Self-Driving Startup Built a 'Car Without Wheels' For Remote Driving (arstechnica.com) 45
Self-driving startup Voyage built a physical "Telessist Pod" with software that allows a remote operator to give instructions to a self-driving car.
A reader shares a report from Ars Technica "For all of this to work safely, it had to basically be a car without wheels," Voyage CEO Oliver Cameron told me in a Thursday phone interview. "It had to have a real steering wheel, real pedals, real automotive-grade connectors, and real automotive-grade ECUs." Voyage's engineers built a "car without wheels" because they wanted to mirror the experience of driving a real car as closely as possible. "If you try to do it with a gaming steering wheel, you don't get the force feedback" you get with a real car, Cameron said. "It's impossible to drive reliably like that. It's so unsafe."
Remote Voyage drivers sit in a metal cage the size of a golf cart. There's a steering wheel, gas pedal, and brake pedal where you'd expect them in a real car. A wraparound array of computer monitors shows the car's surroundings. An encrypted wireless data connection keeps the components in the Telessist pod synchronized with their counterparts in the real car. Voyage says the network latency is under 100 milliseconds -- short enough that the driver won't notice a significant lag. In case something goes wrong, the company bonded together five separate cellular connections, each with its own SIM card on a different wireless carrier, to achieve maximum redundancy and hence reliability," reports Ars. "If one of the five networks fails, software automatically switches over to the other four."
There's a system called Remote Drive Assist that will take over if the car loses its wireless connection. Voyage even added an emergency braking system, which consists of a small, self-contained lidar unit in front of Voyage's cars. "If it detects an imminent collision, it has the power to activate the brakes and bring the vehicle to a stop," adds Ars. "This means that, even if the human driver -- or Voyage's main self-driving system, for that matter -- makes a mistake, the car is unlikely to run into anything."
Remote Voyage drivers sit in a metal cage the size of a golf cart. There's a steering wheel, gas pedal, and brake pedal where you'd expect them in a real car. A wraparound array of computer monitors shows the car's surroundings. An encrypted wireless data connection keeps the components in the Telessist pod synchronized with their counterparts in the real car. Voyage says the network latency is under 100 milliseconds -- short enough that the driver won't notice a significant lag. In case something goes wrong, the company bonded together five separate cellular connections, each with its own SIM card on a different wireless carrier, to achieve maximum redundancy and hence reliability," reports Ars. "If one of the five networks fails, software automatically switches over to the other four."
There's a system called Remote Drive Assist that will take over if the car loses its wireless connection. Voyage even added an emergency braking system, which consists of a small, self-contained lidar unit in front of Voyage's cars. "If it detects an imminent collision, it has the power to activate the brakes and bring the vehicle to a stop," adds Ars. "This means that, even if the human driver -- or Voyage's main self-driving system, for that matter -- makes a mistake, the car is unlikely to run into anything."
Fantastic! (Score:4, Informative)
A gazillion driving-schools built those decades ago.
Googling "remote driving cockpit" gives you many examples.
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Cellular? (Score:2)
What about areas where there's _no_ cellular coverage? Having 5 cellular modems all with no service won't help much! Seems like some sort of satellite connection would be needed to ensure 100% coverage, but then again those can lose signal in a tunnel, under an overpass, etc., like XM Radio does when driving.
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another thing about satellite phones would be a much higher latency with the round trip time to orbit and back.
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This seems like yet another market that could develop once SpaceX's Starlink constellation is up. But before Starlink is operational, I agree with you, the connection seems far to tenuous.
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What about areas where there's _no_ cellular coverage? ....
I'm guessing they're not going to offer the service there.
This IS the future; Semi-intelligent remote contro (Score:5, Insightful)
To make a fully autonomous vehicle is very difficult. But to make one largely autonomous is on the horizon. So have an operator in India (say) monitor cars and more importantly trucks remotely.
Most of the time they will drive themselves. But they can be helped when needed. And one driver can drive several vehicles. In particular, trucks going down the Interstate. If cellular data is lost (rare) the vehicle can intelligently pull over and stop.
The feedback and cage etc. is nonsense. A gaming console type steering wheel will work fine. As will ordinary monitors, no need for VR.
Not a good future (Score:4, Insightful)
So have an operator in India (say) monitor cars and more importantly trucks remotely.
So you are wanting people to put their lives in the hands of some minimum wage earner in a remote corner of the globe who will be monitoring multiple vehicles at the same time? I don't see this ending well.
A fully autonomous vehicle may be hard but a half-wit vehicle with minimum wage back-up will be lethal. Besides, if it can alert someone halfway round the globe in enough time for them to assess the situation and take control why can't it just alert the person onboard. It will have to do this anyway in the event that the problem is loss of network connectivity.
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Tell me, have you ever taken a taxi? People put their lives in the hands of minimum-wage earners regularly
Yes, and when the driver only has one vehicle to pay attention to and his life is on the line it tends to work well. When that driver is distracted by having other vehicles to look after and is sitting in a comfy office thousands of miles away and safe no matter what happens probably not so much.
I have no issues with a fully autonomous taxi once we have some experience with them because we can hone and perfect the algorithm until they are safer than typical humans. But a system that relies on someone re
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Exactly. This is already becoming a problem in aviation, where pilots of airliners (hardly minimum-wage workers) are finding it harder to retain basic flying skills when the airplane's computer does most of the hands-on stuff. At least like the taxi driver their butt is sitting in the seat up front. Hell no I'm not getting in a vehicle hurtling down the road while monitored by some third-world sweatshop employee long overdue for a bathroom break.
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... hurtling down the road while monitored by some third-world sweatshop employee long overdue for a bathroom break.
