. Being able to "see" well enough during a flurry is a perception problem. Knowing whether to maneuver out of it or call for help after spinning out is a planning problem. There are many planning problems left to address and master before autonomous vehicles are ready for widespread adoption. Some planning problems are unique to specific intersections, and dedicated software has to be written just for that intersection, like the intersection of Market and Castro, in SF, for instance.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Driverless Hype Collides with Merciless Reality by linuxftw on Thursday September 13, 2018 @05:30PM (#17982804)
Can they perceive where on the road they should be located when the road is totally covered in snow and you can't see the pavement, let alone the line markets, possibly only tire tracks, if that?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Driverless Hype Collides with Merciless Reality by Fricken on Thursday September 13, 2018 @05:36PM (#17982860)
Yes. An autonomous vehicle with lidar and maps can locate itself using any landmark, or series of landmarks it can see, it isn't limited to lane markings.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Driverless Hype Collides with Merciless Reality by joe_the_user on Friday September 14, 2018 @01:12AM (#17984831)
Just think, the remains of the last self-driving car will help the next self-driving car avoid the trap. But only if Google carefully catalogs it and no one moves the wreckage.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Driverless Hype Collides with Merciless Reality by linuxftw on Thursday September 13, 2018 @05:41PM (#17982902)
And if there are no landmarks, such as you're on a highway or rural area, not in a city?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Driverless Hype Collides with Merciless Reality by Fricken on Thursday September 13, 2018 @05:46PM (#17982936)
Not a ditch, or a barbwire fence, or a telephone pole or a tree? I guess that may be tricky.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Driverless Hype Collides with Merciless Reality by linuxftw on Thursday September 13, 2018 @05:55PM (#17983002)
You can't reliably know the distance from pavement to any of those things unless you plan on indexing every physical object along every roadway.

I think the most likely scenario is self driving cars won't drive in those conditions, hopefully those conditions don't develop while you're on the roadways or you'll be parked somewhere cold.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Driverless Hype Collides with Merciless Reality by Fricken on Thursday September 13, 2018 @05:59PM (#17983029)
They do index everything, the maps they rely on are lidar generated 3D point cloud fields that make a model of everything around the road, and are frequently updated.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Driverless Hype Collides with Merciless Reality by joe_the_user on Friday September 14, 2018 @01:07AM (#17984809)
Is "Market and Castro team" going to stay in existence indefinitely as the city of San Francisco modifies this intersection into the next century?

Will similar team exist for weird intersections in the middle of nowhere as well?

Will all these teams solve the problem of all the truck drivers rendered unemployed by "self-driving" vehicles?

Will all America's vehicles just wind-up instead being driven by tech support using joy sticks when the whole system goes south?

[ Parent | on HN ]