Uber Resumes Autonomous Car Testing in San Francisco (venturebeat.com) 14
Just over a month after Uber received a California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) license to test driverless cars on public roads, the company has resumed autonomous testing in San Francisco. From a report: Uber says it will limit its time on the road to a "few weeks" while it completes a codebase and infrastructure update and that two of its Volvo XC90 prototypes will be deployed initially, each with a pair of safety drivers in the front seats. Previously, Uber was manually testing up to eight cars in San Francisco with safety drivers and copilots. The testing will no doubt be closely watched by industry observers, as it marks Uber's return to autonomous driving in California years after the company postponed further tests following a fatal accident. In March 2018, one of Uber's cars struck and killed a pedestrian while driving in autonomous mode, prompting a firestorm of criticism from legislators, regulators, and the public.
How much further did that put them behind (Score:2)
This lag, probably had put Uber a generation behind the likes Tesla and Google in their technology. I am unsure if Uber can catch up. (As when they were active they weren't necessarily leading the pack)
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Because of the complexity of this technology and mapping data needs, I suspect there will only be 2 or 3 viable auto-drive companies in the US when all is said and done. If you are not at least #3 by now, you better either bust your gonads, or give up. Perhaps they should partner up with another 2nd string player(s).
Not "maps" (Score:3)
and mapping data needs,
As Google has explained multiple times:
you need such ultra-high resolutions and insanely up-to-date maps data, that the only way to have good enough maps would be to equipe every single car with very good sensors and have it constantly send what it see to the servers, and the servers constantly stream updated map data to the cars.
At that point, if you have the sensors on the cars already, you might as well cut out the middle man and use the sensors on the cars to constantly monitor the surrounding. It's cal
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There are a lot of nebulous or faded markings on the roads near me. I have to slow down and really think about what was intended, or make a best guess and hope I don't get hit. Sometimes there's a vote by committee as everyone watches what everyone else does. I'm not confident a bot has sufficient social skills to interpret movement hints by other drivers.
Ideally a human inspector should study data from such difficult areas and map out the most likely interpretation for the next car, perhaps even sending a
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A few more thoughts:
The Chinese are going to be the first winners. They've been altering their roads. They're going to have autonomous roads, which greatly simplifies the process. They have a good ecosystem of companies doing this.
Same goes with the Europeans, they're not doing cars, they're doing self-driving busses and trains. That too, greatly simplifies the problem when you have fixed routes and bus-only roads/train tracks. In Europe, labor cost is so freaking expensive, that is also going to help with
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TL;DR: the cars don't actually needs maps anymore than humans drivers do (just to get the general idea of where they are heading to). The cars constantly watch and react to their surrounding just as humans (are supposed to) do.
They might need maps better than their current maps to at least get them in the general vicinity. The current Uber Maps keeps telling drivers to take the bike/jogging path along the reservoir to get to my apartment, but only if I am in the vehicle. I wouldn't be able to tell a self-driving Uber that the bike/jogging path is not a valid route.
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Perhaps they should partner up with another 2nd string player(s).
They already have.
Uber and Toyota are working together on self-driving vehicles [usatoday.com].
Re: How much further did that put them behind (Score:2)
I agree with you but it's not the mapping as the limiting factor. The autonomy software is immensely complex but has to be bet your life reliable. But the mapping isn't necessary, obviously human drivers don't require it.
Uber is the leader in Level 3 fatalities (Score:2)
Uber is the leader in Level 3 fatalities
Tesla is the leader in Level 2 fatalities
End us of this plague (Score:2)
In March 2018, one of Uber's cars struck and killed a pedestrian while driving in autonomous mode, prompting a firestorm of criticism from legislators, regulators, and the public
Since then, 60,000 Americans and millions worldwide have been killed in normal accidents, with no end in sight nor any way to extract a pound of flesh from each politician and lawyer getting in the way.
A death in front of the cameras is worth millions in the bush. And millions of dollars!
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A death in front of the cameras is worth millions
Maybe. Our local cops don't seem to give a rat's ass about dash cam video. If there is a civil suit with discovery motions filed, some might end up in court. But I have a suspicion that cops would rather not be made aware of them as it hampers their ability to manufacture a plausible story of the accident. In other words; No video of the mayor's drunk nephew mowing down the busload of children was found.
Opportunity (Score:3)
Uber testing autonomous driving (Score:3)
Keep your kids off the street.. (Score:2)