Comment by thewhitetulip | Hacker News Reader

Comment by thewhitetulip | Hacker News Reader

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This is the same case in India, no way an AI is able to drive on Indian roads before they pull the plug on the project altogether. I feel that self driving cars will become fancy toys for the ultra rich. Our roads are not predictable, they are good in a few places, but mostly, they are exceedingly bad. For a human itself they are impossible to travel let aside have a robot driving it. There are crazy pedestrians who don't move out of the way, they walk in the middle of the f* road, crazy people try to squeeze through the gap between your vehicle and the next one even if there is no discernible gap.

In India, in majority of roads you don't just have to look sideways, you also have to see if some stupid idiot is driving at the speeds of higher than 60 while you cross an intersection. Plus in places of high traffic the self driving car would be deadlocked because here, nobody gives anyone a lead, you have to "earn" the lead by stopping others, no way a robot is going to do that.

When Google maps came, we said the same. It won't work in India. There's no order in door numbering or Street names. They have to use landmarks and all that. But that's what Google did. In the driving directions in India, you can see lot of landmark references. We always underestimate what a tech can do. I am hoping we are wrong on this one too.

I was a kid when Google maps came, so I won't be able to comment on that. Self driving cars will work, nobody is doubting it, what I am doubting is the extent of self driving car, yes, in US like streets where everyone follows traffic rules it'll work without a person in driver seat, in India it'll be difficult for a truly self driving car like Uber is betting

Google Maps did not work in India for a long, long time.

Google Maps launched in 2005; if it works in India now, then it took at most 11 years more to get it working in India than in the US. That's not that long. Self-driving cars are more complex, but it'll happen eventually.

Good point about India! I wonder how a self-driving car would handle someone coming towards you on the wrong side of a divided highway, or know how to get a cow out of the middle of a crowded street..

Like the AI in any driving game with similar conditions?

It's still driving, just with different degrees of freedom.

It might be various degrees of freedom but in India there are a few people who follow traffic rules, everyone acts as if they own the street, they drive on the wrong side of the highway, pedestrians cross the street even while being fully aware that there is a vehicle coming at 150+ kmph speeds etc. It is crazy and chaotic, plus forget the highways, in smaller alleys the road is so narrow that can barely accomodate a bus, if the AI gets stuck in such a deadlock it'll be stuck forever, because nobody gives you side, you have to force someone to stop

>if the AI gets stuck in such a deadlock it'll be stuck forever, because nobody gives you side, you have to force someone to stop

Well, a sufficiently advanced AI would be able to "force someone to stop".

Perhaps the tolerable accidents rate will be increased for India.

Or, even simpler, India wont get self-driving cars -- the same way countries in the developing world don't get lots of modern services and/or conveniences until they have the infrastructure for them.

>Or, even simpler, India wont get self-driving cars -- the same way countries in the developing world don't get lots of modern services and/or conveniences until they have the infrastructure for them.

Precisely my point. But one has to note that the TATA group is going to start testing self driving cars in india.

Not necessarily. Sometimes lack of infrastructure fast forwards the technology to next iteration instead of holding it back. For example in India, majority of people's first phone was a mobile phone & they never had landlines & first experience of internet was via mobile phones instead of dial-up or fixed line. Now with a company called Jio providing free 4G internet lot of people are directly going to experience 4G from 2G without transitioning to 3G since the cost is going down. Similar shift might happen in payments with models like UPI (unified-payment-interface) where many people will do digital/cashless payments without ever doing netbanking or owning credit cards.

I expect a truly intelligent AI to navigate around such issues in fact, such issues will provide playing field to create robust AI since it will learn to handle & respond to unpredictability.

I agree with the point of robust AI, also with the point of mobile phones without landlines, mcommerce before credit card/debit card etc. Let's see how things go. btw I live in India :-)

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