Regarding autonomous vehicles, quality is more important than quantity.
Google (microblogging) has been developing autonomous vehicles since 2009, and the company likes to use a total of 2 million miles (about 3.22 million kilometers) of its self-driving cars. Last week, Google split the auto-driving car division into an independent company, Waymo. The Waymo website shows that autonomous vehicles currently "have mastered more than 300 years of driving experience in humans, and most of them are urban street experiences."
The mileage of Google’s self-driving cars makes sense. Google's cars have powerful perceptions that recognize obstacles such as bicycles.
However, Google is facing fierce competition from rivals such as Uber and Tesla. Google has not tested autonomous vehicles in cold climates and snow. If you want to drive from the East Coast of the United States to the Midwest, driving skills in the snow environment are essential.
For autonomous vehicles, the snow environment presents a major challenge. Snow will reduce the accuracy of sensors such as cameras and lidars, making it impossible for autonomous vehicles to accurately identify the surrounding environment. For example, in the snow, cameras and lidars do not recognize lanes, which makes it difficult for cars to prevent lane drift and drive safely. Snowy days also make it difficult for sensors to detect unexpected obstacles.
John Dolan, chief systems scientist at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute, once said: "Heavy snow and heavy rain can interfere with lidars and cameras. So you will have some problems."
Automakers and startups investing in autonomous driving technologies are facing the challenges of snow and focus on how to address them.
In January, Ford was the first to successfully test autonomous vehicles in a snowy environment. Jim McBridge, head of Ford's autonomous driving technology, said: "Automatic driving in perfect weather is one thing. When the sensor can't see the road due to heavy snow, autopilot is another. thing."
“The weather is not perfect, so we are testing autonomous vehicles in the winter environment. About 70% of the population in the United States lives in areas where snowfall is possible.â€
Ford's testing of snow still has a long way to go. This test has not yet entered the public road, but only in the MCity test site in Ann Arbor, Michigan. But considering that Ford has a park that is often snowy in Michigan, it has an advantage over testing in California and Nevada.
GM announced last week that it will begin testing autonomous vehicles in Michigan, and Michigan will be the main test site in cold weather. In early December this year, Michigan became the first state in the United States to pass the autonomous car testing, use and sales regulations, which facilitated GM testing.
General Motors CEO Mary Barra said that testing autonomous vehicles is very important under a variety of conditions. It doesn't make much sense to simply accumulate kilometers. She said: "Many companies say that we have traveled so many miles. But compared to the experience of the car, the number of kilometers does not mean much."
Even Uber said the company plans to test autopilot technology in extreme weather in Pittsburgh. Uber launched its first self-driving car pilot project in Pittsburgh in September.
However, Google has not yet released autonomous car testing in cold weather and snow underground.
Currently, Google self-driving cars are being tested in Mountain View, Calif., Phoenix, Arizona, Austin, Texas, and Kirkland, Washington.
Google believes that these test locations give autonomous driving cars a unique driving experience. For example, Google said in its monthly report in August that tests in Arizona made cars accustomed to dusty environments and extreme heat. Tests in Washington State let the car know about the rainy environment.
However, Google has not yet chosen a test location for snow and extreme low temperatures. Waymo CEO John Krafcik said in July that "testing in heavy snow" has not yet begun. Google has not commented on this article.
All of this shows that although Google started the autonomous car project as early as 2009, there are still many tests that have not yet been completed. Only through these tests can Google's self-driving cars drive on most parts of the United States.
This does not mean that the future of Ford, General Motors and Uber will be smooth. These companies started the auto-driving car project late. (Uber was founded in the same time as Google's self-driving car division.)
By splitting the self-driving car business into a separate company, Waymo, Google will fully develop autonomous vehicles. However, Google has not yet announced a timetable for pushing autopilot technology to users. At the same time, Google is best prepared for the snow environment.
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