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Transportation Google Technology

Alphabet's Waymo Will Test Self-Driving Cars In Snowy Detroit (bloomberg.com) 61

Posted by BeauHD from the well-weathered dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Alphabet's Waymo, the vehicle arm of Google's parent, announced on Thursday that it will start testing its autonomous Chrysler minivans on roads in the greater Detroit area. Michigan will be the sixth state where Waymo has run its vehicles on public roads. But the region is the first with a winter dominated by snow and ice, the kind of inclement conditions that pose hurdles for vehicle sensors. "Having lived through fourteen Michigan winters, I'm confident that there are few better places that will prepare our self-driving cars for winter conditions," John Krafcik, Waymo's chief executive officer and a former Ford executive, said in a statement. Waymo opened a testing facility in suburban Detroit last year. The hometown automakers are already there. Ford has tested self-driving cars in the state (including some for pizza delivery). General Motors' Cruise Automation is experimenting there as well.
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Alphabet's Waymo Will Test Self-Driving Cars In Snowy Detroit More

Alphabet's Waymo Will Test Self-Driving Cars In Snowy Detroit

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  • Well... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Friday October 27, 2017 @04:30PM (#55447205) Journal

    ".... "Having lived through fourteen Michigan winters, I'm confident that there are few better places that will prepare our self-driving cars for winter conditions," ..."

    Having lived through 50 winters, I beg to differ.
    Michigan gets you snow, certainly. The staggering variety of ice, snow, and bitter cold makes driving here truly inhospitable.

    - a Minnesotan

    • I don't know if there's a objective way of determining who has the worst winters.

      I never thought too much about Toronto winter weather other than it was bad until we relocated our company headquarters to another part of Ontario where they thought they had the worst weather in the northern hemisphere although it was positively mild when I compared it to what I've put up with in Toronto. They closed down schools with 4" of snow - just about anywhere else I've been (with the exception of Georgia where 0.5" of

      • I don't know if there's a objective way of determining who has the worst winters.

        I never thought too much about Toronto winter weather other than it was bad until we relocated our company headquarters to another part of Ontario where they thought they had the worst weather in the northern hemisphere although it was positively mild when I compared it to what I've put up with in Toronto. They closed down schools with 4" of snow - just about anywhere else I've been (with the exception of Georgia where 0.5" of snow is seen as the coming of the apocalypse), that's nothing to get excited about.

        If I was to rate the winters in the various cities in North America I've been in over the years, I would say that Boston has the worst winters (and, yes, I have been in Michigan).

        I grew up in Saint John and moved to Boston. Boston has a mild winter. It's not even close to what northern Maine and New Brunswick gets. That being said, Boston can be a nightmare if a snow storm hits when no one is expecting it. But that's purely because of population density and the number of cars on the road.

      • Snow tends to affect different regions in very different ways. For example, Seattle is an extremely hilly city. Combine that with the fact that snow is rather rare (meaning inexperienced drivers + no studded snow tires), and an inch or two of snow really is a big deal [youtube.com]. Seattle also tends to be a moderate climate, which means that snow may fall, melt, and then re-freeze the next day when the temperature drops again, turning into black ice.

        When I lived in the eastern part of the state, we'd get six or twel

        • Also in older cities like Duluth, MN without the means to pump tons of money into the infrastructure. A few main roads have water mains running underneath, which keeps snow from staying on them too long (or ice from really forming), but many of Duluth's hills become icy and can be extremely dangerous for cars without 4x4/AWD and proper brakes. The general right of way is given to those coming down the hill, they may not be able to stop for you.

      • I'll just leave these here (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Okian Warrior ( 537106 ) on Friday October 27, 2017 @05:46PM (#55447653) Homepage Journal

        I'll just leave these here:

        Item 1. [wordpress.com]

        Item 2. [wordpress.com]

      • Boston can indeed get a lot of snow in a single coastal storm. And sometimes those storms queue up and after a while finding a place to put the snow becomes a real problem. OTOH, it rarely get bone chillingly cold there. Cleveland, Buffalo and Rochester get lake effect snows that can pile up pretty deeply. Montreal is, AFAICS the third coldest major city on the planet after Novosibirsk and Moscow. But many smaller cities -- notably Winnipeg -- are substantially colder.

        Detroit (I've lived there) has nip

    • Yes, I agree. It's not the snow you want to worry about so much, it's the ice and slush and freezing rain on the roads... and the ice and slush and freezing rain that will get caked on the cameras and sensors.

      • It's not the snow you want to worry about so much, it's the ice and slush and freezing rain on the roads...

        My parents both grew up in Canada, driving in snow. Then they moved to the US, to an area that only got snow a few times a year.

