Autonomous Vehicles

I wonder how far Volvo have got? This article (from the Telegraph, but same story reported in other media), from a year or so back ....

“Kangaroos are very unpredictable animals and difficult to avoid, but we are confident we can refine our technology to detect them and avoid collisions on the highway," Martin Magnusson, Volvo's safety manager said when the work first started.

“In Sweden we have done research involving larger, slower moving animals like moose, reindeer and cows which are a serious threat on our roads.

"Kangaroos are smaller than these animals and their behaviour is more erratic. This is why it’s important that we test and calibrate our technology on real kangaroos in their natural environment.”

But despite the company's best efforts, Volvo's large animal detection system has yet to crack the problem.

David Pickett, Volvo's technical manager told the Australian broadcaster, ABC, that tracking a jumping kangaroo is difficult for detection systems to monitor.

“When it’s in the air, it actually looks like it’s further away, then it lands and it looks closer."

Nevertheless, Volvo remains confident that it will have solved the conundrum by the time its self-driving cars are available in 2020.

The problem is that they have to identify the stationary object eating the green pick on the shoulder as a roo that is likely to suddenly accelerate across the road in front of the car. The ones that are already moving are less of an issue, although they move so fast that you need to spot them off in the scrub a long way off to the side in many cases.

The autonomous system might need thermal imaging, and programming that identifies that where there is one kangaroo there is likely to be more.

Cars were a massive advance in freedom but if people buy cars without a steering wheel its the beginning of the end of a chunk of that freedom.

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Originally Posted by JDNSW

The problem is that they have to identify the stationary object eating the green pick on the shoulder as a roo that is likely to suddenly accelerate across the road in front of the car. The ones that are already moving are less of an issue, although they move so fast that you need to spot them off in the scrub a long way off to the side in many cases.

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Apparently 8 out of every 10 animal related insurance claims involve kangaroos. I believe that the biggest elephant in the room with regards to autonomous vehicles, is the insurance industry. I wonder how their adjusters will work out your premiums for urban, freeway, suburban and rural driving? Perhaps a series of zones will apply - differing premiums for each zone, all automatically charged to your credit cards as the gps detects your "border crossing" into a new zone. [bighmmm]

So researchers figure easy ways to trick sign recognition using stickers or cheap electronic kits.

How is long before little vandals who toss stones at passing cars go a little more sophisticated?

Presumably professional good guys and bad guys will also get savvy about how to confuse autonomous vehicles by fair means or foul.

Researchers show how to confuse self-driving cars by adding stickers to street signs - TechSpot

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Originally Posted by tact

So researchers figure easy ways to trick sign recognition using stickers or cheap electronic kits.

How is long before little vandals who toss stones at passing cars go a little more sophisticated?

Presumably professional good guys and bad guys will also get savvy about how to confuse autonomous vehicles by fair means or foul.

Researchers show how to confuse self-driving cars by adding stickers to street signs - TechSpot

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I think it will be like speed cameras. Early on they were easy to avoid with putting stuff over your plates. Now days there is no avoiding them.
I suspect they will perfect this technology to easily detect fake stuff.

[QUOTE=RANDLOVER;2812786]

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Originally Posted by bee utey

Yes but it's always been this way, and most people aren't able to make rational split second decisions either. So long as autonomous cars are better than the inexperienced, the stupid, the angry, the tired, the arrogant, the stoned, the drunk, the ancient, the diabetic, the suddenly deceased drivers etc, then they will be of overall benefit to road safety.[/QUOTE

Regarding the benefit to road safety, I don't think people have thought this through. Say the auto-car is driving along and "sees" 2 clowns, kids, cyclists, (take your pick) in it's lane, decides to take evasive action, but the on coming lane has a school bus in it, so it swerves off the road, hits a tree killing the driver, based on minimum harm programming! I don't think people are going to pay for a car that is designed to kill them, in the interests of minimising road traffic deaths!

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Also get it re-programmed so it thinks it is a 200 passenger bus, to avoid the above scenario.

When I'm too old and decrepit to drive safely myself I'd rather get into an autonomous vehicle with millions of collective kms in the system rather than a taxi/uber driven by some young punk fresh from somewhere unpronounceable. All that autonomous vehicles have to do is to be safer than the current crop of idiots I manage to avoid every day and they'll save lives. And if one decides I'm worthless I'll be dead and no longer able to fret about it. Life's a bitch then you die.

The reason the roads have so many dills and accidents is significantly because the government we entrust with improving road safety is failing in key areas.

Parents shouldnt be teaching kids their bad habits, kids should be forced to get proper professional training. Make the training much more substantial in terms of what it covers, and make sure they know it properly.

Put more effort into making the laws visible and accessible to people. So many people know so few of the laws.

Get police to give people first warnings for breaking laws such as not keeping to the left unless overtaking in 80km/h and above zones, and failing to maintain a minimum of 3 seconds of gap behind other vehicles. Second time, and they get a reasonably priced fine. Third time, and the fine goes up a bit. And so on, until they get the message.

Its so easy to improve road safety, but its not being done. Stupid government officers are instead funding autonomous vehicles, which are currently much, much less safe, and a much more problematic and risky solution. The whole autonomous car thing could get dumped like flying cars.

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Originally Posted by donh54

I wonder how far Volvo have got? This article (from the Telegraph, but same story reported in other media), from a year or so back ....

“Kangaroos are very unpredictable animals and difficult to avoid, but we are confident we can refine our technology to detect them and avoid collisions on the highway," Martin Magnusson, Volvo's safety manager said when the work first started.

“In Sweden we have done research involving larger, slower moving animals like moose, reindeer and cows which are a serious threat on our roads.

"Kangaroos are smaller than these animals and their behaviour is more erratic. This is why it’s important that we test and calibrate our technology on real kangaroos in their natural environment.”

But despite the company's best efforts, Volvo's large animal detection system has yet to crack the problem.

David Pickett, Volvo's technical manager told the Australian broadcaster, ABC, that tracking a jumping kangaroo is difficult for detection systems to monitor.

“When it’s in the air, it actually looks like it’s further away, then it lands and it looks closer."

Nevertheless, Volvo remains confident that it will have solved the conundrum by the time its self-driving cars are available in 2020.

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I don't think Kangaroo behaviour is any more erratic than cyclists,or pedestrians,in fact it is probably more predictable[tonguewink]