News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Self-Driving Cars Can Handle Neither Rain nor Sleet nor Snow. Parent comment

Re:Self-Driving Cars Can Handle Neither Rain nor Sleet nor Snow by smileysteve on Monday September 17, 2018 @09:30PM (#18011649)
> hydroplaning when there is over 1" of standing water on the road because it's coming down faster than gravity can drain it away?

I'd say that's pretty calculable, and has a solution, slow down to a speed that the tires can shed water.

Perhaps most telling about your qualification is the misplaced risk; the light precipitation with a little oil slick is likely more dangerous, mostly because you don't slow down for it.

Anecdotally, an even harder problem is when water exceeds 4", negotiating with traffic so you won't float away or get water in your intake.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Self-Driving Cars Can Handle Neither Rain nor Sleet nor Snow by Retra on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @01:17AM (#18012645)
Yes, it is trivial to calculate how to respond to known hazards. What is hard to calculate is what the hazards actually are in any given situation. Humans don't merely look at the road and compute how much standing water is there, they have prior experiences and a sense of what other drivers are doing on the road and why they are doing those things.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Self-Driving Cars Can Handle Neither Rain nor Sleet nor Snow by throwaway76543 on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @02:12AM (#18012886)
Self driving cars also have prior experiences and a sense of what other drivers are doing and why. That's sort of the point of machine learning.

In fact, they will have a lot more prior experience than any human driver in the world.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Self-Driving Cars Can Handle Neither Rain nor Sleet nor Snow by zaarn on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @04:25AM (#18013476)
Machine Learning still confuses Elephants for Cats.

While it's quite fun if you pin up a cat dressed up in an elephant costume and surely amuses a few colleagues, a self-driving car is not something that should confuse an Elephant for a Cat.

ML is IMO not reliable enough for use in self-driving cars, in complicated situations the driver should take over.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Self-Driving Cars Can Handle Neither Rain nor Sleet nor Snow by throwaway76543 on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @11:55AM (#18016287)
It's not reliable enough now, sure.

Similarly, my 6 year old is also not reliable enough to pilot a car.

Both will change as they mature.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Self-Driving Cars Can Handle Neither Rain nor Sleet nor Snow by Piskvorrr on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @03:12PM (#18018231)
Sure, multiple decades sounds about right (as opposed to current confusing statements like "has full self driving capabilities").
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Self-Driving Cars Can Handle Neither Rain nor Sleet nor Snow by MortenK on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @03:02AM (#18013141)
Unfortunately in the realm of machine learning, quantity does not equate quality.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Self-Driving Cars Can Handle Neither Rain nor Sleet nor Snow by killjoywashere on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @03:14AM (#18013188)
The parent of any teenage driver can also attest to this.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Self-Driving Cars Can Handle Neither Rain nor Sleet nor Snow by Retra on Wednesday September 19, 2018 @11:00AM (#18024624)
They have a lot more experience driving, but humans do not only use their driving experiences as priors.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Self-Driving Cars Can Handle Neither Rain nor Sleet nor Snow by LoSboccacc on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @03:52AM (#18013352)
humans regularly get killed misjudging how much water is in underpasses, I guess an autonomous car based on detailed mapping can measure water deep quite better comparing sensor result with its map (eventually).
[ Parent | on HN ]