Waymo is an autonomous car development company and a subsidiary of Google's parent company Alphabet Inc.
Google began testing self-driving cars in 2009. In May 2018, Waymo announced that it plans to allow everyone in Phoenix, Arizona to request a driver-free trip before the end of the year.
Alphabet describes Waymo as "a self-driving technology company with a mission to make it safe and easy for people and things to move".
In 2018, the company placed separate orders for Pacifica's "thousands" of hybrid-drive minivans and 20,000 Jaguar I-Pace electric sedans. These vehicles are meant to help launch an up-in-the-city service, enough to accommodate hundreds of thousands of riders every day.
Video Waymo
Histori
Google's self-driving car project was previously led by Sebastian Thrun, former director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-founder of Google Street View. Tim Thrun at Stanford invented the Stanley robot vehicle, which won the DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 and a US $ 2 million span from the US Department of Defense. The system-building team consists of 15 engineers working for Google, including Chris Urmson, Mike Montemerlo, and Anthony Levandowski who has worked on DARPA Grand and Urban Challenges.
In October 2010, a lawyer for the California Department of Motor Vehicles, voiced concern that "[t] technology is in front of the law in many areas", citing state laws that "all supposedly have people operating vehicles".
A May 2011 article in The New York Times reported that policymakers and regulators argued that new legislation would be required if vehicles without drivers came true because "technology is now advancing so quickly that it is in danger of going beyond the existing law , some of which date back to the era of horse carts.
Nevada passed a law in June 2011 on the operation of autonomous cars in Nevada, which came into effect on March 1, 2012. The modified Toyota Prius with Google experimental driverless technology licensed by Nevada Motor Vehicle Department (DMV) in May 2012 This is a licensing issue first in the United States for self-propelled cars. The number plate issued in Nevada for autonomous cars will have a red background and display the infinity symbol (? ) on the left side because, according to the DMV Director, "... using infinity symbols is the best way to represent ' future car ' ". The Nevada Rule requires someone behind the wheel and one in the passenger seat during the test.
At the end of May 2014, Google revealed a new prototype of a car without a driver, which has no steering, accelerator, or brake pedal, to be 100% autonomous. and launched a fully functional prototype in December that year that they will test on the road San Francisco Bay Area starting 2015.
By 2015, Nathaniel Fairfield, Principal Engineer of Waymo, provided "the world's first unlicensed traveler on a public road" to an old friend, legally blind. Steve Mahan, former CEO of Santa Clara Valley Blind Center, is the first self-driving recipient on a public road, in Austin, Texas. By 2015, the project completes its first unlicensed trip on a public road, giving a ride to the only blind man in Austin, Texas. It was the first self-drive trip on the public road and was not accompanied by a test driver or police escort. The car does not have a steering wheel or pedal floor.
In December 2016, the unit was renamed Waymo, and made into a separate division. Waymo's name comes from his mission, "a new way forward in mobility".
Court filings in Waymo's ongoing lawsuit against Uber revealed that Google spent more than $ 1.1 billion on the project between 2009 and 2015, compared with $ 1 billion from Cruise Automation by General Motors in March 2016, the same by Ford in a joint venture with Argo AI in February 2017, or $ 680 million for Otto deployed by Uber in August 2016.
In January 2018, Waymo officials announced that they would start offering rainfall services by the end of the year, starting in Phoenix, Arizona. In addition, the company announced orders for "thousands" of Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans.
In March 2018, Jaguar Land Rover announced that Waymo had ordered up to 20,000 planned I-Pace electric cars, with an estimated cost of 1.2 billion pounds. Jaguar will provide the first I-Pace prototype at the end of the year, and the cars will be part of the Waymo truck service by 2020. These cars are expected to provide as many as 1 million rides per day.
A few months later, in late May 2018, Alphabet announced plans to add up to 62,000 Pacifica Hybrid minivans to the fleet.
Maps Waymo
Technology
The Waymo project team has equipped various types of cars with self-driving equipment, including Toyota Prius, Audi TT, Fiat Chrysler Pacifica and Lexus RX450h. Google has also developed their own custom vehicle, which is assembled by Roush Enterprises and uses equipment from Bosch, ZF Lenksysteme, LG, and Continental.
As of June 2014, the system uses an area map that is expected to be used by the vehicle, with features that are described with one-inch accuracy, including how high the traffic light is. In addition to the on-board system, some calculations are performed on remote computer farms.
