On 10/17/19 4:48 PM, Matthew Woehlke wrote:
On 17/10/2019 09.56, Roland Hughes wrote:
This presents the perfect challenge. Once "The Mother Road" it is now
difficult to navigate having many turns, stops and 30 MPH stretches.
Most importantly there are huge sections without cellular/wireless
coverage. Some sections satellite coverage doesn't work. The vehicle
will have to retain all of the knowledge it needs for the trip because
updates will be sparse.
I think you overestimate the difficulty of doing this. My ten year old
car has maps of the entire US in onboard memory. IIRC it fits on a
single DVD. Yes, this is now 10 years out of date, and doesn't include
things like speed limits, but I doubt we're talking about an amount of
data that can't fit on a single SSD. The car knows where it is from a
combination of GPS, inertial guidance, and the assumption that it is on
a road. Combine this with the car *knowing* what it is trying to do and
being able to actually "see" the road and street signs, and you have a
system that should be able to navigate at least as well as a human under
most conditions. This isn't guessing, it's experience... based on
technology that was close to mainstream *ten years ago*.
Not really no.
https://www.foxnews.com/story/couple-stuck-in-oregon-snow-for-3-days-after-gps-leads-them-astray
While I understand your position and experience mine has been
significantly different. Just a few years ago I was heading out to
Clive, IA. I dutifully updated my Garmin. Before leaving my yard I tried
to set the destination. According to Garmin, Clive, IA (a suburb of Des
Moines) did not exist. Could not find it by zipcode or name. Could not
even find the hotel I was staying at. I had to drive to Des Moines and
"wing it." I have a 16Gig SSD in there and Garmin is pretty good about
letting you know when an update won't fit.
When I got to Clive and found the hotel I saw the water tower for Clive
which had to be at least 60 years old. The hotel seemed even older.
Adding insult to injury the following morning when I was about to pull
out of the parking lot Garmin actually showed me the street I was on.
Driving out to Oregon over one Thanksgiving I got to a spot in the
mountains where it seemed only the AM radio got signals. No cell
service. Even the Satellite stuff didn't seem to work. I heard the
Interstate was closed due to the snow and a "mega load" being stuck on a
bridge and unable to climb the next icy rise. I found out the Interstate
was now closed via the big orange gate across it as I came over a rise.
Driving to Chicago the evening before meeting with clients I have
numerous times gotten to enjoy Garmin (my model also receives the FM
signals) trying to route me up a ramp which was subject to nightly
rolling closures as workers stripe/resurface. Few things more enjoyable
than encountering that late at night while having the nav system
continually try to re-route you back to said closed ramp.
BTW, I believe Google Navigation has already solved the "retain the data
you need for the whole trip" problem. Combine this with some form of
version control system so that the vehicle can frequently download
updates for its entire operational area, and I just don't see how
"spotty network coverage" is going to be an issue. (Maybe for someone
who *lives* in an area with no coverage. Well, such people may just not
be able to use autonomous vehicles. I doubt that is going to deter the
folks working on AV's.)
Where this flies apart is the innocent sounding phrase "operational
area." The once a year family road trip to visit some part of America
(or insert country here if your culture has annual road trips) now
defines a new operational area which will require an update right when
all connective services have disappeared.
Yes, situations will come up that it can't handle, at which point it
will have to get the human involved. Until we have something approaching
"real AI", that will be the case.
Yeah . . . GM isn't going to give you a steering wheel.
https://www.wired.com/story/gm-cruise-self-driving-car-launch-2019/
While I applaud them and hope the laws change so anyone with one of
these vehicles without a steering wheel can get falling down drunk in a
bar, pour themselves into the front seat and slur "Home Jeeves" without
getting a DUI, I also live in mortal fear of such a system built by the
lowest cost labor GM can find. The billing rates I hear from the
recruiters reaching out to me about Qt contracts to work on this stuff
in Michigan at the Big 3 locations are _NOT_ bringing in seasoned pros.
Oh. Poke around on the Web. There is a passable video from Microsoft
automotive division (the division without any customers because Ford
fired them over the shit job they did on Sync). It talks about the
volume of sensor readings they are currently getting per second and
stuffing into an on-board SQL server. That is just straight forward
motion without navigation. They haven't even gotten to the life
threatening "fun" of wind gusts. Message off-list and I can tell you
about the "fun" of driving an 18-wheeler through the mountains during
high summer winds having only 20,000 pounds in the box. So far none of
the autonomous systems I've read about (not that I've read about all of
them) are dealing with crosswinds. With a little bitty low slung car you
don't have to worry about it. With an SUV, mini or tall van it's a
serious concern. It was a real issue for the Buick Rendezvous I once owned.
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cstatic-images.com%2Fstock%2F900x600%2F240103.jpg&f=1&nofb=1
All wheel drive was great but a tall, light vehicle like that made it a
real challenge when driving in gusty wind even here in the flat Midwest.
That said, I like your viability test :-).
I couldn't remember the highway number for the one which cuts through
the mountains from Idaho to Oregon. There's supposed to be a little
2-lane the yocals use when the Interstate is closed.
Sorry, Thunderbird wasn't set up for newsgroups. You will have to
forward to gmane.comp.lib.qt.user
--
Roland Hughes, President
Logikal Solutions
(630)-205-1593
http://www.theminimumyouneedtoknow.com
http://www.infiniteexposure.net
http://www.johnsmith-book.com
http://www.logikalblog.com
http://www.interestingauthors.com/blog
_______________________________________________
Interest mailing list
Interest@qt-project.org
https://lists.qt-project.org/listinfo/interest
