Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1
Waymo is the name of the autonomous vehicle program being developed under Alphabet, the parent company of Google.
Waymo announced on Thursday that it is bringing its Chrysler Pacifica minivans to the Detroit area to test how the company's technology performs in the region's harsh winters.
"Our ultimate goal is for our fully self-driving cars to operate safely and smoothly in all kinds of environments," Waymo CEO John Krafcik writes.
Krafcik says that Waymo has been doing cold-weather tests since 2012. But so far Waymo has done most of its testing in sunny places like Mountain View, California; Phoenix, Arizona; and Austin, Texas. where snow is rare. Waymo believes it has largely mastered driving in sunny climates and is preparing to launch a commercial service in the sun-drenched Phoenix area.
[...] "This type of testing will give us the opportunity to assess the way our sensors perform in wet, cold conditions," Krafick writes. "And it will also build on the advanced driving skills we've developed over the last eight years by teaching our cars how to handle things like skidding on icy, unplowed roads."
Source: Waymo starts testing in Michigan to master snow and ice
(Score: 2) by t-3 on Monday October 30 2017, @06:05PM
They've done testing in Phoenix, so they should have some experience with Michigan-style lefts, albeit the watered down Arizona half-lane bs. I would love to see one of these hit black ice on the freeway and start spinning, will it be able to correct, or smash headlong into the median? How will it deal with incredibly aggressive Michigan drivers? If they take it into Detroit, will it remember to stop or slow at every intersection in the neighborhoods, regardless of signs, or will it be t-boned by someone fleeing the scene of a crime?