That's one of the reasons lidar will prove to be a dead end for this application. It's a temporary enabling technology on the path to the simpler multiple camera based solution.

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lapkaaaa 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Best approach would be to use both lidar and cameras. They compliment each other

	▲	fidotron 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		No, in the limit where everyone has lidar they end up stepping on each other too. Being a totally passive sensor system is a major benefit for mass deployment, on top of the cost advantages. Lidar is cool when you want to get a point cloud from a fixed location, or dealing with perfectly uniform surfaces (which cars don't because humans can't do this either), but beyond that there are better ways to do things.

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Fricken 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Camera's can't see in the dark. There is no perfect sensor. Waymo relies multiple sensor modalities: Cameras, Lidar, ultrasonics, radar, gps, inertial measurement units.

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Rohansi 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Cars don't drive in the dark. Roads are usually lit. And every car has its own lights for seeing where you are driving.

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SoftTalker an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Interstate highways and local roads are generally unlit outside of urban areas. But in fairness, Waymos don't operate in those places anyway.

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triceratops 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Roads are usually lit

Not always. Definitely not all freeways.

> And every car has its own lights for seeing where you are driving

Not always far enough. Especially at freeway speeds on unlit freeways.

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fidotron 2 hours ago | parent [-]

So how can humans do it?

If humans don't have lidar but can drive it's an existence proof of the viability of that approach.

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triceratops an hour ago | parent | next [-]

In addition to vision, humans have proprioception and kinesthesia, hearing, inner ear receptors for balance, a sense of touch, sense of smell. We use all of these sensory inputs when we drive. And even then humans get into lots of accidents.

Lidar is superhuman vision.

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Rohansi 38 minutes ago | parent [-]

How do you use your sense of smell to help you drive? I can't smell anything outside my car thanks to the air filter.

The real answer is very simple: safe drivers slow down to adapt to poor conditions (including visibility). Lidar might reduce how much it needs to slow down but I don't think it will be eliminated because you can't drive with only lidar.

	▲	triceratops 35 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		> How do you use your sense of smell to help you drive? I smell smoke before I see it. Useful if there's a forest fire up ahead. Burning rubber or smoke from the engine is an indicator of a mechanical issue. > you can't drive with only lidar. Nobody said you could. This is a strawman. Tesla stans are the only ones trying to convince everyone you can only drive with cameras. Everyone else is pretty united on the usefulness of multiple inputs.

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bryanlarsen 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Humans can't do it safely during a proper blizzard. (Toronto doesn't really get proper blizzards, though).

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2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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