If anyone was going to focus on making sure their self-driving car could drive in snow, it'd be the Russians.<p>Mind you, self-driving when snow has coated all your landmarks is definitely impressive, but the title made me think it'd be driving <i>in snow</i>. Which it isn't. The roads are, what we'd call in Chicago, "clear". The car is not driving in/on snow or ice in this scenario, which is something I do regularly every winter.
I'm sorry - this isn't a "heavy snowfall" in Moscow. It's just barely a dusting. That isn't even an inch of accumulation. Being able to self-drive when there is black pavement to be seen isn't impressive in the least. Show me a self-driving car functioning in white-out conditions (which is what Moscow faces on a regular basis, as does a large portion of the US) and I'll be impressed.<p>This:
<a href="http://bgr.com/2018/02/06/moscow-snow-russia-winter-storm/" rel="nofollow">http://bgr.com/2018/02/06/moscow-snow-russia-winter-storm/</a><p>Is what it looked like ~two weeks ago. Show me your self-driving car in THAT.
I'd love for it to be true, but it's tough to believe that's real. There's one point where a pedestrian is standing in the snow on the road just to the side of where the car would pass:
<a href="https://youtu.be/Bx08yRsR9ow?t=35s" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/Bx08yRsR9ow?t=35s</a><p>Wouldn't any pedestrian detection decide the person in the road has priority and stop and let them cross? It isn't capable of reading a person's intention to stand there vs. cross or not.<p>The title claims it supports interactions with pedestrians, and the video does seem to show it pausing in the middle of a turn once for a pedestrian in the road, but that could be easily faked by having the driver still using manual breaks.
So this video features a self-driving car developed by Yandex. Does someone have insight into why so many big tech companies seem to all be in agreement that developing self-driving cars is an area they need to be pursuing? Is it mostly everyone looking at what Google is doing and replicating that? Or is it the getting swept up by the Uber hype? Or is working on self-driving car software just such a natural extension to what these tech companies have been doing all along in their main areas of expertise anyway?<p>(I feel like this question must have been brought up a number of times already, since these projects have been going on for a while by now.)
technically correct title (the best kind!) - but clickbaity because everyone wants to see a serious test of self-driving on snow-covered, icy roads, ideally with actually blinding, falling snow - at night. This is, if anything, even easier than a non-snowy drive because of the high contrast between the completely clear road and the snow-dusted sidewalks.<p>The dream that the developers, the media, and many of us share is to change the world by making driving a thing people do not do. Matching a human driver in the most treacherous conditions is a major, and unmet milestone. This is a misleading post.
I live in the neighborhood; these streets are all around Yandex headquarters. It's one of the best districts in the whole city, streets rigorously cleaned, very light traffic and surprisingly cultured drivers. Even after recent record-breaking snowfalls, these streets were very clear short after.<p>Would love to see them trying to drive anywhere else in the city though.
Wonder what's that thing at 1:40 ;) "at turn, wipers suddenly full tilt for no apparent reason, person gives input to the right paddle" - yes, I know that control normally sends CAN messages for wiper operation in all modern cars, and that it wouldn't make sense to release a video with overt manipulation of the system; I have been conditioned to look for side channels though, and this is technically a human giving a driving-related input.<p>But seriously, what does the car need the wipers for? All the sensors are outside anyway, no?
The hardest human equivalent in New England in my youth, was a 4 way stop at the peak of a steep hill. Would have loved to seen this scenario with the self driving car.
Would love to see how it performs before the plows reveal the pavement.<p>This isn’t as impressive as I was led to believe. Those roads are completely exposed!
Why do people think that driving on snow/ice is going to be a challenge?
Compared to recognizing the cars, lights, pedestrians, and their intention, that's pretty straightforward.
I want to see AI trained to drive like people in Russia: <a href="https://i.imgur.com/wDhO25d.gif" rel="nofollow">https://i.imgur.com/wDhO25d.gif</a>