        Both always told me, that the things you need to really worry about the most, that pose the most danger . . . are the other drivers on the road, who do not know how to drive in snow.

        Many years ago, while I was on a business trip to Austin, Texas in December . . . the thermometer actually went below freezing! The local TV station set up some cameras on overpasses, because they k

    • "Having lived through 50 winters, I beg to differ.
      Michigan gets you snow, certainly. The staggering variety of ice, snow, and bitter cold makes driving here truly inhospitable."

      You're right. They just want to stick it to the automobile industry on their home turf.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Motard ( 1553251 )

      Well, when I lived in Detroit, it wasn't a matter of simply ice, snow and cold. It was all of those things on narrow urban sidestreets with cars parked on both sides and a single pair of eight inch ruts down the middle - on a two-way street.

      I'd really would like to see a computer deal with that - and the oncoming drivers.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kjella ( 173770 )

      Ahh, Minnesota. If I drove a thousand miles south (and crossed the Atlantic) I'd be there. This is like a UID pissing match, I wonder if we have any users from Siberia...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by raind ( 174356 )
      I've lived 50 Detroit winters, thanks to global warming they are not as bad as is in the past. Unless you dismiss the freak "polar vortex" events. Last 5 years or so we typically had to shovel/plow a few times a season. On the other hand storms are more powerful than usual.
      Add to that the Detroit area has some of the nations worse road conditions (MI allows insane truck weight limits) and doesn't know how to fix them apparently - I would say good luck to the self driving cars, might even be an improvement

    • Minnesota usually gets some nice hard freezes and you can drive around on hard snow and ice.

      Southeast Michigan tends to half-thaw every afternoon and re-freeze at night. So you are driving through slush layered on top of sheets of ice and open pavement. It's the deceptive aspect of Michigan winters and our shitty beat-to-hell roads that makes the driving very challenging.

      - a Michigander

  • Goodbye to straw men in straw hat weather! Or will this be on somebody's "proving grounds"?

    • You seem a little bit to be too enthusiastic about this robot testing, plainclothesman.

      • I've changed. Originally I wanted them to build a dome over the city and make the robots pay for it. But now I understand that we need them, to help solve our crimes, and to tell us what we're thinking.

  • ... not to visit Detroit.

  • ...when they're driving through one of "those" neighbourhoods?

  • If you've ever skidded down N 70th in Greenwood of Seattle during a snowstorm, with cars parked on both sides, or gone over an overpass with 50 mph winds and black ice, or actually gone OUT of Detroit, you'll know this isn't really a test.

    It's more like the missile interception tests where we cheat and put a beacon on the warhead.

    • Re: It's more black ice on bridges and mountains (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The skidding and traction problems have already been solved in the 90's. The problems are de-icing the sensors and how the computer figures out where the road is. Not a trivial problem.

      • "The skidding and traction problems have already been solved in the 90's."

        I live in a place that gets 80 or 90 inches (a bit over 2 meters) of snow in an average Winter. Let me assure you that skidding and traction problems still abound although the switch from RWD to FWD vehicles helped a lot. 4WD/Traction control can help in getting going. The problem is stopping. ABS performs poorly on unpaved surfaces and even worse on snow and ice. Always has, and likely always will.

        You're right about the sensors

        • Computers do have one significant advantage over people: they're willing to drive as slow as is appropriate for the conditions.

    • Of course we put beacons on the warheads. Do you have any idea how hard it is to hit a warhead that doesn't want to be hit?

  • ...it would only improve the city.
  • Can f*ck right off.

  • Detroit is a ghost town (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    At least when a car crashes there's less chance of hitting someone in Detroit than in San Francisco.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Motard ( 1553251 )

      Shit. Oh well, I guess they should've asked an AC how Detroit compares to SF.

      • Haven't been to Detroit for close to 30 years, but three decades ago, no one in Detroit walked anywhere except from the house/office/store to/from their car. The chances of hitting a pedestrian are quite likely higher in the middle of the Gobi Desert than in Detroit. Especially during a snowstorm when everyone will be huddled around the TV seeking news of when the terrible calamity will come to an end.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Motard ( 1553251 )

          Haven't been to Detroit for close to 30 years, but three decades ago, no one in Detroit walked anywhere except from the house/office/store to/from their car. The chances of hitting a pedestrian are quite likely higher in the middle of the Gobi Desert than in Detroit. Especially during a snowstorm when everyone will be huddled around the TV seeking news of when the terrible calamity will come to an end.

          Thanks for the timely critique. And for several clues that you have no idea what you're talking about. Or what you were talking about 30 years ago.

  • What about Detroit conditions [flickr.com]?

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