This may also happen to you if you trust your life to a highly paid first-world airline pilot. [www.wort.lu] ... and before you say "but he's sitting in the same plane and risking his own life along with yours" : actually he was the only survivor...
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The remote driver will only be asked to do tasks like navigating a parking lot or pulling up to some spot .. the autonomous system will be good at accident avoidance by detecting imminent collisions and staying on the road .. detecting an impending collision doesn't require human level intelligence.
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Tell me, have you ever taken a taxi? People put their lives in the hands of minimum-wage earners regularly, despite how it doesn't always go well for them.
The biggest concern I have is that the remote driver has no skin in the game - and may drive much less carefully as a result.
I would feel much safer if i knew my remote driver had electrodes attached to their balls ready to give them a serious zapping if they have so much as a scrape or low speed bumper nudge with another vehicle.
need local drivers that know how to drive for plac (Score:2)
need local drivers that know how to drive for place they are in.
People in Russia don't drive like other places.
Also no tunnels that don't have cell links?
Re: Not a good future (Score:2)
I don't personally think the added latency (even if minimal) and different driving norms make it a good idea, but the point of outsourcing a job like that is that you can pay a good wage and still save money.
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Maybe you have never used an Uber. Sub-minimum wage, vehicle often poorly maintained, attention divided between the road and the Uber app.
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One big advantage i can see about VR is that users are forced to have their full attention on it. No alt tabbing to play minesweeper!
worst case (Score:3)
"If one of the five networks fails, software automatically switches over to the other four."
so does it do when it loses ALL the signals? Tunnel, too many trees, or some yahoo jamming cell signals just to fuck with these things?
If it just stops it becomes a hazard to other traffic, so it must have some kind of simple self driving tech to ensure it gets to the side of the road safely.
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I mean, what a wonderful way to murder someone, be it the driver or a pedestrian nearby....
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Already Waymo's car is safer than the average new 16 year-old driver. A Tesla on autopilot made the news recently when it ran into an overturned semi. The driver lived, 11 other people who had car/semi accidents that day and didn't. After the next software upgrade no Tesla will ever make the same mistake again, unfortunately the others are unable to pass that knowledge on.
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Waymo uses expensive equipment and doesn't take shortcuts like Uber or Tesla.
General Dynamics had a similar issue (Score:1)
Re: General Dynamics had a similar issue (Score:2)
What, you TOO have never heard of FOCE FEEDBACK??
IT'S LITERALLY BUILT INTO GAMING INPUT DEVICES FOR OVER TWO DECADES!!
What is this here? Club of the Clueless?
I feel like I've moved *planets*! Possibly even universes! And this one is by far the fuckin most retarded one I've ever seen! Even the milky way looks like a stain of drool, dried on its vest from before the nurses gave it its meds and pushed it back into the rubber room with the rapey doctor that didn't make things better, exactly!
(Damn, I'm channeli
25 mph? (Score:2)
Blasting past 2021 and cruising straight into 1976 (Score:2)
http://www.pinballrebel.com/ar... [pinballrebel.com]
cell does not cover all and roaming issues both us (Score:2)
cell does not cover all and roaming issues both in us and out of it.
In some places there is only wireless carrier and they just let all of the big boys roam on it and there is an limit / slow down point.
and non us / fringe roaming with 5 wireless carriers what if it picks the one that is $15-$20 an meg?
any ways that cost is to high to be useful say $50-$90 an account for uncapped + maybe add $200+/mo for an sat link. And $500-$1000 for an auto dish.
It's a neural network driving! (Score:2)
Autonomous Fleet (Score:2)
I've been told the biggest [by various measures] autonomous vehicle fleet is Rio Tinto's autonomous Haulpak fleet which runs in Iron Ore mines in the Pilbara, Western Australia. These things haul 400 tons of ore at a time between the rock face and crushers and are monitored by a control centre 1,300kms away in Perth.
Even the Iron Ore trains [longest in the world] run without drivers now. And all of the major mining companies are pouring money into automation with the eventual goal of creating an entirely au
Because SDCs suck so bad they need 'remote assist' (Score:2)
DO NOT WANT (Score:2)
Sorry, but I want the ability to manually capture control of the car in the event of a malfunction.
I refuse to trust my life to uncontrolled automation.
Re: DO NOT WANT (Score:2)
Especially developed by those circle jerks of incompetence of more-drugged-up-than-a-drug-baron Silicon Valley tech posers that the current generation is made out of.
Look, if it calls itself a "smart" phone or car or m whatever, it should at least be *smarter* than me! Not a fuckin retard with drool on its face that is as fuckin smug and condescending as its programmers!, that I constantly have to correct, to get anything barely resembling intelligence!
That shit might fly in their "home of the mentally disa
Wait what? It's literally called Force Feedback! (Score:2)
In Richar Burns Rally, with a good Thrustmaster weel, I remember I could even feel it when the wheels lost grip! (Very useful!)
So they build a shitty version of those simulators in theme parks? Cause apparently they're from the moon, and have never heard of anything that exists on Earth whatsoever?
Its always a Bum on the Seat (Score:1)
The driver isn't for emergencies (Score:3)
Cars without wheels! (Score:2)
This could be a low-cost approach to getting around in LA traffic. Safer than cars with wheels, too.
5 different mobile connections (Score:2)
Sounds good, until you realize that many areas do not have that many real ones available. In fact, in any given spot you may be down to one. Or none on glitches. Hence this "redundancy" is very much a marketing lie: Designed to sound impressive, but pretty worthless in actual reality.
"without wheels" (Score:1)
Nowhere in their press piece does it mention "without wheels."
https://news.voyage.auto/intro... [voyage.auto]
Is this more marketspeak horseshit like "serverless"?