Google Secretly Tested Autonomous Vehicles On The Road

from the feeling-lucky? dept

Mon, Oct 11th 2010 2:35am — Mike Masnick

"I'm feeling lucky," may take on new meanings on the roads someday, following the news that Google has been out testing autonomous vehicles on the roads for quite some time, racking up 140,000 miles of travel time. The cars all do have someone sitting behind the wheel ready to take over, but so far they haven't been needed for the most part (one car was hit from behind... and a driver has needed to intervene "occasionally"). Just a few months ago, we were talking about a test of a similar autonomous car traveling from Italy to China, but the Google effort actually seems a lot more advanced. Of course, it kind of makes you wonder why this research is happening from a search engine company... rather than a car company. In the meantime, what was that people were just saying about how none of these Silicon Valley companies were tackling "big" problems any more?

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Filed Under: autonomous vehicles, driving
Companies: google

49 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 11 Oct 2010 @ 3:42am

How about the access points?
From Italy to china? Did they get all the WiFi access points along the way?
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Oct 2010 @ 3:46am

It's all about Lovin' Streetview
With their Streetview product, it's really just co-sponsored by McDonalds.
McDonalds is looking to map out all the places they can expand to.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Oct 2010 @ 3:48am

Raising The Bar
I caught the recent episode of IRT "Deadliest Roads" by accident- my DVR recorded by mistake. And I'd like to see Google drive a road in India where the calls to our banks and telecom companies are actually resolved.

Good lord. What madman said it was okay to send several entire industry's calls there?

Anyways, If Google can model the mental acuity necessary to drive The Himalayas, I would be uber impressed.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Oct 2010 @ 3:56am

I love Windows 7 Phone Edition
Tata, a major manufacturer (and involved in other industries) in India makes cars out of plywood for it's citizens. Can you believe that is considered "road worthy"?

Come on, Google! Kick Microsoft's ass in the country their products are from!
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PaulT (profile), 11 Oct 2010 @ 4:00am

Re: Raising The Bar
"And I'd like to see Google drive a road in India where the calls to our banks and telecom companies are actually resolved."

Out of curiosity, where exactly was the road you saw? You do realise that a single road is not representative of an entire country? Unless you think that you can judge traffic in Texas from the state of the roads in Alaska.

"Anyways, If Google can model the mental acuity necessary to drive The Himalayas, I would be uber impressed."

Considering that Bangalore, the city where the majority of the call centres are located, is 1000 miles from the Himalayas, I'll just assume you haven't got a clue what you're talking about.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Oct 2010 @ 4:01am

You have to watch the premier.

http://www.history.com/shows/irt-deadliest-roads/videos/irt-deadliest-roads-freefall-fre eway#irt-deadliest-roads-freefall-freeway
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Griff (profile), 11 Oct 2010 @ 4:09am

Do no evil
Not sure that motto would hold true if they were caught rear ending someone due to a software failure while the test driver was dozing.

In the google view of the future

- would you ask the car to drive you to your friends house but end up at a different person's house because they had a better quality score ?

- would SEO's be paid by the number of driverless cars that arrive at your business address ?

- could you do an image search of someone attractive and get driven straight to a place where he/she or someone algorithmically similar could be found ?

- will robotic cars all run on android ? I always thought modern cars needed more chrome...

- if you drive for a while with the car's security system disabled, will you end up with a trunk full of cookies ?

- does Spam cause your car to keep driving to a penis enlargment clinic when you wanted to go some where else entirely ? Or to Canada when you asked for Walgreens ?

- Will the RIAA be able to impound your car if you drive to a friend's house and listen to his music ?

- If you have no parking where you live, can you store your vehicle in the cloud ?

It's a brave new world.
I'm not looking forward to the Bing equivalent.
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PaulT (profile), 11 Oct 2010 @ 4:09am

Re: I love Windows 7 Phone Edition
"Tata, a major manufacturer (and involved in other industries) in India makes cars out of plywood for it's citizens. Can you believe that is considered "road worthy"? "

Yes, I can considering it's only the roof of the car that's made like that - unless you have citations that prove otherwise.
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PaulT (profile), 11 Oct 2010 @ 4:14am

Re:
Yeah, as I thought, the roads appear to be in the Himalayas, about the same distance from Bangalore as going from Portland to San Diego.

