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Comment by ra7 | Hacker News Reader

> HD Mapping is great when it's accurate and available. But it requires a ton of data and constant updating, or the car will get "lost," and realistically will never be implemented in general, at best in certain cities.

Waymo have said time and again they don’t rely on maps being 100% accurate to be able to drive. It's one of the key assumptions of the system. They use it as prior knowledge to aid in decision making. If they got "lost" whenever there was a road change, they wouldn't be successfully navigating construction zones in San Francisco as we've seen in many videos.

They can also do constant updates because the cars themselves are able to detect road changes, self update maps and rollout changes to the entire fleet. See https://waymo.com/blog/2020/09/the-waymo-driver-handbook-map...

At this point, the whole “HD maps are not practical” is just a trope perpetuated by the Tesla community for years.

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> They can also do constant updates because the cars themselves are able to detect road changes, self update maps and rollout changes to the entire fleet.

Which leads to mapping failures being unchecked, as the system that generated the data is the one checking the data by driving it. See bullet point 1 in their recent recall for an example.

> Prior to the Waymo ADS receiving the remedy described in this report, a collision could occur if the Waymo ADS encountered a pole or pole-like permanent object and all of the following were true:

> 1) the object was within the the boundaries of the road and the map did not include a hard road edge between the object and the driveable surface;

> 2) the Waymo ADS’s perception system assigned a low damage score to the object;

> 3) the object was located within the Waymo ADS’s intended path (e.g. when executing a pullover near the object); and

> 4) there were no other objects near the pole that the ADS would react to and avoid.

> the Waymo ADS’s perception system assigned a low damage score to the object;

and Tesla would do better how in this case? It also routinely crashes into stationary objects, presumably because the system assumes it wouldn't cause damage.

> and Tesla would do better how in this case? It also routinely crashes into stationary objects, presumably because the system assumes it wouldn't cause damage.

Are the Teslas in the room with you right now?

Please point out in my comment where I mentioned Tesla. I can wait.

The changes can be checked additionally by humans, although not always.

> We’ve automated most of that process to ensure it’s efficient and scalable. Every time our cars detect changes on the road, they automatically upload the data, which gets shared with the rest of the fleet after, in some cases, being additionally checked by our mapping team.

Doesn’t mean it’s foolproof. But the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.

Wasn’t it Waymo that had troubles navigating in winter and not seeing bike racks and other obstacles due to poor HD mapping?

Waymo doesn't serve any snowy locales yet. But sure, years and years ago mapping was worse than it is today? The mapping used today is working quite well in warm weather locales.

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