Waymo Applies to Put Autonomous Cars on CA Roads Without Safety Drivers
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
As we've seen with Uber and Tesla, the "safety driver" doesn't add much safety. The "safety driver" is mostly there to drive manually in situations where the automation stops the vehicle and asks for help.
It also lowers barriers to an eventual widespread uber-like service. That service wouldn't be financially viable with safety drivers in each car.
Public is not asking them anything. Public does not sign up being part of a beta/alpha or what ever test, for sake of "senior management"...
Is there a list of scenarios the Waymo car can handle?
I think there is a fundamental limitation with detecting stationary objects right in the path of the car. Did the waymo cars share this issue. If not how did they overcame it?
The DARPA Grand challenge only required the cars to drive across a desert.
So I am not sure how that answers my question.
Sources said that Waymo does not plan on operating its cars remotely — even in difficult situations — but it will remotely monitor them during tests. If one of the cars encounters something it doesn’t understand, such as complicated road construction, the car will contact Waymo for help recognizing the situation. After human testers give it feedback, the car will then decide how to navigate the situation.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Exclusive-Waymo...
Hopefully well in advance of actually hitting anything, but therein lies the problem: what does it do if it's moving at speed and figures out that it doesn't know what to do? If it continues moving, it might hit something, and if it tries to stop suddenly, it might get hit and cause a multi-car chain collision. Imagine you're following a car on a highway, in a situation where no other cars are around, a situation in which a human driver would practically never stop, and suddenly it brakes to a stop very rapidly because of some perturbation in the road that confuses it, but a human would have no trouble with. Drivers are taught to look beyond the car in front and try to anticipate what it might do; and something so contrary to expectations is going to lead to problems.
I would expect a fully autonomous vehicle to constantly be planning for emergency and graceful stops, and to slow down if it doesn't have a confident plan for both types of stopping and forward progress. It should also have plans for when critical equipment fails, such as sensors or actuators as well as normal car systems like brakes, tires, engine, steering.
I think it would also be possible to mitigate this problem by not driving on the freeway at all for the first iterations. (Feasible if you only drive within Mountain View, and not e.g. MV <-> SF.)
I think car will still be in control, you just will tell it "drive slowly here, then here"
The same as the difference between what a driver does and what a driving instructor sitting in the passenger seat does, only both remote...
The most extreme type of assistance could maybe be a human drawing or modifying the vehicle's planned path (if you watch any of the Waymo example videos, you'll see the immediate path that the vehicle is planning to take). But even in this scenario, the car is still responsible for navigating that path and avoiding any obstacles.
Of course, how inconceivable that a self driving car could crash into a static barrier!
It it could prove this 100% to itself, it should be able to prove it to the general public and the authorities in a test environment..
All others testing in California are 300 or fewer miles per disengagement.
For example, make a robotic dummy walk in front of the car without notice. Does the car break and avoid a collision?
Such basic things can be formulated into a test and have the cars pass them before allowing them (even with a driver) on the roads..
It amazes me that people just stand by and allow these "tests" to happen within an unsuspecting population...
>“We’ve staged people jumping out of canvas bags or porta-potties on the side of the road, skateboarders lying on their boards, and thrown stacks of paper in front of our sensors,” Waymo said in its report.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/way...
>For media day, they put on three of them. In one, a Honda convertible abruptly cut off one of the Pacificas just past an intersection, and the Pacifica braked to avoid it. In another, a car obscured by two parked vehicles suddenly backed out of a driveway. Again, the Pacifica came to a halt. The third was a faux moving-day scene, with a couch in the street and boxes tumbling into the lane, just as another car approached from the opposite direction. The Pacifica knew better than to swerve into the car. It braked until the coast was clear.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/a-g...
People should not care what Waymo does.
There should be an independent body to frame these tests (with enough random stuff thrown in), and have the cars pass them.
It is quite meaning less to make the cars pass tests created by the company itself.
And if you see the videos, none of the people were ever in real danger. Say, where is the test when someone crosses when the car is going to 45mph? I am not asking to put real people in real danger. But just make some robotic dummy (even something on wheels will do), and make it cross without notice infront of the car when it is doing 50+mph.