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Interesting problem. How do Google's self-driving cars react to road problems such as bridge-collapses and sinkholes? Scanning for objects and avoiding objects
by devrelm 13y ago
Interesting problem. How do Google's self-driving cars react to road problems such as bridge-collapses and sinkholes? Scanning for objects and avoiding objects which extend above the road level is obvious, but what about when the road cuts off? These things rarely happen, but it would be terrifying to be in a self-driving car in that moment when the bridge ahead of you collapses and the car continues to drive as if there is nothing wrong.
I actually had a similar thought yesterday when thinking about how the cars would handle object-avoidance. Say a deer hops out in front of the car. The car is constantly aware of its environment for 100+ feet in all directions, so it could tell if there are no cars in a neighboring lane and swerve to miss the deer. But what if there _are_ cars in neighboring lanes and the only available direction is to go onto the shoulder or into the ditch? If the ditch is fairly level with the road, then this could be the safest option. But if the ditch is steep, then it would be more dangerous than simply hitting the brakes and hoping you don't hit the deer too hard.
- maxerickson 13y agoI would think that road integrity would be on the long list of things covered in any licensing process (you and I can think of it in a few moments, ergo). I would also guess it is important for the system to be able to estimate an appropriate speed even when external data is not available. For the deer, I would expect the programmed response to be to brake as much as possible given traffic. Hitting a deer is unlikely to result in anything but damage to the vehicle. Swerving is less predictable than that.
- xur17 13y agoI'm curious if it monitors cars behind it to prevent rear end collisions (brake slower if the car is about to hit it).
- maxerickson 13y agoI have no idea but would expect it to be a feature by the time it becomes a product.
- devrelm 13y agoIf I were designing it it would. That is a common technique that I use in heavy traffic (that scares the crap out of my wife.)