Posted on 11/07/2017 10:37:51 PM PST by iowamark
Waymo recently hosted a number of journalists at its private Castle testing compound, and treated us to rides with no safety driver behind the wheel – now, the former Google self-driving car company is going farther still, however, launching public road tests of its autonomous Chrysler Pacifica minivans with no safety driver on board.
The tests aren’t limited to one or two routes, either; the test area where the truly driverless trials are being conducted is in Chandler, Arizona (part of the greater Phoenix metro area), and the cars are able to go anywhere within this defined space. It’s hard to understate the importance of this milestone: Waymo is operating at full Level 4 autonomy, sharing public roads with human-driven cars and pedestrians, with no one at the wheel able to take over in case things don’t go as planned.
That shows confidence – confidence that Waymo has managed to achieve truly capable L4 autonomy within the specific domain of Chandler. The current passengers for this test are Waymo employees, however, so it’s not as if the Alphabet-owned company is throwing caution to the wind; instead, it’s showing that it’s ready to move to the next major phase of operations after around a decade of working on this incredibly complex problem.
Waymo CEO John Krafcik announced the fully driverless trials at Web Summit today, and revealed the video above, and also noted that while the trial is starting with employees first, it’s soon going to expand to the existing members of the Chandler driverless ride hailing service trial that Waymo kicked off at the beginning of 2017. When that happens (sometime in the next “few months,” per Krafcik, Waymo will be operating a fully autonomous ride hailing service without any humans at the wheel, a major first for the industry in terms of realizing the dream of making commercial self-driving available to the public at large.
Krafcik also said that Waymo wants to broaden the geographic scope of its trial, starting with expansion in the near-term to cover the entire Phoenix metro area, which represents more acreage than the whole of the Greater London area, he noted (though it’s obviously far less dense).
Residents participating in the trial will also be able to use them exactly as they use the test vehicles with safety chauffeurs today – for any trips within the designated area, whether for commutes, trips to go shopping, heading to school or whatever their transportation needs. They hail the vehicles using a Waymo app, and being the trip onboard with a push of a button. There’s also an onboard support system that allows them to talk to a live Waymo support agent at any time.
Waymo’s stated goal is to ensure safer roads for everyone, and after having spent some time in the fully driverless Pacifica that will be operating in Chandler, I’m more convinced than ever they’re on a path to make this happen. Bringing that truly driverless Level 4 experience to public roads and public riders is a huge step, and a sign we could be hailing an autonomous ride sooner than you might think.
And will the first person be injured or killed or bomb be delivered by a driverless car? Mark my words I see these as source of death and destruction, without the suicide bomber.
Dr, like 40,000 die annually. Maybe fewer with self-dr8ving cars.
Waymo, is way too close to Wam-O.
Slow the first time it hits something, that name will stick. Brand name marred forever.
Poor marketing IMO.
Those self-driving driverless cars scare me. Let's say you're driving a car, and someone else runs a red light or is drunk and driving crazy, and that other car hits your car. As your car careens off course, you attempt to take control and several options present themselves to you.
One path will have you running over a young mother pushing a baby stroller. Another path will have you running over several small children. Another path will have you smash into a bus stop with a homeless guy on a bench. You have limited control and these are your options.
Can a computerized self-driving car make the most humane decision as to whose lives to spare? I've seen collisions like this happen within my sight, with a hit car deftly avoiding spinning into pedestrians in a crosswalk, just barely. Can a computerized driver do the same?
Self-driving cars and AI robots will keep a lot of people from having to go to a nursing home. I figure they will have attained such capabilities by the time I reach that stage. I’ve always said I will never go to one.
At the very least, we need to prohibit Muslims, illegals, and liberals from owning or using a driverless car in any capacity.
Well... as long as there is no one else 'on the road', it should be safe.
EXACTLY!
I just as soon neither be IN one nor on the same road as one...
Since they abandoned human override, I’m not exactly enthused at these.
Exactly - level 4 self driving cars can’t arrive soon enough for my 83 year mother and her 80 year old friends.
Driving with someone over 80 hrs old is like driving with someone who drank a bottle of gin. it’s terrifying
The computerized car will never have that problem.
You see, at Level 5 autonomy, cars will talk to each other, completely avoiding collisions with each other. Vehicles do not talk to a central network for this, just to each other.
The computer can make adjustments far earlier than a human can possibly make those same adjustments.
The drunk drivers, inattentive drivers and poor drivers will make autonomous vehicles happen faster because it gets those people off the roads first.
With 95% of vehicle fatalities caused by human error, there will be no argument against autonomous vehicles that makes sense.
Driving and car ownership will be reserved for the wealthy who want to race on a track or course, just like horses are today.
Nursing homes and assisted living facilities are for people that can't take care of themselves or have trouble doing so. In my community, there are free or low cost services that will transport the elderly to stores, appointments, and etc. We also have an excellent bus service. And of course there are the ride sharing services and taxis.
ROBOT VEHICLES HIDE CRASHES
Robot vehicles are ALREADY killing people and crippling children, but you are NOT SUPPOSED TO TALK ABOUT IT!
Shhhh! Please keep the secret. But human drivers must report accidents to the police. Robots have privilege to conceal accidents.
Robot gadgets are already installed in cars & semi trucks. They control following distance, lane departure etc. But each electronic robot gadget has 100s of defects. The big corporations who use them are technically illiterate. Safety personnel are illiterates.
Robots already cause major accidents, property damage, bodily injury and death. But how? It is simple.
Robots get a pass on accidents.
Humans must report accidents.
I rode with a church lady a few miles from her home to a best buy to help her get a good router.
She is 80 plus and that was an experience.
There are currently ~40,000 traffic fatalities per year. If that could be reduced to ~15,000 does it really matter that much to you that the most humane decision is made in each collision? In other words, what is your metric?
I would say total traffic fatalities would be one very reasonable metric, and if autonomous vehicles could reduce this significantly (e.g. more than 20%, and statistically significant relative to year-to-year variance), then that is a win. Second metric should be average trip time; also a 20% significant reduction in point-to-point travel would be a win. Third, reliability and maintenance cost-- should retain reliability and lifetime cost of ownership should not increase by more than 20%. Given benefits of being able to sleep, or do other things while driving, if autonomous vehicles could also do these three things, it would be an amazing change. All of these metrics would depend of course on having the majority of vehicles on the road be autonomous-- you would have to extrapolate available data to intermediate metrics to see if we are trending towards these goals initially.
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