Autonomous Cars Aren't As Smart as They're Cracked Up To Be (computerworld.com)

Gill Pratt, executive technical adviser at Toyota, offers a note of caution, even as more car companies start putting AI elements into their cars. Speaking in Tokyo at the announcement of a Silicon Valley AI research center that Toyota is to open in early 2016, Pratt pointed out the big shortcoming in an AI system as applied to automobile: Autonomous cars might look great in controlled tests or on pristine highways, "but soon fail when faced with tasks that human drivers find simple." From the article: Drivers, for example, can pretty much get behind the wheel of a car and drive it wherever it may be, he said. Autonomous vehicles use GPS and laser imaging sensors to figure out where they are by matching data against a complex map that goes beyond simple roads and includes details down to lane markings. The cars rely on all that data to drive, so they quickly hit problems in areas that haven't been mapped in advance. ... A truly intelligent self-driving car needs artificial intelligence that can figure out where it is even if it has no map or GPS, and manage to navigate highways and follow routes even if there are diversions or changing in lane markings, he said. I regularly drive a stretch of road that's just a few miles long, but between construction, accidents, poor marking, bicycles, and heavy traffic I'd be nervous about letting an AI system navigate. In what real-world driving scenarios would you most want humans to take over?

Comments

Are you trolling or just boring?

[drinkypoo]

People keep saying this, but the truth is that the car is going to [be programmed to] follow the law. That means it's going to approach intersections at safe speeds, and it's going to avoid hitting pedestrians in crosswalks but will simply murderize them even if there's ten of them in your lane, and a cancer-ridden octagenarian driving a yugo in the other lane — even if the car has enough sensors to smell cancer, it's still going to run right into those pedestrians like you've gone bowling rather than deviate from the marked lane. It's going to make a good-faith best effort to stop. But remember, it's not going to go around a blind curve at a speed at which it can't stop if there's an obstacle. It's simply going to decelerate for the curve, and then accelerate again on the other side. If someone is in the road, it won't hit them, because it's not driving for fun. It's driving to minimize risk.

Toyota getting left behind

[monkeyxpress]

Translation: Toyota is woefully behind in autonomous car development, and rather worried about it.

The FUD begins.