Waymo: Riding a self driving car
Recently, Waymo presented 3 minutes long 360° video of a self-driving car on the roads of Phoenix, Arizona.
According to Meiling Tan, the marketing director, computer graphics and special effects, will give spectators the opportunity to see the road from autopilots’ point of view. Thus, people will better understand how the driverless car works.
Waymo began developing self-driving cars in 2009 as a Google entity. They were first to test the autopilot system on a public highway. Today, the company has the biggest driverless vehicle fleet in the world. Last year, Waymo’s cars drove more than 5 million miles in total. The last million took only one month to be achieved.
The company pictured the driving process from the backseat of the car: an invisible force is turning the steering wheel directing the vehicle. It’s hard not to succumb to the temptation to grab the wheel. A betting passenger may think that being a mere spectator in the moving car resembles the autoplay function in online slots - all you have to do is to set the destination and relax. The car’s functionality controls are embedded in the backseat.
The video shows the car successfully detecting every obstacle on the road, which it divides into different groups. Moving objects are analyzed by the system to create their possible moving trajectories. All calculations are being made by the internal software. Developed for system’s better understanding, x-view is used to visualize the data gathered by the system. Thus, the spectators are able to see the driving process with autopilot’s eyes.
In future, if people switch to a fully automated mass production vehicle, the number of human-caused road accidents will decrease by 94%. The driver will be able to do other things than just watch the road - he will be able to read the books, watch movies, play in Stakers Casino, and many more.
Several US states have already given the company permission to use their cars on the public roads. Waymo is planning to launch a self-driven taxi service soon and the test taxies will be deployed in a few months. It will be the first step to the full integration of the automated vehicles in our life. Very soon we will be able to play games, chat with our friends and family, and do many other things while the car drives itself.
News.Az
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