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Google Waymo has announced that it will deploy Chrysler Pacifica minivans using its own homegrown sensors onto public roads starting at the end of January:
[Here's] the thing about these minivans. Waymo says that for the first time, its producing all the technology that enables its cars to completely drive themselves in-house. That means for the first time, the Google spin-off is building all its own cameras, sensors, and mapping technology, rather than purchasing parts off the shelf as it had done in the past. This allows the company to exert more control over its self-driving hardware, as well as bring the cost down to ridiculously cheap levels. In a speech in Detroit, Waymo CEO Jeff Krafcik said that by building its own LIDAR sensors, for example, the company was shaving 90 percent off its costs. That means sensors that Google purchased for $75,000 back in 2009 now only cost $7,500 for Waymo to build itself.
Bloomberg reports that Google/Alphabet/Waymo's cars are getting better at driving themselves, with fewer "disengagements":
Vehicles tested in California by Waymo, the autonomous car company owned Google parent Alphabet Inc., had a much lower rate of "disengagements" last year, compared with 2015. Disengagements happen when a human tester needs to take control of a self-driving car, either to avoid an accident or respond to technical problems.
Waymo Chief Executive Officer John Krafcik shared the data during a speech on Sunday at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. California requires companies with permits to test autonomous vehicles to disclose the metric. The figure is one measure of the effectiveness of the nascent technology in the real world. In 2015, Alphabet reported 341 disengagements during 424,331 autonomous miles driven in California. That was 0.8 disengagements per thousand miles. In 2016, the rate improved to 0.2, according to Krafcik.
"As our software and hardware becomes more robust through our testing, we're driving this number down further," he said during a keynote address in Detroit. Krafcik also highlighted advances in Waymo's sensor technology.
Also at Reuters.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Tuesday January 10 2017, @06:35PM
by building its own LIDAR sensors, for example, the company was shaving 90 percent off its costs.
They aren't, not exactly.
The thing with LIDAR or "time of flight sensors" is the tech is collapsing in price faster than vendors know how to handle it.
So something that sold for $5K five years ago is like $15 at adafruit today, at least for similar performance specs.
If the marketplace is dropping in price by 90% every five years (which is probably pessimistic) and it takes some defense/military contractor five years to gestate a lidar component, then if you buy it today from them, you'll pay the price from five years ago, whereas if you build it yourself you'll pay the price from today which is 90% lower.
Most of the money in automotive gear goes to surviving 140F to -60F and water everywhere and road salt and surviving 60 volt alternator dumps and at some point shipping an empty sensor casing that can survive that becomes a significant fraction of the cost and then prices stop dropping.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday January 10 2017, @06:38PM
To be fair, they also need those same protections on the half-dozen computers that are in low-end new cars these days too.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday January 10 2017, @06:53PM
Oh totally agree about the internal machinery its the external sensors that'll get expensive to add. There's really nothing like lidar sensors on modern cars.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ikanreed on Tuesday January 10 2017, @07:13PM
Yeah, you're right. That's a relevant distinction.
(off topic) At first I typed "That's a totally relevant distinction" but that came across as sarcastic. I think I've discovered that intensifying adverbs are inherently sarcastic on the internet.