Google’s Homemade Self-Driving Cars to Hit Roads This Summer
Google’s Homemade Self-Driving Cars to Hit Roads This
Summer
By Mark Bergen
May 15, 2015, 12:00 AM PDT
Here’s something that irks Chris Urmson: Sometimes people
will get in self-driving cars, the spectacularly complex piece of technology he
runs at Google and to which he has devoted most of his scientific career, and
leave with a shrug.
Once, Urmson was riding in one of Google’s Lexus SUVs
down a freeway. Several minutes in, his fellow passenger turned to him,
nonplussed.
“That’s it?”
Urmson, recalling the story on Google’s Mountain View
campus earlier this week, threw up his hands: “Do you have any idea how hard
this is?!”
Soon, there may be many more blasé reactions to one of
Google’s most audacious moonshots. On Friday, the Internet giant announced that
the first autonomous vehicle it has manufactured — a squat two-seater, unveiled
a year ago, with no steering wheel or brakes — will begin rolling out on public
roads in northern California this summer. Urmson and his team have assembled 25
of the cars, which, for now, are just called “prototypes.” (Re/code has dubbed
them “clown cars”; Google may be more partial to the “Koala car” nomenclature.)
When they hit the roads, they will not exceed 25 miles per hour. And, due to
current state regulations, they must be equipped with brakes, an accelerator
pedal and a steering wheel.
But ultimately, Google wants to strip those out.
The company’s stated goal is shepherding fleets of
vehicles that can drive with no need for human intervention, a bid to curtail
the time wasted in traffic and aide those unable to drive. “At that point, the
steering wheel and brake pedal just don’t add value,” Urmson said during the
demonstration at the new Google X headquarters in Mountain View. “Over the last
few years, we’ve been focused almost purely on tightening the technology. The
big next step is bringing it into the community and seeing how it mixes with
people.”
At its event to show off the car, Google mixed with
people. Along with press, Google invited local community members and disability
advocates onto its spacious, secure rooftop. Sergey Brin, the co-founder behind
Google’s futuristic ventures, made an appearance. He reiterated Urmson’s point,
arguing that for one target market of the technology — several blind community
members were given lifts in the car — steering wheels aren’t the issue. “That
doesn’t address the mission of access,” Brin said.
Google’s announcement comes on the tail of sharp
criticism. On Monday, the Associated Press reported that Google’s Lexus
vehicles were involved in three accidents since September, when California
required autonomous vehicle testers to declare a permit.
Later that day, Google released (incidentally, by
Google’s telling) the first glimpse at numbers on its self-driving car
experiment: 11 accidents during the 1.7 million miles on the road since 2009.
(That puts its incident rate at more than twice the national average of 0.3
damaging incidents per 100,000 miles.) Urmson detailed the accidents: Seven
came from other cars rear-ending theirs, two were freeway side-swipes and one
was a silly error from a Google test driver who was using the manual controls
at the time. Google insists that the higher rate comes from thorough reporting,
something most human drivers ignore.
When its homemade cars hit the pavement, Google will also
launch a website for community feedback on the trials, and will begin posting
regular progress reports, including miles driven, noteworthy trends and
incidents.
“It sounds cliche, but safety is issue one, two and
three,” Brin told the audience.
Google’s built-from-scratch car looks similar to its
debut a year ago, when Re/code took it for an inaugural spin. It uses the same
complex software and hardware — a jury-rigged, advanced network of swirling
lasers, cameras and radar — as the existing Lexus fleet.
Over the last year, the cars have grown considerably
smarter and more adept, said Dmitri Dolgov, who leads software for the
self-driving cars. They can decipher a trash can from a pedestrian, and even
pick up what a pedestrian’s hand motions mean.
Gradually, they’re also learning to handle unusual
traffic situations. In Mountain View, Urmson showed earlier footage of Google’s
Lexus at an intersection when a renegade cyclist crossed in front, running a
red light. As the light turned, a truck to the Lexus’ left veered ahead, barely
missing the cyclist. Google’s SUV saw it and stood still. (One car encountered
something rarer still: A wheelchair-bound suburbanite chasing a duck; the car
opted to stall.)
If anything, the car errs on the side of caution. At the
Google X headquarters, Google offered rides to the select few community members
and reporters. During my ride, the car easily handled the planned obstacle
course. A gentle slowdown when a Googler suddenly walked in front. A smooth
turn when another veered ahead on a bicycle. But when my car turned to face the
unexpected gaggle of press surrounding Brin, it jolted to a halt. Then lurched
ahead like a nervous 16-year-old. The car is not accustomed to large gatherings
of people in open spaces, Dolgov explained.
Yet, it learned from the encounter. With each ride, the
cars deposit the observed data and share it across the entire fleet.
Also, Google has learned more political savviness. The
California DMV has awarded testing permits to Google and six other manufacturers,
including Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Tesla. But industry observers said the
company has advanced more aggressively in lobbying. In Nevada, which granted
Google the state’s maiden self-driving license in 2012, Google was the driving
force in the policy process, at the expense of rivals.
“The DMV and especially the state legislature, only
listening to Google, wrote a law that was fine for Google but was really
problematic for car manufacturers,” said Ryan Calo, a law professor and
robotics specialist at the University of Washington campus.
On the Google X campus, Brin, outfitted in shorts and
Crocs (but no Glass), offered some boilerplate executive-speak. (“We are still
refining our business plan.” “The regulatory issues are non-trivial.”) But he
also hinted at the ambition of the program. “We’ve had pretty good
conversations with a number of states,” he said. “And, for that matter, a
number of countries.”
Someone asked about his declaration, in 2012, that his
self-driving cars would be ready for public use in five years. “That’s still
right on track,” he said, before turning to his auto director. Urmson
sheepishly corrected him — it’s closer to five years from now.
Brin, whose mathematics prowess built Google’s search
engine, replied: “Well, I haven’t done the math.”
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