Image Credit: Paul Noth http://www.paulnoth.com
Here are the key takeaways from our January Meetup on “Next Era of Transportation: Autonomous Vehicles and Drones“. Despite claims of full autonomy and advances made so far, it seems like we are still some ways away from having fully autonomous vehicles on the road any time soon.
Why Tesla’s autopilot can’t see a stopped firetruck
Car manufacturers are trying to find the best combination of LiDAR, RADAR and cameras to deliver best performance but cost is a factor. https://www.wired.com/story/
Augmented vs. Autonomous driving
Some contend that augmenting driver skills may be the smarter alternative to completely eliminating humans from the driver function. http://www.thedrive.com/tech/
This drone learned to fly thanks to driverless cars
Drones are also benefiting from advances in self-driving such as GPS data. https://www.fastcompany.com/40523375/this-drone-learned-to-fly-thanks-to-driverless-cars
Each year, the number of states considering legislation related to AVs has gradually increased
Laws and regulations are slow to keep up with the pace of technology. Individual states are picking up the slack in lieu of federal standards
Delivery robots: a revolutionary step or sidewalk-clogging
Autonomous vehicles also include delivery robots but not everyone is thrilled about sharing the sidewalks with these little robots.
https://www.theguardian.com/
Bonus:
This video by Prof. Stuart Russell at UC Berkeley highlighting the dangers of killer robots quickly went viral.
http://autonomousweapons.org/slaughterbots/