In May 2016, Google and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced orders for 100 hybrid hybrid Pacifica to test the technology.
The Google robot car has about $ 150,000 in equipment including a $ 70,000 LIDAR system. The reconnaissance mounted at the top is a Velodyne 64-beam laser. This laser enables the vehicle to produce detailed 3D environment maps. The car then picks up these resulting maps and combines them with high resolution world maps, generating various types of data models that allow it to move itself.
In 2017, Waymo announced a partnership with Intel to develop autonomous drive technologies together and develop a better process.
In March 2018, Waymo ordered up to 20,000 I-Pace electric vehicles planned by Jaguar.
Road testing
In 2012, the vehicle test group included six Toyota Prius, Audi TT and three Lexus RX450h, each accompanied in the driver's seat by one of dozens of drivers with an unblemished driving record and in the passenger seat by one of Google's engineers. In May 2015, the fleet consisted of only 23 Lexus SUVs.
Google vehicles have crossed Lombardia Street San Francisco, famous for its sharp turns, and through city traffic. The vehicle has drove over the Golden Gate Bridge and around Lake Tahoe. The drive system is at a speed limit that has been stored on the map and maintains its distance from other vehicles using its sensor system. This system provides an override that allows the human driver to control the car by stepping on the brakes or turning the steering wheel, similar to a cruise control system that has been found in many cars today.
On March 28, 2012, Google posted a video showing Steve Mahan, a resident of Morgan Hill, California, who was whisked away at a self-driving Toyota Prius. In the video, Mahan states "Ninety-five percent of my eyesight is gone, I've been blind through the law". In the video description, it should be noted that carefully programmed routes take him from his home to a drive-through restaurant, then to the dry cleaning shop, and finally return home.
In August 2012, the team announced that it had completed more than 300,000 miles of autonomous driving (500,000 km) accident-free, typically having about a dozen cars on the road at any given time, and began testing them with a single driver instead. in pairs. Four US states have passed laws allowing autonomous cars by December 2013: Nevada, Florida, California, and Michigan. A proposed law in Texas will set the criteria for allowing "autonomous vehicles".
In April 2014, the team announced that their vehicle has now recorded nearly 700,000 autonomous miles (1.1 million km).
In June 2015, the team announced that their vehicle has now driven over 1,000,000 mi (1,600,000 km), stating that this is "equivalent to 75 years of typical US adult driving", and that in the process they have met 200,000 dismissals. signs, 600,000 traffic lights, and 180 million other vehicles. Google also announced its prototype vehicle is being tested in Mountain View, California. During testing, the prototype 'speed will not exceed 25 mph (40 km/h) and will have safety drivers on board at all times. As a result, one of the vehicles was stopped by the police because it impeded the flow of traffic.
Google has expanded its road test to the state of Texas, where the rules do not prohibit cars without pedals and steering wheels. Bills are introduced by interested parties to alter similar laws in California.
In August 2016 alone, their car traveled "a total of 170,000 miles; of them, 126,000 miles were driven autonomously (ie, fully controlled cars)".
As of June 2016, Google has tested their fleet of vehicles, in autonomous mode, totaling 1,725,911 mi (2,777,585 km).
Beginning in 2017, Waymo reported to California DMV a total of 636,868 miles covered by the fleet in autonomous mode, and 124 related releases, for the period from December 1, 2015 to November 30, 2016.
On November 7, 2017, Waymo announced that it had begun testing the car without a driver without a driver's safety in the driver's position.
In March 2018, Waymo announced plans to build additional self-propelled driving experiments in the world with its own corporate rider truck delivering to Google's corporate data center located in Atlanta.
Crashes
In June 2015, Google founder Sergey Brin confirmed that there were 12 crashes on that date, eight of which were involved in the rear at stop signs or traffic lights, two where the vehicle was dragged sideways by another driver, one of whom involving other drivers who pass the stop sign, and where Google employees drive the car manually. In July 2015, 23 Google self-driving cars had been involved in 14 small collisions on public roads, but Google stated that, in all cases other than the February 2016 incident, the vehicle itself was not guilty because the cars were being manually driven or the driver of the vehicle else wrong.
