Feb 18, 2021 14:00:00

Waymo begins testing self-driving cars in San Francisco

Waymo , a brother company of Google, aims to realize a fully autonomous driving system, and in October 2020, it launched the service of the fully unmanned taxi ' Waymo One ' in Phoenix, Arizona. Waymo has expanded the test drive range of self-driving cars and announced that it has started test drive in San Francisco.

Waypoint --The official Waymo blog: Expanding our testing in San Francisco
https://blog.waymo.com/2021/02/expanding-our-testing-in-san-francisco.html

Waymo conducted a 628,839-mile (about 1.01 million km) test run in California in 2020. Of these, human operation was required once every 30,000 miles (48,000 km), revealing the high degree of perfection of the autonomous driving system developed by Waymo.

The development status of autonomous vehicles developed by Apple, Waymo, and Cruise has been revealed, and what is the degree of perfection of the autonomous driving technologies of the three companies? --GIGAZINE

Waymo has announced that it will start a test run in San Francisco to develop an autonomous driving system that can handle complex roads. Before starting the test drive, Waymo conducted a survey asking about 1000 residents 'problems with driving in San Francisco' to clarify road problems in San Francisco. As a result, 74% of people feel that it is difficult to find a parking lot, 63% feel that they are in trouble with a driver who drives dangerously, and those who feel that commuting is stressful. It turned out to be 57%. In addition, 23% of respondents said they did not feel safe on the road.

In addition, according to Waymo, there are various road conditions in San Francisco such as 'smooth hills', 'seaside roads', 'small side roads', 'highways', 'car lanes', and 'tram tracks'. thing. In addition, San Francisco roads are crowded with 'pedestrians,' 'bicycles,' 'scooters,' 'emergency vehicles,' 'cable cars,' 'trolleys,' and 'trams.' 'Developing autonomous driving technology that can safely drive on such complex roads is a major challenge for Waymo,' said Waymo, stating the difficulty of autonomous driving in San Francisco.

To safely drive through the complex roads of San Francisco, Waymo has optimized the

LIDAR sensor that self-driving cars use to track their surroundings. As a result, it has become possible to respond appropriately to situations where pedestrians suddenly appear from behind vehicles in the oncoming lane.

In addition, the software has been improved. As a result, the recognition accuracy of objects has improved, and it has become possible to personally recognize complex objects such as 'people who carry Christmas trees.' Also, if you recognize that another vehicle has stopped in front of the pedestrian crossing, you can predict that there is a person in a position that is not visible from the camera, or if there is a sign under construction on the road, it is appropriate. It is now possible to drive according to the situation, such as switching lanes.

'We are working to further improve our autonomous driving technology to provide the full benefits to many,' says Waymo. At the time of writing the article, it is said that the test run in San Francisco is being carried out by Waymo employees.