> Singapore makes a particularly good testing ground for automated vehicles. Its manageable size (it’s about three-and-a-half Districts of Columbia), flat terrain, warm weather, and well-kept roads provide about as simple of an urban landscape as one could ask for. And its government is supportive of such technology, having formed an Autonomous Vehicle Initiative to oversee research in 2014.
I'd argue we already have too much testing under "ideal conditions." I want to see self-driving vehicles tested in snow, in rain, in strong winds, in fog, and on mountain roads.
Don't get me wrong, you absolutely want to start developing it under best conditions, but if they legitimately want to get this live by 2020 then we need to expand the scope to less idealised situations.
Singapore certainly gets rain, of the solid-cube-of-water, when-you-hear-it-a-block-away-don't-keep-walking-to-your-destination-just-find-immediate-shelter, oh-so-that's-why-all-the-drainage-canals-are-so-deep variety.
It makes perfect sense to walk before running. I don't really see a "mountain road" use case for this tech anyway.
>I'd argue we already have too much testing under "ideal conditions." I want to see self-driving vehicles tested in snow, in rain, in strong winds, in fog, and on mountain roads.
Unfortunately, the vehicles don't yet work perfectly under "ideal conditions". I think this ought to be the first step. There's no need to have a "blanket" rollout of autonomous vehicles - start in ideal cities and then spread further.
Granted, I DO think that they'll find driving in snow/rain/winds to be fundamentally different enough from ideal urban driving that the exact methods the vehicle AI has "learned" may not directly apply. So, it may merit testing in parallel, because as you've said we need to stop ignoring these cases.
I guess my point is a long-winded way of saying "Yes we need to test those cases, but in addition to ideal urban conditions, not instead of."
Singapore is a city, and therefore already quite challenging. I've never been there, but I suspect there will be streets with playing children, scooters, etc.
Compared with most cities, there really aren't many playing children or other people in the road (you'd set autonomous vehicles to avoid Little India :-) ), the roads are impeccably maintained and there's virtually no traffic.
Living in Singapore, I disagree with you. Of course there are not many children playing on the main roads, but drive into a residential estate and things will be very different.
When I drive, I wish that your last statement was true. However, you're welcome to look at the traffic view of Google Maps and you can see that's wishful thinking. It's not as bad as places like Bangkok or Manila, but about as bad as your average European city.
I'm a European who's lived in Singapore. The traffic really doesn't compare with your average European city: there are a lot more cars per capita and no "off peak" plates here, and generally inferior capacity road networks and worse public transport alternatives too.
Pretty sure Google Maps' traffic maps are scaled based on averages for the road/area and not some absolute scale for easy comparison too (though this being HN there'll probably be someone that worked on it along to correct me in a moment)
Well, (human) drivers in Singapore are pretty bad (based on a few taxi rides), so there is that. Apparently lane markers are something your are supposed to drive on top of...
The Singapore driving style doesn't make sense if you're used to driving on western roads in western traffic. It makes perfect sense if you think of the lanes as aisles in a packed supermarket, and each car as a trolley. Cars don't so much 'navigate' as 'flock'.
Seems like we're far from going "all the way" on autonomous vehicles by tomorrow or next year, but to me the progress on this tech is pretty hard to predict 4 years into the future.
This is why I feel that Telsa's telemetry expertise will be the key to their success.
It's been covered a few times that they're constantly running AP algorithms in parallel with the driver when AP is not enabled and filtering the results back home. You're going to get a ton more real world scenarios that way, unknown unknowns and all that.
I'd argue we already have too much testing under "ideal conditions." I want to see self-driving vehicles tested in snow, in rain, in strong winds, in fog, and on mountain roads.
Don't get me wrong, you absolutely want to start developing it under best conditions, but if they legitimately want to get this live by 2020 then we need to expand the scope to less idealised situations.