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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSelf-Driving Cars Hit a Roadblock in the Snow
http://fortune.com/2016/02/10/self-driving-cars-snow/by Michal Addady February 10, 2016, 2:42 PM EDT
Just as it can for a human, an overabundance of white flurries can inhibit a driverless cars visibility. Autonomous cars use various types of sensors to read roads including radar, cameras, and lidar, which uses light to calculate surroundings. As Fortune previously reported, snow can cover up radar sensors and cameras, and render lidar technology useless.
Ryan Eustice, associate engineering professor at the University of Michigan whos working with Ford on snow testing, told Bloomberg that despite hype about autonomous cars being nearly solved, one that can do nationwide, all-weather driving, under all conditions, thats still a Holy Grail. A car that cant drive in the snow would be an unlikely purchase for 70% of the U.S. population, so car makers are now considering solutions to this roadblock.
To prevent radar sensors from being caked with ice and snow, Volvo moved them behind the windshield so wipers can help increase visibility. Autonomous cars also use radar and cameras to detect lane lines so they know where to drive. In snow, those lines tend to be covered. Fords solution is to scan roads and create 3D maps so the car knows where the lines are in advance.
However, when human drivers cant see the lines they generally create their own paths. Eustice says teaching driverless cars how to follow those patterns is really hard. Theyll have to undergo experience-based learning using artificial intelligence. But even if these issues are resolved, senior director of automotive at Nvidia Danny Shapiro says, I dont think that we should expect that in a blinding snowstorm the autonomous vehicle will be fine.
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Self-Driving Cars Hit a Roadblock in the Snow (Original Post)
FrodosPet
Apr 2016
OP
2naSalit
(86,646 posts)1. Back to the drawing board...
I guess this means that autonomous cars are only fair-weather conveniences. Those things wouldn't last two weeks up here where we usually have snow for close to six months a year. And what about extreme cold, will it kill the batteries like in normal cars? How would we jump start them? And icy roads and snow packed roads and...
unc70
(6,115 posts)2. Humans also have big trouble with blinding snowstorms
In bad snow and ice, human drivers do really poorly. Doing much better than that is a lofty goal, but will take enormous effort to realize.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)3. One word...
Atlanta.
GummyBearz
(2,931 posts)4. I'll add 2 more
San Diego