Is much known about the science behind Waymo? I am impressed that the cars can operate autonomously in real life when I see them around me. At the same time, they have an enormous number of sensors like multiple spinning LIDARs (?). I also read that they have to map everything ahead of time to be able to operate in an area. That seems a bit like cheating to me. It may work and may even be valuable to customers, but it doesn’t seem like as big a breakthrough as achieving autonomy with the same sensors as humans.
> it doesn’t seem like as big a breakthrough as achieving autonomy with the same sensors as humans.
As far as I know, nobody is currently attempting to do that. Even Tesla has way more cameras on their cars than you have eyeballs, covering far more angles than your head can. There is that one org that does L2 automation with just a phone IIRC, but I don't think they're trying for full autonomy.
Realistically, it's hard for the car to be as smart as the human mental model while driving, and so having vastly superior sensors helps compensate for that.
But...they are a company, their goal isn't to make breakthroughs. Their goal is (eventually?) to make a profit. They'll simply use the technology and breakthroughs that allow them to get there faster. That's not cheating.. that's business
Nobody knows the details, e.g. how many humans are monitoring per car. It came out at one point that Cruise was using >1 human per car. What is Waymo doing? We dunno, we just keep seeing these absurd puff pieces.
