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Automated Cars Are Not Able To Use the Automated Car Wash (thetruthaboutcars.com)
schwit1 shares a report from The Truth About Cars: [T]he simple task of washing a self-driving car is far more complicated than one might expect, as anything other than meticulous hand washing a big no-no. Automated car washes could potentially dislodge expensive sensors, scratch them up, or leave behind soap residue or water spots that would affect a camera's ability to see. According to CNN, automakers and tech firms have come up with a myriad of solutions to this problem -- though a man with a rag and some water appears to be the most popular. Toyota, Aptiv, Drive.AI, May Mobility, and Uber have all said they use rubbing alcohol, water, or glass cleaner to manually wash the sensors, before carefully finishing the job with a microfiber cloth. While it's more than just a little ironic that these automated vehicles require gobs of attention and pampering from human hands just to function correctly, some companies are working on a way around it. General Motors' Cruise has said it will design and implement sensor-cleaning equipment in production vehicles.
they use rubbing alcohol, water, or glass cleaner to manually wash the sensors, before carefully finishing the job with a microfiber cloth.
Those people have never met snow or the salty sludge thrown around by passing cars.
ID: the nose did not occur naturally, how would we wear glasses otherwise? (apologies to Voltaire)
Car washes put more physical stress on the sensors than rain and road grime. I mean, surely you can't read this and think, "Oh, so these cars' sensors fall off in the rain." The issue is the indiscriminate srubbing of automated car washes.
And like some others have pointed out, it's an easy issue. Don't take your car to a car wash. They're the very definition of a first world market.
"Old man yells at systemd"
Funny, I thought the solution would be to engineer the sensors so they're not so damned fragile that I can't take them through the car wash. I also refuse to buy dishes or cookware that I can't throw in the dishwasher.
I like time-saving first-world amenities.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.