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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday March 28 2018, @12:15AM   Printer-friendly
from the pronounced-jag-u-ar dept.

Waymo and Jaguar will build up to 20,000 self-driving electric SUVs

Waymo and Jaguar Land Rover have inked a deal that will add tens of thousands of all-electric I-Pace SUVs to the Alphabet unit's growing lineup of self-driving taxis. The I-Pace, which made its global debut earlier this month, is not as much of a people-mover as Waymo's Chrysler Pacifica minivans, but it will serve as a more high-end ride for those willing to pay a premium for their driverless transportation.

The first prototype I-Pace with Waymo's self-driving technology will hit the road for public testing at the end of 2018, and officially become part of Waymo's commercial ride-hailing service starting in 2020. Waymo and Jaguar Land Rover's engineers will work in tandem to build these cars to be self-driving from the start, rather than retrofitting them after they come off the assembly line. Long-term, the companies say they plan to build up to 20,000 vehicles in the first two years of production, with the goal of serving a potential 1 million trips a day. It's unclear how much money would be trading hands under the deal.

They're coming for Tesla!

Related: Waymo Orders Thousands More Chrysler Pacifica Minivans for Driverless Fleet
Google/Waymo Announces Testing of Self-Driving Trucks in Atlanta, Georgia


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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Wednesday March 28 2018, @01:09AM (4 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday March 28 2018, @01:09AM (#659271) Journal

    Waymo on Uber crash: Our car would have been able to handle it [mercurynews.com]

    John Krafcik, chief executive of Waymo, formerly Google’s autonomous-vehicle project, said Waymo’s cars are intensively programmed to avoid such calamities.

    “I can say with some confidence that in situations like that one with pedestrians — in this case a pedestrian with a bicycle — we have a lot of confidence that our technology would be robust and would be able to handle situations like that,” Krafcik said Saturday during a panel at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention in Las Vegas.

    It's plausible that "bad boy" Uber has made the driverless industry look dangerous when the circumstances surrounding the crash could actually be unique to Uber:

    Uber’s need for self-driving cars before running out of money may endanger the entire industry [qz.com]

    Many companies are pursuing self-driving cars, but only one is on a deadline to make it work before it runs out of cash: Uber.

    The ride-sharing company was the first to deploy self-driving cars on pubic roads (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in late 2016), and is now the first to record a fatal accident.

    [...] True to form, Uber cut corners before the Tempe accident. In its drive to get Uber to customers, it defied local officials, betting (correctly) that it could lobby for regulatory change afterwards. It was the same pattern it followed in Pittsburgh, where its relationship soured as Uber’s demands mounted and benefits to the public didn’t and in California, where the state yanked the company’s vehicle registrations after Uber ignored demands it register its automated vehicles before launching its 16-car pilot in San Francisco.

    [...] As of February, Uber had logged about 50,000 rides with self-driving technology on board. The company has also apparently opted to have only one safety driver in the car, rather than the two people (one engineer to monitor the cars’ sensors and systems) now being used by most other companies.

    Uber remains under pressure to deliver on its technology. In 2016, the company is thought to have burned through $3 billion (despite earning profits from its top cities). Founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick has called self-driving cars “basically existential” for Uber—the technology may reduce fares by 80%.

    Uber’s Self-Driving Cars Were Struggling Before Arizona Crash [nytimes.com]

    Waymo, formerly the self-driving car project of Google, said that in tests on roads in California last year, its cars went an average of nearly 5,600 miles before the driver had to take control from the computer to steer out of trouble. As of March, Uber was struggling to meet its target of 13 miles per “intervention” in Arizona, according to 100 pages of company documents obtained by The New York Times and two people familiar with the company’s operations in the Phoenix area but not permitted to speak publicly about it.

    Yet Uber’s test drivers were being asked to do more — going on solo runs when they had worked in pairs.

    And there also was pressure to live up to a goal to offer a driverless car service by the end of the year and to impress top executives.

    So a company well known for corporate misconduct, disdain for regulation, and illegal activities appears to have rushed its driverless program. Google/Waymo could be in a far better position to deploy safe driverless cars.

    That's not to say that "perfected" driverless cars will cause no crashes or pedestrian deaths. But the Uber death video showed that the LIDAR didn't look like it was even being used whatsoever, and the lone test driver was not paying attention, whereas other companies are reportedly using a driver + engineer.

    --
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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday March 28 2018, @02:27AM (3 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 28 2018, @02:27AM (#659296) Journal

    Google/Waymo could be in a far better position to deploy safe driverless cars.

    Could. Will it?
    Are 2 years enough to answer to this question?

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 1, Troll) by takyon on Wednesday March 28 2018, @02:40AM (1 child)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday March 28 2018, @02:40AM (#659304) Journal

      Look at TFA. Google is laying down the cash. They are going for it. You just have to sit back, relax, and enjoy the deaths show.

      Also, I habitually use "weasel words" like "could" now.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by c0lo on Wednesday March 28 2018, @02:49AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 28 2018, @02:49AM (#659311) Journal

        You just have to sit back, relax, and enjoy the deaths horror show.

        Also, I habitually use "weasel wise words" like "could" now.

        FTFY 👍

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 2) by tonyPick on Wednesday March 28 2018, @06:01AM

      by tonyPick (1237) on Wednesday March 28 2018, @06:01AM (#659367) Homepage Journal

      Are 2 years enough to answer to this question?

      Two years to deploy a general function AI of near-human capability?

      I'm guessing no.