Hacker News Reader

Comment by ra7 | Hacker News Reader

> Waymo instead of being generalized, works off of a detailed map for each region they drive in. They have a complete expectation of every detail on those roads and so then only need to account for the dynamic unknowns on the road.

This isn't entirely true. Everything at Waymo is built to be generalizable. Engineers and execs at Waymo have said to multiple times, as recently as yesterday [1].

They are able to drive just fine without up-to-date maps as well. It's an assumption built in to the system. The cars are also self-mapping. Ultimately, maps are just another input to the general driving software. The same driving software is deployed across all their cities.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6RndtrwJKE

View on HN

A map is really just a data cache, I've been surprised so many technical people see it as a flaw. It seems like an important feature to me!

A cache is exactly how I explain maps to people. They are saving precious compute cycles not computing the same static objects over and over again, by N number of vehicles.

A con does not have to be a flaw. But I would see it as a tradeoff. With all of these companies its hard to sometimes see beneath the curtain of what they promote.

Are they deployed into any cities where they are not actively mapping?

They test in many cities (Buffalo, Tahoe, Bellevue, NYC) . But they won't deploy to any cities which they haven't mapped because they consider it critical to safety.

> But they won't deploy to any cities which they haven't mapped

And therein lies the fundamental flaw with Waymo's approach...

It's not a flaw if that's what is required to make it work. So far only Waymo works at L4 autonomy, so they are vindicated.

As compared to what, Tesla's FSD that tries to crash the car every 20 miles or so?

So the answer is no and that's why I outline it as a potential con. They are unable to just drop deployment into a new city, they as a matter of history, map out the entire city and keep an active map of the driving territory. I have no idea who wins in this dog and pony show but I think its a valid potential con and a easy way to see some of the decision differences in companies.

Does Google Earth/Maps/StreetView not count as mapping? I was feeling certain that all that infrastructure and data was invested into Waymo. It would seem that Google had a huge advantage from running mapping/camera cars for years and years, before SDC were even a glimmer in their eyes.

The mapping that waymo uses is much more detailed than streetview, the biggest difference being that it includes lidar data. I wouldn't be surprised if they combined the two for some of their latest data updates, but the pre-existing streetview data is not obviously enough to give an advantage.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com