I’m open to the possibility that it’s just me being more aware/sensitive to how people are driving around me too. And I’m not necessarily talking about drivers I have to interact with myself but just seeing what people are doing in general.
I’m open to the possibility that it’s just me being more aware/sensitive to how people are driving around me too. And I’m not necessarily talking about drivers I have to interact with myself but just seeing what people are doing in general.
It’s not a matter of think. Waymo themselves admitted that whenever one of their cars gets into a pickle that it can’t figure out, which is more often than most people would probably feel comfortable with, control is handed over to remote operators who are apparently located in the Philippines.
Article: https://www.autoblog.com/news/waymo-uses-remote-workers-in-the-philippines-to-assist-its-self-driving-cars
Waymo claim that their remote operators are not actually operating the vehicle per se, no sir, but instead are offering it “guidance” on what to do. If you believe that’s actually the case I have a bridge to sell you. I imagine this is rather to avoid the obvious legal question in that how in the hell is somebody located in the Philippines who has a zero percent chance of holding a valid US driver’s license allowed to steer a car that’s here?
I have no more insight into how Waymo manages these overrides than anyone else, but I don’t find it unbelievable that a remote operator with access to an interface to the autopilot and an ability to see the data it is presented with could direct it to ignore an incorrectly identified obstacle and continue.
It seems to me that it would be a hell of a lot safer and easier to correct the mistaken decision of the autopilot and let it continue than to rely on a connection from halfway around the world for real time vehicle control.
However, like I said, I have no insight into how it works.