What exactly does that have to do with anything you're blathering on about?
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Oct 2010 @ 4:20am

Piling on.
"Anyways, If Google can model the mental acuity necessary to drive The Himalayas, I would be uber impressed."

Someone will be shocked to learn how little mental accuity is actually involved in driving.

"Tata, a major manufacturer (and involved in other industries) in India makes cars out of plywood for it's citizens. Can you believe that is considered "road worthy"? "

You got cars made of plastic fiber, with dangerous glass right in front of your eyes and plywood is your concern?

Some airplanes wings are made of silk, what some people should be concerned how the material actually perform.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Oct 2010 @ 4:20am

"Yes, I can considering it's only the roof of the car that's made like that - unless you have citations that prove otherwise."

PaulT, See 3:25 into the video link provided.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Oct 2010 @ 4:36am

Since I saw Stanford in there I believe this is an offshoot project that came about after the DARPA competition it is nice and one of the trully innovative things that came out from it, but other are not far behind in fact I do believe if they cooperated they could speed up things, the Japanese and the Europeans have also projects in this area.
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PaulT (profile), 11 Oct 2010 @ 4:39am

Re:
At work so can't watch it but nothing I can find searching online suggests the entire car is made of wood, and the materials used for the roof isn't really relevant as to its road worthiness.
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abc gum, 11 Oct 2010 @ 4:41am

Autonomous Vehicle Submarine Patent
Blow main balast.
Prepare to surface.
Lookouts to their posts.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Oct 2010 @ 4:43am

>>At work so can't watch it but nothing I can find searching online suggests the entire car is made of wood, and the materials used for the roof isn't really relevant as to its road worthiness.

Must be rough working for Microsoft where they block flash and your only option is silverlight. While I have you, how's that Adobe merger coming along?
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btstechware (profile), 11 Oct 2010 @ 4:43am

Auto Autos
I love it Google. Kepp us the good work. does anyone really think they could go around the world taking pictures and not try something cool like this.

The closer reality gets to scifi (at least the scifi of my early days) the Happier I get!
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Mike, 11 Oct 2010 @ 4:46am

so let me get this right
The summary is making a big deal of secretly testing self-driven cars that have drivers behind the wheel in case some kind of intervention is needed? So where's the news?
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Oct 2010 @ 4:56am

Re: so let me get this right
>> The summary is making a big deal of secretly testing
>> self-driven cars that have drivers behind the wheel in
>> case some kind of intervention is needed? So where's
>> the news?

There is no news, except that Walker keeps on Walkin...

Here's a story of the man who walked the world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnSIp76CvUI

And here's the behind-the-scenes look of what it took:
http://www.shots.net/article_detail.asp?atype=1&id=9071

So are you walking, driving, or finding a way to get a computer to do it for you?
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Oct 2010 @ 5:02am

Re: Plywood
I just looked at the video in the link.

They do state they are made of wood and show an animation of this.
Not only that if you look at the driver views after this while they are in the truck cabs, you can see the support pillars are made of wood.
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PaulT (profile), 11 Oct 2010 @ 5:04am

Re:
Hilarious. Actually, I just don't have speakers for my PC so trying to watch a video is pretty pointless.

Either way, you seem to be putting a lot of stock in a claim made in a TV show, and painting an a entire country based on a few roads (in one of the most inhospitable regions of said country) and a single car manufacturer. I'm just curious as to where the information comes from, since I can't find it online anywhere else.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Oct 2010 @ 5:17am

Are you all blind?

