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iPhone Hacker Geohot Builds Self-Driving Car AI (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader writes: George Hotz, known for unlocking early iPhones and the PlayStation 3, has developed an autonomous driving system in his garage. "Hotz's approach isn't simply a low-cost knockoff of existing autonomous vehicle technology. He says he's come up with discoveries—most of which he refuses to disclose in detail—that improve how the AI software interprets data coming in from the cameras." The article has a video with Hotz demonstrating some basic autonomous driving similar to what Tesla rolled out earlier this year. He's clearly brimming with confidence about what the system can accomplish with more training.
He's using Unity, I'd say he has that pretty well covered himself.
The article has a video with Hotz demonstrating some basic autonomous driving similar to what Tesla rolled out earlier this year.
Basic autonomous driving is (relatively) easy to do as long as you don't care much about it being actually useful in the real world. I suspect many good programmers and engineers could accomplish something functional (and dangerous) pretty quickly. It's not much more than an RC car with some sensors. Think Roomba on steroids. The problem is all the corner cases needed to actually make the system safe in real world driving. That is highly non-trivial.
Freeway autonomous driving is doable. But on regular streets it's hard, maybe impossible given current roads and parking lots.
But a freeway-only fully autonomous vehicle is still very valuable. Long-haul trucks and RVs spend most of their driving time on freeways. If a trucker can sleep 8 hours while the truck drives itself on the freeway and then take over only when the truck exits the freeway, the trucking company can save huge amounts of money. You can basically double the productivity of a driver/truck combo, since you can operate it continuously instead of having to shut down for the night. Also it's a plus from a safety standpoint; tired sleep-deprived truck drivers cause a lot of accidents. It's worth doing.
Does he have insurance coverage for his selling idea? Seems very risky as he can be on the hook for big damages with stuff goes wrong.
Is he willing to have his code go under some thing like a FAA code audit?
How much redundancy is in that system?
Does his friends really want to take on the risk?
I think you're confusing engineering with science.
The difficult part of AI, or science in general, is getting something that works. Once you have a working demo, anyone can add the reliability, the redundancy, and do a code audit.
And indeed, visionary investors might examine the idea and think "I'll take on the responsibility for liability and development, because I believe that the value of your ideas will be worth more than the expense of dealing with those issues. Sell me your idea."
But it all starts with getting something to work.