On February 14, 2016 as it crept forward into the traffic lights, Google's self-driving car tried to avoid the sandbag blocking its path. During the maneuver it hit the bus side. Google handles the accident, saying "In this case, we clearly bear responsibility, because if our car does not move there will be no collision". Some incomplete video footage of the collision is available. Google marked the accident as a misunderstanding and learning experience. The company also stated "This type of misunderstanding occurs between human drivers on the street every day".
Google initially manages monthly reports that include traffic incidents involving self-driving cars. Waymo no longer publishes such a report.
Google is required by a California DMV to report the number of incidents during testing in which the human driver takes control. Some of these incidents were not reported by Google when the simulation showed that the car should be self-managed. There is some controversy about the difference between driver-induced triggers reported by Google and those not reported.
Limitations
Because cars rely primarily on pre-programmed route data, they do not adhere to temporary traffic lights and, in some situations, return to the slower "extra-care" mode at uncharted compound junctions. Vehicles have trouble identifying when objects, such as rubbish and debris are light, harmless, causing the vehicle to veer unnecessarily. In addition, LIDAR technology can not find a hollow or visible way when humans, like a police officer, signal to the car to stop. The Google project plans to resolve this issue by 2020.
Commercialization
In 2012, Google founder Sergey Brin stated that the Google Self-Driving car will be available to the public by 2017, and by 2014 this schedule is updated by project director Chris Urmson to indicate a possible release from 2017 through 2020. Google has partnered with suppliers including Bosch, ZF Lenksysteme, LG, Continental, and Roush, and have contacted manufacturers including General Motors, Ford, Toyota (including Lexus), Daimler and Volkswagen.
In August 2013, news reports appeared about Robo-Taxi, the proposed unlicensed vehicle taxi service from Google. These reports reappear in early 2014, following the granting of patents to Google for advertising fees funded by transportation services which include autonomous vehicles as a method of transportation. The paid Google consultant, Larry Burns, says self-driving vehicles, such as taxis "should be seen as a new form of public transport".
In a December 2016 blog post, CEO John Krafcik stated: "We can see our technology useful in private vehicles, ridesharing, logistics, or solving the last mile problem for public transport" but also that "Our next move as Waymo will let people use our vehicles to do everyday things like doing chores, going to work, or coming home safely after a night in town ". The use of temporary vehicles is known as Transportation as a Service.
Legislation
Legislation has been passed in four US and Washington states, D.C. which allows cars without drivers. The state of Nevada passed a law on June 29, 2011, authorizing autonomous car operations in Nevada, after Google lobbied in the state for robotic car legislation. The Nevada Act came into effect on March 1, 2012, and Nevada's Department of Motor Vehicles issued the first license for autonomous cars in May 2012, to a modified Toyota Prius with technology without Google's experimental drivers. In April 2012, Florida became the second country to allow automotive car testing on public roads, and California became the third when Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill into law at Google Headquarters in Mountain View. In December 2013, Michigan became the fourth country to allow testing of cars without drivers on public roads. In July 2014, the town of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho adopted a robotics rule that included provisions to allow self-driving cars.
In December 2015, the California Department of Motor Vehicles issued the long-anticipated proposed rules governing autonomous vehicles, and invited public comments on draft regulations at a meeting in Sacramento on January 28, 2016, and in Los Angeles on 2 February 2016. If adopted, the rules will require self-driving cars to have steering and pedals, and a human driver holding "autonomous vehicle operator certificates". They will also hold residents responsible for traffic accidents and violations, regardless of whether they are behind the wheel or not. DMV summarizes its perspective by stating, "Given the potential risks associated with the deployment of such new technologies, [we believe] that manufacturers need to gain more experience in vehicle testing without drivers on public roads before making this technology available to the general public." Lobby by project manager Chris Urmson from Google in the US Senate is being done to change this.
Waymo LLC v. Uber Technologies, Inc. et al.
In February 2017, Waymo sued Uber and his own driving subsidiary, Otto, for allegedly stealing Waymo's trade secrets and infringing his patent. The company claims that three former Google employees including Anthony Levandowski steal trade secrets and join Uber. This offense is related to Waymo's LIDAR technology, which can measure the distance between objects using lasers and create their three-dimensional representation. Google accused Uber of colluding with Levandowski for information about it and other technologies in a car project without a driver. The company originally suspected that the former Google engineer downloaded 9 gigabytes of data covering over a hundred trade secrets.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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