This is just another step in Googles plot. Soon we will be overrun by Googles robot army. AND THEY CAN DRIVE CARS! WE ARE DOOMED!
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Oct 2010 @ 5:19am

Anybody with any brains knows that the Auto Car is a real winner. No more idiot kids behind the wheel texting. No more bitches in their beamers talking on the phone. Just think, you might even have time to actually read that Kindle. The fact that you question their motives makes you a little stupid. What is Google? A start-up by entrepreneurs.
Who are the founders? They are Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs try new things. Duh!!
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JohnForDummies (profile), 11 Oct 2010 @ 5:21am

Tie in with GoogleMaps
It's a natural tie-in with Google Maps. In the future, when you search for a location on Google, they'll send an autonomous car to you and drive you to your location for free. You'll just be submitted to a bunch of text ads on a screen in the back seat.
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Rekrul, 11 Oct 2010 @ 5:23am

Re: Re:
Hilarious. Actually, I just don't have speakers for my PC so trying to watch a video is pretty pointless.

You can get a pair of earphones at your local dollar store for $1.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Oct 2010 @ 5:25am

Re: Tie in with GoogleMaps
They better update the maps more often, or else the car might end up on a tree or under the ocean.
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out_of_the_blue, 11 Oct 2010 @ 5:32am

No, the "big" problem is...
what happens when GPS is jammed. These cars are not doing much resembling Artififical Intelligence, just minor details at most. It's not very difficult to navigate using beacons and GPS -- airplances have been flying themselves for decades -- all that's changed now is GPS coverage and finer control.

You will *not* anytime soon be reading your Kindle while riding to work with an Autochauffeur. A simple GPS jammer would create spectacular crashes.
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Killer_Tofu (profile), 11 Oct 2010 @ 6:29am

Follow that GPS
Next we will see lawsuits from the same kinds of people who follow their GPS off a cliff. Instead now they will just watch their car drive them off a cliff. Then sue Google since Google should have known better.

"I shouldn't have to correct the car from making mistakes. Its technology and automagical!"
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bdhoro, 11 Oct 2010 @ 6:32am

Google for good
Yes it is amazing that Google is the company who hired winning engineers from the DARPA autonomous driving competitions to actually make a move on this idea. I would actually rather have Google work on this and sell it to the car companies that have those failing businesses work on it.

Anyway the real problem with this technology is liability when something does happen. I'm sure the roads would be a hell of a lot safer though, with cars actually following the rules, not speeding and driving safely.

By the way, if you read a more in depth article about the technology, you would find that it actually does not rely on GPS tracking, but uses detailed maps first created by human drivers collecting all types of information on the roads including all paint on the roads, signs, etc. and using cameras, radar sensors and laser range finders to navigate.

There are so many amazing possibilities for this tech... I can't wait to order a pizza and unmanned car just shows up at my house in 10 minutes.
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Sean T Henry (profile), 11 Oct 2010 @ 6:35am

Re: Re: I love Windows 7 Phone Edition
Also did you know that some of the Corvettes have a wood floor for weight savings.
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Benny6Toes (profile), 11 Oct 2010 @ 7:09am

Re: Do no evil
you post is chock-full of WIN.

as a side note: Bing would eliminate half the relevant destinations in an effort to give you a more precise arrival point. Google's system would likely take you to the middle of the destination street; ignoring the address and actual location altogether...
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Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 11 Oct 2010 @ 7:28am

Re: Re: Do no evil
Yeah, but the problem with Bing would be if you searched for the Microsoft campus, you'd end up in Chicago. It's a precise location, just not the one you're looking for.
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nasch (profile), 11 Oct 2010 @ 8:19am

Re: Piling on.
You got cars made of plastic fiber, with dangerous glass right in front of your eyes and plywood is your concern?
Actually the glass in front of your eyes is the exact opposite of dangerous glass. It's safety glass.
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nasch (profile), 11 Oct 2010 @ 8:25am

Re: No, the "big" problem is...
Unless maybe the car isn't totally dependent on GPS. In other words, if the engineers designing it aren't complete idiots. Generally (I haven't looked at this project specifically) autonomous robots like this use GPS to figure out where they need to go, and cameras and/or other sensors to figure out how to drive over the surface in front of them.

