Slashdot Mirror
Waymo Self-driving Cars Are Having Problems Turning Around Corners (siliconangle.com)
Alphabet's Waymo has long been regarded as the leader in autonomous vehicle development and technology, but all might not be as well as it seems at the company, according to a report published Tuesday. From a report: The Information quoted a number of unnamed Waymo insiders who claim the vehicles being used in the Arizona ride-hailing test have numerous problems. The test, which launched in November, is meant to be converted to a full commercial service later this year. The report claimed that the autonomous Chrysler Pacifica struggles to handle a number of driving tasks and even goes as far as annoying human drivers around them. Top among the problems is an apparent issue with turning left. "The Waymo vans have trouble with many unprotected left turns and with merging into heavy traffic in the Phoenix area, especially on highways," the report noted. "Sometimes, the vans don't understand basic road features, such as metered red and green lights that regulate the pace of cars merging onto freeways." If having problems turning left isn't bad enough, they also apparently on occasion have problems turning right. One woman claimed that she almost hit a Waymo vehicle as it suddenly stopped while trying to make a right turn.
When I was in high school, my sister had a friend who was deathly afraid of turning left from one busy street to another. She just didn't get the whole, "inch out until the light turns yellow, and you're sure oncoming traffic is gonna stop, and then complete your turn" thing. So, swear to god, she used to make three right hand turns instead. She drover her father's old '70 Buick Electra 225 4-door and that thing was like an aircraft carrier. But it had the first electric seats I ever saw and had the bucket seats instead of a bench in the front, which I though was cool.
In summary, as long as you can make a sufficient number of right-hand turns, you can get away without hanging a Louie.
You are welcome on my lawn.
It is not going to happen on regular roads as we know them. Instead some big corporation is going to build a new city (possibly around a new campus) where regular cars will be banned and all trafic will be autonomous and roads will be smart as well with sensors, broadcasts, and what not. It will be so much simpler (for the AI) and so much more convenient for the humans. And once the benefits are obvious, other cities will follow suit. Building a city from scratch was Walt Disney's dream btw.
I'd like to hear Waymo's side of the story as I could imagine that the vehicle may have stopped during a right turn because it detected a hazard that was real (maybe a child running towards the road) or not real (paperbag flying towards the road). I also find the wording "the vans don't understand basic road features, such as metered red and green lights that regulate the pace of cars merging onto freeways" strange. Surely metered lights are not a basic road feature but something quite rare. I'm not saying that Waymo should not be able to handle those (surely they should!) but it does not seem to be a major failure either.
Suddenly breaking for not reason is illegal in many places. Try doing that in e.g. Germany on the autobahn and you can get fined.
Also please note the 'almost hit', so the woman did what was expected of her and had apparently the correct distance for the speed she was driving at. Otherwise there would not have been an 'almost'.
Going for a full abrupt stop for no reason is like yelling fire for no reason.
As I read it, the car was not slowing down by breaking. It slammed the brakes.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.