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Toyota, Carmera will create HD maps for self-driving cars using autobrake cameras
High-definition mapping is but one part of the very large equation being worked through as the auto industry prepares for autonomy. But creating those kinds of maps for every road in the world, as one might expect, takes a lot of work. Thankfully, Toyota and Carmera think they have a solution.
Toyota Research Institute and Carmera, a company focused on HD mapping, announced on Thursday that the two are developing a proof of concept of TRI's Automated Mapping Platform, which takes data from participating cars and turns that into HD maps that could be used to help autonomous vehicles navigate.
[...] The program will start in downtown Tokyo. TRI notes in its press release that HD mapping has covered less than 1 percent of worldwide roads to date, most of which are highways. Urban and local roads are likely to see large shares of AVs in the future, so both companies believe this can speed up the whole mapping process. Of course, even if the proof of concept proves viable, it would take a lot of effort to get automakers on board with the idea -- after all, even if the data is anonymized, drivers and OEMs alike may not enjoy the idea of a camera beaming what's in front of your car to some random server farm across the globe.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday March 04 2019, @11:06AM (10 children)
Yet Another Tracking Device.
This tracking device has more utility than most, I suppose. If, that is, we all agree that high definition mapping is utilitarian. Of course, it will ultimately encourage people to be looking at the screen of a GPS enabled device, instead of at the road. That, or surrender control of the vehicle to an AI.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 04 2019, @11:22AM
not just tracking, more pulsed microwaves, yeah!
here's solid people talking and showing what's happening at that intersection
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYoOcaqCzxo [youtube.com] .. outside
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBsUWbUB6PE [youtube.com] .. inside
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 04 2019, @01:09PM (8 children)
What are you doing, going to your drug dealer's house? SUBMIT!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday March 04 2019, @01:39PM (7 children)
Nahhh - I'm just an asshole.
This year, at work, we've switched from a long-time health insurance provider to a different one. They mailed letters Jan 30 or Feb 1 that everyone had to provide proof that they were legally married to the beneficiaries named on documents. I didn't provide the proof they wanted. Instead, I contacted the Arkansas Insurance Commission, and told them "It is none of my insurance company's business whether I'm married or not. I pay for the service, they provide the service paid for - end of story." There is an investigation ongoing. All because I'm an asshole. I need no further justification to fuck with nosy sons of bitches.
In practical terms, put yourself in any of the following situations.
1. You're in a common-law marriage.
2. You were married in a foreign nation, suitable documents unavailable.
3. You're in a gay marriage, and the employer, insurer, or the state doesn't recognize gay marriage.
4. You're unmarried, and your dependent/beneficiary is a sibling.
5. You're unmarried, but you keep some crack whore around the house because you're lonely.
6. You're married to Rosie Palmer, but the county clerk won't give you a license to marry.
7. You just enjoy being an asshole.
And, none of those situations affects the premiums that insurance company demands from you. None of them should affect the services they provide.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 04 2019, @04:17PM (4 children)
Married people die sooner and incur higher costs for psychiatric medication and services.
What the insurer is doing is not much different from offering a premium discount for not smoking. It might potentially fall outside the letter of the law in your state, but it's hardly nosy.
(Score: 3, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Monday March 04 2019, @04:44PM (3 children)
You say that like there is nothing wrong with it. Legal or not, it is NOT the province of the insurance company to punish or to reward people for being profitable to the insurance company. They are indeed nosy bastards. And, they probably lead all the other corporations in the scope of their data collection. Just who are all these "partners" that the various data collectors share their data with? Google, for instance, probably owns at least some stock in one or more insurance companies, making them a "partner". If no stock, then some kind of business arrangement in which they just sell the data to the insurance companies.
It would be great if someone did a study, showing just how much influence insurance companies have exercised in the past ~100 years, passing laws, financial coercion, and other wise forcing US citizens to conduct themselves "profitably" for the insurance companies. We could start on the fact that insurance companies purchased and donated radar guns to pretty much every police force in the country. Some village in backwater nowhere employs one single constable, and they can't afford a radar gun - insurance companies donate it to that constable. Some other larger town has six patrol cars, and only two radar guns, insurance companies donate two or more.
It's not a question of whether speeding is right or wrong. This has nothing to do with what the speed zones may be, or whether they might be wrong. The issue is, insurance companies use their influence to force citizens to conduct themselves "properly" where "proper" means "profitably".
Ditto with seatbelts, carseats, a lot of zoning laws, on and on it goes.
The land of the free? Ultimately, the insurance companies exercise more power over you, than any subset of laws that you might care to discuss. The rules you follow at work? Most of them enforced scrupulously because your employer fears being penalized by an insurance company.
Have I ever mentioned that I hate insurance companies?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 04 2019, @08:40PM (2 children)
In this case "profitable conduct" means "in a manner less likely to incur death or bodily harm."
Fewer people dieing in car crashes is a good thing. Insurance companies are a clumsy, imperfect, but ultimately well-intentioned means of working towards this goal.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday March 04 2019, @08:48PM
Ben Franklin said something about those who would surrender liberties in exchange for safety - they deserve neither liberty nor safety.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 05 2019, @08:34AM
Well intentioned? !? Have you ever interacted with one?!?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 04 2019, @09:20PM
I did not enjoy finding documentation for all 11 of my kids. It's a pain in the ass. I have to fax birth certificates, which is supposedly a bad thing. My state prints that annoying EURion constellation on the birth certificate, which most modern scanners and fax machines will refuse to process. I had to track down an old black-and-white scanner.
At least UnitedHealthCare and probably most others would handle most of your complaints though:
1. for common-law, provide a huge pile of evidence
2. the same goes for a foreign nation (immigration documents, or just go the common-law route)
3. Due to a nonsensical supreme court decision (ignoring our common law) the company must allow homo stuff.
4. siblings are usually not part of the deal with employer-provided insurance
5. crack whores are usually not part of the deal with employer-provided insurance
6. don't know about Rosie Palmer
7. Good news! Health insurance will take care of an asshole, excluding cosmetic procedures.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 05 2019, @05:51AM
What law compels me to provide my marriage status?
Around here they love to require you to tell them how much you earn. Yes. That's right. Insurance companies ask because the government rebate is based on income.
How stupid. Telling a private company out to fleece the public for every cent how much you earn.
I tell them "I don't know. I haven't received my end of year statement"
They then ask about last year.
"Last year? That's gone. I don't exactly know what I will get this year"