Google’s Driverless Car

J Fournier

Here’s a free class on how to program a robotic car by Sebastian Thrun of Google, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon (top CS program in US), and Udacity: http://www.udacity.com/overview/Course/cs373/CourseRev/apr2012

http://twitter.com/vpostman Kevin Daley

Speaking as someone who knows a thing or two about the state of such technology, there are two main problems:
1. The algorithms that distinguish pedestrians from random objects that look or are shaped slightly like pedestrians are too unsophisticated and inaccurate, and very computationally intensive. Even the most advanced auto-encoders can only achieve 75% accuracy.

2. Should a wrong turn, misdirection, bug, or simple force of nature take you off-the road, the ability to detect obstacles will be significantly reduced, especially at a distance. This is still a very active and immature area of research and as such it’s not likely that the cars have any such capability included, let alone enough to trust with someone who’s fallen asleep at the wheel.

3. GPS has an error radius of about 80 feet at best, and all navigation depends on a satellite connection. Consumer GPS also has the occasional bug; people have driven straight into the ocean because their GPS told them to.

4 (and this is the scariest one) Law enforcement could easily triangulate your car’s position even if it were off, as they commonly do with cell phones. Also, Google can force-install updates. On your car.

Put all that together, and what you have is a defective, closed-source version of the automobile designed for lazy people. And of course, since it’s a new automotive technology, governments can easily mandate it as they do with anti-lock brakes.

algernon sydney

Sort of looks like the road version of the pilot-less drone is about to hit the highways. My question is fundamental. What will be the government reaction to citizens owning such weaponry? Special background checks on everyone? Requirements to be monitored and have actual living person occupying vehicle? Should be interesting.

Z

LOL, who has driven into the ocean? apart from michael scott from the office.

http://plenarchist.wordpress.com/ plenarchist

Looks like “marketing” to me. There’s a long long way to go. Note that the video shows the car only on well-marked pavement in bright sunlight and fairly low volume traffic conditions driving on basically straight pavement – no turns.

How about testing the vehicle on a side road through a construction zone at night in a snow storm with potholes and debris in the road and turning into and out of driveways? If it can do that, I’ll be impressed.

How does the car even know what the legal speed limit is? From the signs? Really? And what if it does speed? Does the cop cite the car? Which raises another question… Of course, the police will have to have the ability to commandeer these vehicles.

And in case you missed it, the Google car caused a five-car crash near the Google headquarters in 2011 but Google claimed it was human error… sure it was.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/google/google-driverless-car-causes-five-car-crash/3211

http://rosarynovice.stblogs.com/ Augustine

I wonder if, as most British, by persuading those who don’t wet themselves when driving and actually enjoy driving, she meant taxing them to oblivion or shackling them over to a reeducation camp…

Jim

I don’t think the idea of a driverless car is necessarily a bad one. It’s certainly a promising technology in the demo. What makes it bad is government ownership of roads. If it were a private road, and a computer driver was required or incentivized, we could actually see if it’s a good idea or not. People will vote with usage. If it is a government road, it’s just a mandatory control scheme.

DeannHall

I can’t wait to hack that thing!!!!

fed critic

I live in silicon valley. I’ve driven past one of Google’s self driving cars on the highway. They are real.

Jackson Hines

Google knows the speed limit of every road. It doesn’t need to read the sign. That’s how they are able to calculate the amount of time it would take to get from A to B when you get driving directions on google maps.

http://plenarchist.wordpress.com/ plenarchist

Travel time and statutory speed limits are two different animals. Speed limits are a minor factor for estimating travel times. Google probably has used travel demand models which are based on functional class of road, number of lanes, number of signalized intersections, average vehicle volumes, time of day, etc. That data is available from metro planning agencies. Speed limit is not a driving factor for travel time.

But what about speed zone changes? Not uncommon. And what about temporary work zone speed changes? What about speed reduction zones for curves or other hazards?

People take roads for granted but the road environment (especially in urban areas) changes all the time and can be pretty messy. What does the car do if a traffic signal experiences a power outage? What about navigating multilane roundabouts? It would seem a hopelessly complex environment for a computer to navigate safely and consistently and that assumes the car itself doesn’t experience a fault.

Would our driverless car stop at this intersection?

http://lbhomebrew.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/sotp-sign-stop-sop-sotp-sign-funny-fail-stupid-demotivational-poster-1261425245.jpg

Anonymous

The tone, accent, and atmosphere of this ad is truly frightening. Brave New Hunger Games.

Have you wondered why Google has photographed every street in every major American city? I have. Seems like a big project for a ‘nifty’ internet conveniences (that is frankly too frustratingly slow to be helpful).

I’d almost speculate that this was the plan all along. The automobile is freedom. What if all cars were computer controlled? Would the metropolis become a very effective mass prison? Oh, yes.

This screams marketing and propaganda, not meeting consumer demand. Swallow this pill humans!!!

Yes, a more convenient commute would be nice, but government subsidized transportation for 100 years has effectively ruled out any market solution. Like we want cars to be more ‘liveable’ and more fully embrace the time we spend in them. How about less time in cars?

How about highways with ‘smart’ speed limits. Solar powered signs, speed cameras, traffic computers. A few interstate corridors with these simple measures could easily be managed into a smooth and steady flow of traffic despite congestion. No need for ‘self-driving car’. Talk about inefficiency and expense!!!

“Are we ready to sacrifice the sense of fulfillment we get from driving?” Says attractive intelligent sounding woman. Argghhh! Only these control freaks running our society could make progress seem like such a nightmare. The worst part is that if you aren’t woke up yet, this video would play like a dream.

Contemplationist

If you’d read the details of the car, you’d know it doesn’t use GPS for tracking the road, only for general navigation.

http://news.discovery.com/autos/how-google-self-driving-car-works-111018.html

Anonymous

One point I made in a previous post is about how government subsidies of roads has crowded out many other potential transportation options. As interesting as this technology is, I’m pretty sure that things like trains would be much more common, high-quality, and useful in a society without government subsidy of roads. Google’s technology here, in and of itself, is pretty nifty and a sign of things to come.

Rob Nabakowski

No doubt. How to root a car!

Eric Mariacher

There’s a long long way to go and the biggest obstacles may not be technical…

http://driverless-cars.blogspot.fr/2013/01/driverless-cars-for-next-decades-in-4.html

We can classify driverless cars evolution in 4 steps:
* step 0: today’s self parking feature and Google cars
* step 1: partially autonomous driverless cars
* step 2: everyone can operate a driverless car
* step 3: shared driverless cars

John Campbell

Wow – such negativity here. I understand the concerns especially with the big G’s – government and google. But c’mon Luddites open your minds a bit. There is a ways to go for sure and valid points raised here, but for anyone who has dealt with elderly parents driving, this is huge. I hope that this technology means my kids won’t go through what I did with my father, and his before. Human mobility is a big part of freedom and this could be a huge benefit for millions.

The productivity gains could be enormous – learning and working while driving as well as enhanced safety and better traffic flow. My daughter is just about to graduate as an engineer specializing in transportation. My kids know me for my unconventional ideas, including libertarianism. And as Dustin Hoffman was told in The Graduate film, I say to my daughter, two words – “driverless cars”. I love driving and the freedom it gives me, but for I can’t wait for this – bring it on!

http://www.facebook.com/redmond.weissenberger Redmond Weissenberger

Love it! Can’t wait to buy one!

I would far rather be reading Tom’s latest book for an 8 hour drive than staring at the road trying not to fall asleep…