If the GPS goes out, the car can either look for a safe place to pull over, or just keep going with data it's already cached.
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nasch (profile), 11 Oct 2010 @ 8:26am

Re: Google for good
I can't wait to order a pizza and unmanned car just shows up at my house in 10 minutes.

Ew, I like my pizza baked.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Oct 2010 @ 9:17am

Re: No, the "big" problem is...
I really REALLY hope GPS waypoints is not how they are controlling the cars. If cars want to have a chance of navigating through traffic, unexpected hazards or just streets in general, they need some sort of "brain" that is capable of identifying these hazards and making decisions in regards to them.

Also, given that the precision of a consumer-grade GPS is like 5 or 10 meters, the car could already be climbing a tree before it decides it has to make a left turn.
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Overcast (profile), 11 Oct 2010 @ 9:46am

This would open a whole new world for hackers....
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The Infamous Joe (profile), 11 Oct 2010 @ 9:50am

Re: Do no evil
Just because I've made this same mistake before: The motto is "Don't be evil" not "Do no evil", which makes a big difference.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Oct 2010 @ 10:02am

I seem to recall this idea has had several groups playing with it. Years ago I remember something about a stretch of highway in CA where engineers placed magnets in their experiment as a way to integrate both driver and driverless vehicles. Don't know what came of it.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Oct 2010 @ 11:21am

If Google has the guts to break out of SEO/Internet focused technologies they could very well become a real life Massive Dynamics (a la "Fringe")
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jacob n, 11 Oct 2010 @ 11:52am

aoutonomy while driving
SICK! now i kind of want to learn programming and apply to google (hah). but thats awesome though are they experimenting in collaboration with a car company oris google looking to become an ever larger conglomerate. I hope they don't follow the steps of apple with the ipad and leave key componentsto be purchased after driving off Google's lot.

www.orbitdirect.net
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Oct 2010 @ 11:52am

Re: Do no evil
would you ask the car to drive you to your friends house but end up at a different person's house because they had a better quality score ?

Does the different person's house contain a MOTAS that's better?
I see the merging of single's sites and this vehicle as both hysterically funny and disturbing.
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Derek Kerton (profile), 11 Oct 2010 @ 2:23pm

Re: Re: Google for good
Serious response: Baked in car, en route.
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CrushU, 11 Oct 2010 @ 2:58pm

Re: Re: Re: Google for good
Heck, why isn't this already done? I'm sure it's possible... At worst you'd have a second guy in the car...
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nasch (profile), 11 Oct 2010 @ 3:28pm

Re: Re: Re: Google for good
Interesting idea!
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PaulT (profile), 11 Oct 2010 @ 11:52pm

Re: Re: Plywood
"They do state they are made of wood and show an animation of this."

An *animation*? They couldn't get actual footage for some reason? Excuse me if I'm still sceptical.

"you can see the support pillars are made of wood."

Maybe (no internet at home last night so still couldn't look at the video). But - and here's the main point - is that how they were manufactured? As I said, a search online didn't seem to mention of anything other than the roof of some models being made of wood. The green AC's claim was that cars made of plywood were rolling off Tata's production lines. I just feel we need some proof of that.

Given that some areas of India (including the Himalayan regions, I presume) suffer from extreme levels of poverty, it wouldn't surprise me if people were using wood to repair or replace the damaged body of a car with a usable engine. This is somewhat different from AC's claim that Tata are making plywood cars with the express approval of the Indian authorities.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Oct 2010 @ 1:00am

PaulT,

It's a Tata 1613, and it has a wooden frame.
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abc gum, 12 Oct 2010 @ 4:51am

Re: No, the "big" problem is...
Sounds like you know a lot about this program. Perhaps you could fill us in with some inside details about how the rooftop spinning laser device works, or how the onboard radar is used.

Certainly you could say a little bit more about how GPS is the only sensor being used in this vehicle.
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abc gum, 12 Oct 2010 @ 4:56am

Re:
woodbike : vroooommm - Ouch !

http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/6647/woodbike9gr.jpg
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Oct 2010 @ 4:57am

Re:
Held for moderation ... interesting.
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